Miguel Cardoso criticises officiating after Sundowns return to top of Betway Premiership

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso criticised the officiating after his side’s 4-1 win over Durban City, describing the result as “another dark night for South Africa”.

The victory put Sundowns back at the top of the Betway Premiership and extended their unbeaten start to the league campaign. But Cardoso was unhappy after his team were denied two penalties during the second half.

Speaking to SuperSport after Saturday night’s match, the Portuguese coach said he was trying to avoid saying too much about the decisions.

“Today, is a day of a lot of emotions. I will make my best efforts to shut up and not speak too much. I think it’s another dark night for South Africa, but let people think whatever, there’s people that will sleep in a bed for sure,” Cardoso said.

He then questioned whether those involved in the decisions had acted honestly.

“Honest people that work hard, even here today you should go look at the penalties that was taken from Sundowns. I don’t want to speak too much, but whoever has conscious today should before go to sleep pray a little bit and think a little bit more together,” he added.

Despite his frustration, Cardoso praised Durban City, who are competing in the CAF Confederation Cup this season, for their efforts during a demanding run of matches.

“Look, my team deserves everything but the same respect for Durban City today, our boys put the intensity, we profit obvious from freshness as we have a chance to change a lot of players from the previous match,” he said.

Cardoso said Sundowns had expected their opponents to feel the effects of their schedule and planned to make the most of that by playing with greater intensity.

“Durban City comes from a straight of difficulty matches played on the third day, we knew that would put strain on them so it was important to bring intensity, the intensity wasn’t to pick sometimes made us not have the fluidity we wanted but also we wanted to put quick, to put stress on the opponent and we knew that we would have strength to finish the game in a better way.”

He also congratulated both teams and acknowledged the supporters, stadium staff and the quality of the pitch.

“Congratulations for both teams, obviously a big result for us, it’s obvious important to have a happy game with goals, congratulations for the fans, for this stadium, the management of this stadium, to have such quality of this pitch.”

Cardoso ended by expressing sympathy for Durban City manager Eric, who he said had faced a difficult two weeks because of the number of matches played in quick succession.

“And also, a lot of respect for the work of Eric that for sure had no easy life in the last two weeks, playing so many matches on the third day now probably it easier to understand why he speak a lot when we had the same situation so it is what it is,” Cardoso said.