Sundowns end four-year wait for MTN8 trophy after beating Orlando Pirates

Mamelodi Sundowns ended their four-year wait for the MTN8 trophy with a 2-0 victory over defending champions Orlando Pirates on Saturday, as coach Miguel Cardoso said his side had shown the courage and organisation required to win the domestic cup.

Teboho Mokoena put the African champions ahead before substitute Iqraam Rayners added a second goal in the second half. The result secured Sundowns’ fifth MTN8 title and their first since 2021.

Orlando Pirates had won the competition in each of the previous four years, but Sundowns controlled the final and kept a clean sheet to claim the trophy.

Cardoso said the triumph was particularly important for the club’s supporters, who had waited several years to see Sundowns lift a domestic cup.

“With the heart, passion, organisation and a lot of love. It’s very difficult to play against Orlando Pirates and it’s absolutely difficult to get the two-goal difference without conceding any,” Cardoso told SuperSport TV.

“It’s for these people here, they deserve, they came in numbers, and I think it was time, it was time to give these people a domestic cup. Obviously, it’s difficult but sometimes people don’t understand but sometimes you need to prioritise competitions and that also takes out energy from some of them.”

The Portuguese manager said winning the MTN8 had been an objective from the start of his tenure, although Sundowns face a demanding schedule across several competitions.

“Obviously, we wanted to give this trophy to the club, the players worked very hard, I stated myself from the first day telling that this should be our objective. We don’t what’s going forward because we going to be in many competitions,” he added.

Sundowns must now manage a fixture list which includes the Carling competition in midweek and the Champions League at the weekend.

“It will be difficult to face Carling in the middle of the week when we play Champions League on the weekend, but these guys they understand, they have a lot of trust -trust on each other, on us, we trust them and bravo congratulations an amazing game,” said Cardoso.

“We understood how to play it, it’s just not how you play it but how you compete. We were very brave and we did very well.”

The victory allowed Sundowns to reclaim the MTN8 crown after missing out in recent years, while Orlando Pirates were unable to retain the trophy they had won for four consecutive seasons.