Cardoso urges caution over criticism of Sundowns captain Williams

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has warned critics to show greater respect to captain Ronwen Williams after the goalkeeper produced a Man of the Match display in Wednesday’s 2-0 win over Milford.

The Bafana Bafana goalkeeper made six saves as Sundowns secured victory, offering a strong response to criticism he had received in recent weeks.

Cardoso said Williams’ record at club and international level should be central to any assessment of his performances, pointing to his career, honours and contribution to the CAF Champions League final.

“I think any criticism on Ronwen Williams must be done with a lot of respect and very easy when speaking about a player whose career speaks for him, his awards speak for him, what he did in the CAF Champions League final speaks for him,” Cardoso said.

“What he did for the country speaks for him, so whatever is said about Ronwen, should be spoken with a lot of caution, with a lot of care, because any moment, people need to put in the pocket what they have to say.”

Williams’ display against Milford came at an important time for the goalkeeper, who Cardoso believes showed his quality in several areas beyond the saves recorded during the match.

“Today Ronwen, again, showed he is a high-level, qualified goalkeeper and also when the teams are settling down, goalkeepers settle down, so some of the… I said that already, not many made the right analysis about that,” he added.

“Some of the goals scored up until today came from individual mistakes and not team behaviour mistakes and what is important is the level of commitment that we have between all of us, so that we can correct them.”

Cardoso said the goalkeeper’s contribution should not be judged solely by the clean sheet. He praised the way Williams helped Sundowns build from the back and gave his team confidence while under pressure.

“That was a word I gave in the locker room, not only praising him on the match that he did, completely valid to receive the Man of the Match, because he had some quality interventions, not only how he defended, and how he helped the team throughout the match,” he explained.

“He helped us play from the back, without pressure, so many beautiful things, Ronwen knows the support he has from the coach and he is strong in dealing with pressure and usually his best performances come in moments of higher pressure.”

The Portuguese coach also referred to last season’s CAF Champions League final, when Williams faced criticism before producing a decisive performance for Sundowns.

Cardoso said the goalkeeper’s intervention in that match helped the club move closer to securing a second star on their shirt.

“Last year before the Champions League final, there was criticism and he appeared in the level, and saved a penalty that put us to have the capacity of the second star on the shirt,” Cardoso concluded.