Take a bow Mamelodi Sundowns, take a bow Miguel Cardoso

When Miguel Cardoso spoke, he won followers. Now he has let his actions speak louder than his words and put his results where his mouth is.

Presented to the media in Mamelodi Sundowns' surprisingly somewhat pokey — and on that day of course completely overcrowded — press conference room at their Chloorkop headquarters on December 10, Cardoso quickly had journalists professing, on the basis of his words, this was the “real deal”.

There have been moments in the four months since when that sentiment seemed confirmed, but others when the strength of the original verdict seemed to waver. The week building up to the semifinal second leg fell into the latter category.

Many had been impressed by the new sturdiness of Downs’ football under Cardoso, which helped them progress through a difficult Champions League group stage situation and steamroller points — initially by slender margins, then accompanied by an avalanche of goals too — in the Betway Premiership. It appeared to lose its way this month, with a league loss against Orlando Pirates that allowed Bucs back in with a sniff in the championship race and Nedbank Cup semifinal defeat to battling Kaizer Chiefs.

The headline on TimesLIVE the day before Friday’s second leg read: “Is Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso’s job on the line in Cairo?” It was not an unfair speculation.

After Ahly’s defeat, they gave coach Marcel Koller the boot, even though he won two Champions Leagues, two league titles and other trophies and finished third in the Club World Cup twice. Cardoso arrived at Downs because predecessor Manqoba Mngqithi was given the boot because the Brazilians were battling in Champions League Group B and had embarrassingly lost a Carling Knockout final to Magesi FC. Cardoso had steered Esperance de Tunis to last year's Champions League final and it seemed understood that Downs hoped and even expected he should repeat that feat for them.

Downs really pulled out the stops in this month’s big continental matches. They saw off Esperance 1-0 on aggregate in the quarterfinals in a tie laced with tension and subplots. They negotiated past the winners of the past two editions and record 12-time victors in the semis, despite drawing at home.

To be fair, it was not just his talking that impressed in that first press conference but also Cardoso’s notably clear force of personality. 

Some of Cardoso’s predecessors might also curse his luck. Pitso Mosimane turned Sundowns into trophy machines and regular knockout stage competitors but could not reach a second final with them after his 2016 Champions League triumph, though he later won it twice again with Al Ahly. Rulani Mokwena came close with two semifinals in succession, one of those agonisingly tight — in the 2022-23 edition a Mothobi Mvala own goal separated Downs and Wydad Athletic, who progressed on away goals.

How Mokwena — now coaching Wydad — would have envied Cardoso’s fortune that Sundowns went through on Friday on away goals thanks to an Ahly own goal, the ball going in off the leg of Yasser Ibrahim after substitute Iqraam Rayners’ miscued touch.

But Cardoso really seems a coach with big match temperament. He has achieved with Downs’ second final since 2016 what his illustrious predecessors just could not and did it arriving midway through a campaign, with the challenges that involves of stamping a game model and style of play without a preseason, amid a frenetic schedule.

Acquainted with such competitions — before his Esperance heroics, Cardoso took Rio Ave and AEK Athens into the Europa League and was assistant to Domingos Paciência when Braga reached the 2011 final — the coach is aware it is usually the finest details that separate sides in the Caf Champions League knockouts.

So yes, it can come down to an own goal one way or the other. It also comes down to getting things as close to 100% right in planning as possible, the style of play suited to the competition and team selection — like Cardoso leaving front-line strikers Peter Shalulile and Rayners out of his starting XI in Cairo. Downs’ harder edge is as much part of their reaching the final as Ibrahim’s own goal.

The coach said he is driven by the big matches, where the margins are atom-thin, tactics attritional and away clashes involve super-concentration to block out the noise.

“Regarding the atmosphere in the stadium, this is what really excites me, this is where we like to live,” he said after Friday’s clash.

“I am 52 years old, I have made my career from moments where I live these kinds of matches. I played them in Europe. When I came to Africa it was also to play these kinds of matches here.

“What I always tell my players and I think the mindset of big players — players from Mamelodi Sundowns, from Ahly — is the fans don’t [physically] touch your capacities. They should highlight them, they should bring out the best you have.”

In tactics, it can also take a masterstroke to pull a rabbit out of a seemingly no-win situation. After Downs could not win at home, Cardoso needed a strategy in Cairo. No-one could have predicted he would leave out both prolific Shalulile and Rayners.

It was two wonderful experiences that we lived in these four matches we played. We cannot compare. We spoke about the Caf [club] rankings — Esperance are third now after we won against them in the quarterfinal, Sundowns are second and Al Ahly first. When these teams play against each other, these games will be decided by details.

—  Miguel Cardoso

That brings in the element of trust Downs’ players appear to have developed in Cardoso’s brief time at Chloorkop. The match situation, some iffy domestic results and such a decision could have caused players to roll eyes had a less dominant figure tried to instil it. On Friday, it took faith in Cardoso’s instructions and gameplan to prevail.

He was asked what the difference was between losing to Al Ahly in last year’s final and Downs’ victory against the Red Devils.

“It was two wonderful experiences that we lived in these four matches we played. We cannot compare. We spoke about the Caf [club] rankings — Esperance are third now after we won against them in the quarterfinal, Sundowns are second and Al Ahly first. When these teams play against each other, these games will be decided by details.

“Today’s victory came out of trust. And that’s what I ask from my players, to trust.

“That trust between coaches and players brings belief in what we do, brings belief when we change players, brings belief when everybody says, ‘The coach is crazy to leave this guy one out.’”

That trust brought Cardoso a second Champions League final in two years and Downs the second they have coveted so greatly, and fallen just short of, in the eight years since winning in 2016. The club, its coach and players have one step more to go to lifting the trophy for a second time in the last tie against Pyramids FC, but for the achievement of reaching another final can take a bow already.