Cardoso calls for consistency after winning start to his tenure as Sundowns coach

After he got his Mamelodi Sundowns coaching tenure to a winning start against Raja Casablanca in the Champions League at Loftus on Sunday, coach Miguel Cardoso called for consistency and commitment.

The Brazilians managed a 1-0 win over the Moroccans to revive their group stages campaign after earlier successive draws with AS Maniema and FAR Rabat and Cardoso said the victory will boost confidence.

“The win will make us believe more,” he said as they turn attention to the Betway Premiership where they take on Stellenbosch at Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday. 

“When you have good grades in school everybody believes you are a good student and when you have a good game I believe you are better and coaches are even better.” 

Cardoso, who was in his first week in charge of the team after he replaced Manqoba Mngqithi on Tuesday, praised commitment from his players. 

“We managed the game with many tactical approaches and we took the right decisions, that made us believe in ourselves and the structure and I felt the commitment from the players from the first day. 

“I understood after studying the club that we are in a big organisation and we need full commitment. This win will reinforce myself in the group, but this is just the starting point and we have so much to do ahead of us and I am cautious.  

“I don't put myself too much up when we have won a match because we need a lot of stability even in good moments. Remember I spoke about not only perfection but consistency. 

“So let’s be consistent in our behaviour, in our pattern of living so that we can arrive where we want to go. This was an important win for us, let’s recover and focus on the next match. 

This group is open and let’s focus to make our best every day but this was an important win to get at home.” 

Looking back at the match, Cardoso said they were flexible to match Raja who played a different system. 

“Raja came to this match with a 4-2-2 structure where they pressed over our build-up but usually they defend with a 4-1-4-1 block. We had to reorganise ourselves because of that and find a way of how we are going to [create] opportunities going up the pitch. 

“That’s why [we] made changes at halftime and those changes were because we wanted to manage the game and players who came on showed commitment. I am happy that we changed according to the game and players gave a reaction to those changes.”