Sundowns' Cardoso blames ‘brainwork' for draw against Pirates

The Citizen

a day ago

"'Their goal came from a mistake and it cost us because the result should have been very comfortable," said Cardoso.
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso says poor decision making in the second half cost them the win against Orlando Pirates.
This comes after the Brazilians let their first half lead slip and drew 1-1 in the first leg of the MTN8 semifinal at the Orlando Stadium on Saturday.
READ MORE: Sebelebele late strike earns Pirates dramatic draw against Sundowns
Teboho Mokoena opened the scoring for the Brazilians in the first half and Kamogelo Sebelebele grabbed the equaliser for the Buccaneers late in the second half to make sure that the teams are all square going into the second leg in Pretoria next Saturday.
'I predicted beforehand that this match would be a match of different moments,' Cardoso told SuperSport.
'When you have two strong teams playing for such an important trophy, despite we are still only in the semifinal, and both wanting to go to the final, then it's obvious that you can have different moments to manage throughout the match.
'What we told our players was to deal with all those moments and to try to reduce, as much as possible, any situations that could be uncomfortable for us.
'We also know that Orlando Pirates tries to start the matches very strong. It was important for us to also start strong. I think we managed the first half very well, we dealt with their intensity. We knew what kind of aggression we would get. We prevented them and gradually we started taking control of the match, because it's the way we should always play,' added Cardoso.
'Mistake cost us'
Cardoso was not happy with his team's second performance against Pirates.
'There were still moments where we suffered too much pressure because our players were all dropping for the ball and it was very important to correct that, so that we could be more aggressive. After that, we started being comfortable.
'I think we started the second half quite well, but then as time went by, we start losing the capacity to have all this brainwork, to think the right things and the emotions grew inside the pitch, and because of that, we had difficulty to cope with Pirates in the last 10 minutes.
'Their goal came from a mistake and it cost us because the result should have been very comfortable. Now everything is back to how it was before we started,' he said.
ALSO READ: Ouaddou hails Pirates after come back draw against Sundowns
Meanwhile, Stellenbosch FC beat Sekhukhune United 2-0 in in their MTN8 semifinal first leg tie at the Danie Craven Stadium on Saturday.
First-half goals from Kazie Enyinnaya and Devin Titus put Steve Barker's side in the driver's seat going into the second leg in Polokwane next Saturday.