It was a battle between the predecessor and the successor, a clash between Rulani Mokwena and Miguel Cardoso, the man who replaced him at Mamelodi Sundowns.
At stake in this decisive Group C tussle was a place in the Confederation of African Football Champions League knockout round.
Mokwena needed a point for MC Alger to advance. For the under-fire Cardoso, who is walking a Chloorkop tightrope, the outcome mattered more. Defeat for the Portuguese mentor, who lost in the final of the premium inter-club tournament to Al Ahly in 2023-24 and to Pyramids in the last campaign, would have seen Sundowns fail to emerge from the group stage for the first time since 2018.
The brilliance of 25-year-old Colombian marksman Brayan León saved Cardoso’s bacon and kept alive hopes of Downs’ pursuit for a second star above their crest.
On the Betway Premiership front, Cardoso is fast running out of credit in the bank. There’s little room to rest ahead of a crucial top-of-the-table clash against pacesetters Orlando Pirates.
The Brazilians will meet the Buccaneers at the FNB Stadium on Wednesday night trailing by six points after Pirates stretched their lead over the defending champions with their 2-0 victory over Marumo Gallants yesterday.
The team’s performance has gone from commanding to cumbersome. The aura of invincibility is giving way to vulnerability.
Downs’ domestic dominance seems to be dwindling while the man in charge is increasingly sinking into a trough of desperation.
The depths of despair became visible in two recent developments. The first was Cardoso making a claim he has seen a photo of club officials he didn’t name visiting match officials in hotels.
Then in the build-up to yesterday’s game, a strange development sprung out of the blue when a performance analyst was suspended for allegedly leaking Sundowns tactics information to Mokwena.
Cardoso floors Mokwena but Abdeslam Ouaddou and his Pirates lie in wait.
A loss to Pirates in the much-anticipated first versus second encounter on Wednesday and elimination from the Champions League next round may mean the end of the road for Cardoso.
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