Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso says his side missed the necessary intensity in their draw with Chippa United and explained why he took new signing Fawaaz Basadien off at half-time.
The defending champions kicked off their 2025/26 campaign with a 1-1 at Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, despite taking the lead via Arthur Sales in the first half.
But a goal by Khaya Mfecane saw both sides share the spoils, with Cardoso insisting his side were not up to scratch, especially in the first half.
“The outcome obviously is not the best,” he told SuperSport TV.
“We have to say that we didn’t start well, and also I think we really didn’t start well the match.
“When we play against this kind of teams you need to have the best attitude inside the pitch and take the game for what we control, the ball and possession, the capacity to play in the spaces.
“But it seems that we didn’t put the proper intensity to escape from the duels, so we made the first half much more physical rather than a game played in the way we want to play.
“At half-time we were not happy. I think we started better second half, but pretty quickly we could not keep it. And we suffered a goal out of nothing which obviously gave Chippa the energy they were looking for.
“From then on, I think everybody saw a lot of players falling on the ground, so difficult to keep the faith – we are penalised by what we didn’t do in the first half.”
Cardoso also explained he took Basadien, who started in the unusual right-back position off at half-time to provide his team with more width.
“We needed more width. Zuko we knew that he could not play the whole game but we knew he could play 45,” he added.
“So it was a substitution to get more width from the right.”
Sundowns return to action on Tuesday when they will host AmaZulu, who got off to a winning start after beating Orbit College 1-0.
