Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso and midfielder Marcelo Allende have addressed the potential dark arts they will face against St Eloi Lupopo in their CAF Champions League group stage opener on Saturday.
Sundowns host the Linafoot side who eliminated Orlando Pirates from the competition in a dramatic two-legged second round preliminary tie, with Dieumerci Amale Mukoko stealing headlines for his unsportmanslike behaviour in the return leg at Orlando Stadium.
Having won 3-0 in DR Congo, Pirates still managed to turn the tie, winning 3-0 at eSgodini – but went on to lose on penalties and the tie didn’t end there, as protests were launched over the elgibility of their head coach Guy Bukasa and two players.
Bukasa’s was slapped for a fine due to his red card incident when taking charge of the U20 DRC national team at the U20 Africa Cup of Nations, while the two respective players were cleared for their registration – keeping Lupopo in the competition.
But now Sundowns face the Linafoot side, who are a potential banana skin, in a group with experienced campaigners, Al Hilal Sudan and MC Alger, lead by former Masandawana head coach Rulani Mokwena.
“We try always, and I try to make players understand that any emotion you have that is not proper to play a football match, should be left in the locker room, and whatever happens inside the pitch will always be managed emotionally in the right way from the players,” he said.
“You remember when we played at home in Esperance, there was a clash with the players and you saw how aggressive I was to take them out of that mix of players, of confusion, of noise, I always want the players to keep their minds and their focus on their behaviours, and some emotions that are negative, we need to allow keeping players on their path.
“Even myself, sometimes there’s things that happen that has nothing to do with the game, I stay more – not happy, it affects my emtoions, as I’m a human being but we need to know where we are, what’s the plan, what’s happening on the pitch.
“Should we correct something, what will we do at half-time, what videos we can show, should we change the plan, what players can come in and give something more, if we don’t keep our minds on this, we won’t make good decisions.
“I’m always the last one to enter the pitch, as I escape negative emotions as much as I can, so I can focus on my job – it’s what the players must do, in a group stage match, things won’t happen in the same way as [the Pirates game], there was more attention, more pressure – there were fines that happened.
“It was a special match with a lot of pressure on Lupopo to write history, and that brought emotions, too much and was not handled with the right behaviour, I don’t think that will happen, it will be a football match, only a football, that’s how my players will think about it throughout the 90 minutes.”
Allende echoed the sentiment: “The coach said it all, our focus is only on the game, we need to play our game, implement our ideas and move the ball fast, take our chances we create.
“We’re here to play football, get three points and leave South Africa [for our next game], that’s the most important thing.”
