Sundowns coach Cardoso optimistic and proud despite Champions League heartache
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso expressed his disappointment with his team's defeat to Pyramids in the Champions League final. However, he also highlighted the positives of the team's ill-fated campaign.
Mamelodi Sundowns' lengthy wait for a second African Champions League title will continue for at least another season after the serial South African champions were vanquished 3-2 on aggregate by Egyptian outfit Pyramids on Sunday night.
Goals by Pyramids' prolific Congolese striker Fiston Mayele and Ahmed Samy in either half piled the pressure on Masandawana, as they attempted to breach the Egyptians' defence. When Bafana Bafana striker Iqraam Rayners finally managed this feat on 75 minutes (making it 2-1 on the night), there was some hope for the visitors.
Sundowns knew that another goal would level the tie at 3-3 over the two legs. However, the South Africans would be crowned African champions by virtue of the away goals rule. This is when Pyramids goalkeeper Ahmed El Shenawy rose to the occasion – thwarting the increasingly desperate South African side's flurry of last-ditch attacks.
The defeat Sundowns suffered on 1 June in Cairo handed Pyramids their maiden Champions League title — in what was just the team's second participation in the continental contest. As for Sundowns, the defeat means their quest to add to the Champions League crown they managed in 2016 continues.
Below par Brazilians
Midfield maestro Teboho Mokoena had said Sundowns did not play to their normal standard in the first leg of the final — in which they conceded with the last kick of the match.
'We were nervous. In the second half, we came back better. But in the last minute we lost our focus and conceded a goal,' said Mokoena in the build-up to the second leg.
Mokoena promised that Sundowns would be much better in Cairo. However, the nerves clearly persisted as Mayele's opening goal (which firmly swung the match in the favour of Pyramids) was the result of a schoolboy defensive error. Then they failed to capitalise on their own chances.
'The fact that we are not happy, or that I'm not happy, doesn't mean that I'm not proud of everything we did to get to this final. But at the same time, there was something missing for us to be at the level that we needed to be, in order to win,' said Sundowns coach Miguel Cardo after the match.
'It's not a question of who was best or who was worse, because when there's a winner, it means that they were better,' Cardoso stated.
'What I feel is that in some moments we didn't find a way to compete at the level that we should have competed at, in order to win the trophy. Anyway, it's not many people that play Champions League finals and that have the right to win a medal,' the Portuguese tactician added.
Picking the positives
When Cardoso arrived at Sundowns in December 2024, replacing Manqoba Mngqithi as head coach, the team was struggling in their Champion League group stage campaign. The Portuguese quickly reinvigorated the Brazilians, although their slow start saw them finish as runners-up in their mini-league – behind Morocco's Asfar.
Nevertheless, they trekked all the way to this season's decider (for the first time since 2016), defeating some tough competition along the way.
'I just would like to remind you that on the way to the final we beat Al Ahly, who are still the first on the African rankings. And we beat them in the semifinal. And when we played Espérance from Tunisia and beat them, they were second in the African rankings,' Cardoso said.
'When I arrived, the club was struggling to try to get through the group stage of the Champions League,' added Cardoso, who lost his second Champions League final in a row after also failing in the decider with Espérance in 2024.
'The feeling when you play a final and you don't win is obviously very bitter, very disappointing. But as I said before the match, the sensation that pervades for me is that I have a wonderful group of men in my locker room, that obviously at this moment are suffering. But they will get up.
'What is important is that we go back and settle any objective. And we can repeat the opportunity of playing a final of Champions League and be better than we were (this season),' he said.
With the victory over Sundowns, Pyramids maintained Egypt's stronghold in the Champions League. Record champions Al Ahly won the continental title in 2023 and 2024. The result also makes Pyramids the fourth Egyptian team to win the Champions League — an unparalleled dominance by a single nation. DM
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