Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has reacted to his team’s loss to Orlando Pirates in the MTN8 semi-final.
After the two-legged tie ended 2-2, penalties were needed to separate the two sides. Sipho Chaine saved two penalties to hand the Buccaneers victory and their fourth consecutive MTN8 final.
After the defeat, Cardoso said Sundowns players were fatigued. Following the conclusion of the 2024/25 season, Downs had to prepare for the FIFA Club World Cup in June/July and had little time to prepare for the new season.
“It’s clear that Sundowns Is still not fresh, we’re struggling,” said Cardoso.
:I think we saw exactly what we expected… We had to control the game, I think we did, the only time we made a mistake is the goal from Orlando Pirates.
“When we played the World Cup – Orlando Pirates were resting. They came back while we were still at the World Cup. They are a lot more fluid than us. We are still trying to manage our players.”
Cardoso feeling the heat at Sundowns
Mamelodi Sundowns supporters reacted negatively to the loss on Saturday. Many of their supporters took to X (Twitter) to demand to club to axe Cardoso.
“These people hate Kaizer Chiefs more than they hate Orlando Pirates,i feel sorry for Miguel Cardoso he will be unemployed at 21:35 on Wednesday,” @Mapiano_Piano tweeted.
“We went from having a super good keeper across Africa, a defense that gave no opponents the target, a midfield that would starve and tire you and an attack line that would press and smack goals to a nothing team, all this done by Miguel Cardoso and the Denmark Dude,” @Malume_Grand tweeted.
Will Cardoso survive?
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