Cardoso urges Mamelodi Sundowns to use Champions League exit as motivation

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has challenged his players to turn their CAF Champions League disappointment into motivation, insisting there is still significant silverware to pursue this season.

Sundowns’ continental campaign ended with elimination, but Cardoso said the setback must prompt a stronger focus on the competitions that remain rather than cause the team to lose direction.

The Brazilians face a Carling Knockout Cup tie against Marumo Gallants this coming week, followed by fixtures involving Durban City and the USM Alger in the CAF Super Cup.

“For the rest of the season it means focusing even more on the competitions we need to play,” Cardoso said. “There’s a lot of trophies to play for.”

Cardoso acknowledged the scale of the disappointment for a club that has established continental competition as a major part of its identity. Sundowns had been expected to reach the CAF Champions League group stage for a 12th consecutive time and had reached the final in each of the past three years.

“Obviously we can’t forget what it means to be out of the CAF Champions League, it’s hard for the club, hard for the coaches,” he said. “It’s very hard for the club who was supposed to be 12 times in a row in the group stage.”

Cardoso calls for a response

Rather than allowing the elimination to define the remainder of the campaign, Cardoso said Sundowns must use it as a lesson and a source of renewed purpose.

He referred to the rise of major powers after periods of destruction as an example of how the club should approach its own setback.

“Great empires also come from ashes,” Cardoso said. “It was like after the First World War, many big countries grew up, after the Second World War, the same.”

Describing the Champions League exit as “a dark night”, the coach said the experience could provide Sundowns with the energy needed to make progress.

“It has to give us the energy and purpose to move forward and build more,” he said. “Maybe an important lesson to move ahead.”

Cardoso also stressed that the response of the squad would be more important than the result that had caused the disappointment.

“We are not what happens to us. We are much more what we do when things happen to us,” he said. “That is the standard we need to take in the locker room and focus.”