JOHANNESBURG — Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has warned that his side faces a stern test this weekend when they square off against Golden Arrows in the first leg of their MTN8 semifinal tie.
Speaking to the media on Thursday afternoon at the MTN Headquarters in Johannesburg, the Portuguese-born mentor emphasized the respect he has for his opposition, recalling previous hard-fought encounters between the two clubs.
“I think that as much as it’s a two-leg qualification, obviously we understand that it’s always difficult to play away with Golden Arrows,” Cardoso said. “Last year, it was one of our most tough matches and one of our most painful defeats for the PSL Championship. It was a special day with a lot of rain.”
Cardoso acknowledged Golden Arrows’ quality and underscored the importance of dictating the tempo early on to secure a crucial advantage heading into the second leg.
READ MORE:
“When you understand that Golden Arrows is a team that has quality, you have to try to make your best when you have some more control over the context of the game,” he explained.
“A positive result is always a victory without suffering goals, and that’s obviously the care that we need to have.”
Neutralizing the Counter-Attack
Despite the high stakes of a two-legged knockout fixture, Cardoso made it clear that Sundowns will not take a passive approach. Instead, the team plans to take full responsibility for setting the pace while remaining vigilant against Arrows’ dangerous counter-attacking threat a tactic that proved lethal in their previous round against Kaizer Chiefs.
“We are not a team that usually has capacity to wait to see what the game is going to give. So we need to go for it, take the responsibility of the game like you are playing a normal game,” Cardoso noted.
“As we saw when they played Kaizer Chiefs, from a medium to low block, they had no issues to aggress when they had the chances to win the ball. So that is something we need to control as best as possible, but take the responsibility of going for a result that allows us to have more comfort on the second match.”
