Sundowns punished again as Golden Arrows take MTN8 semi-final lead

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso said his side repeated the defensive errors that damaged their match against Kaizer Chiefs after they lost 1-0 to Golden Arrows in the first leg of their MTN8 semi-final at Lucas Moripe Stadium.

Junior Dion scored the only goal of a closely contested match in Atteridgeville, leaving Sundowns with a deficit to overturn in the second leg. The hosts failed to find an equaliser despite controlling long periods of the game.

Cardoso was particularly frustrated by the disruption caused by an early injury to Golden Arrows goalkeeper Edward Maova. The Abafana Bes’thende keeper was stretchered off after 18 minutes and replaced by Thakasani Mbanjwa, with the substitution leading to a delay of about seven minutes.

The Sundowns coach believed that stoppage affected the momentum his team had built at the start of the match.

“We started the match well, trying to take responsibility up to the moment the goalkeeper had to be substituted, the team was very comfortable with the ball, trying to look for the space, very narrow, very tight, Golden Arrows closing everything,” Cardoso told journalists in the post-match press conference.

“We knew where the spaces could be created and how to pick the ball and attack them through those spaces. Those seven minutes to substitute a player obviously took a little bit the focus that we were having and that obviously should not happen.”

Sundowns’ frustration deepened when they conceded during a period in which Cardoso felt they had lost their defensive shape. He compared the move that led to Dion’s goal with the passage of play that allowed Kaizer Chiefs to score in Sundowns’ 1-1 draw in the Betway Premiership just over a week earlier.

The Portuguese coach said his players had committed too many numbers forward, leaving space for Golden Arrows to exploit on the break.

“In that period we suffered two consecutive transitions, we made a mistake on both. It’s mistakes similar to the one we did (made) against Chiefs, we were unbalanced in attack, we jumped in front with numbers and we opened the space for a triangle with Dion and only the keeper in goal,” Cardoso said.

The former Esperance coach also felt Golden Arrows had made the most of a limited opportunity, saying the decisive goal came from what he considered their only effort on target.

Sundowns were unable to restore the tempo they had shown early on before the interval, but Cardoso said he urged his players to regroup at half-time and remain convinced they could change the outcome.

“Obviously it brings a lot of instability and we could not finish the first-half with the pace and rhythm that we wanted to. But at half-time the talk was to reorganize the team and try to make them believe that the game was there. Just out of only one shot on target, it was a goal and I think that was only one shot from Golden Arrows but football is like that,” Cardoso added.

The result means Sundowns must win the second leg to keep their MTN8 campaign alive, while Golden Arrows will take a narrow advantage into the return fixture.