Cardoso showed himself a skilled technician stretching Sundowns’ league dominance

It would be easy to say Miguel Cardoso has the best team at Mamelodi Sundowns. They had won the Betway Premiership seven times in succession, so he should always have steered them to title No 8 — and it would also be factually correct.

However, there is a bit more to it than just that.

Taking charge of a well-oiled machine that has spluttered, on occasions, just marginally enough to cause sufficient alarm for the owners to sack the last technician, Manqoba Mngqithi, has its challenges. It takes a skilled mechanic — especially with such an intricate, expensive mechanism as Downs — to identify the tiny malfunctions and get the motor throttling over perfectly again.

A poor technician more used to working on Fiat than Rolls-Royce engines can put a spanner in the works. Sundowns chose their machine operator well.

Cardoso, 52, had great experience even if he had only won one trophy — a statistic that would count against most coaches trying to get a job at silverware juggernauts Sundowns.

Downs technical director Flemming Berg said at Cardoso's appointment in December he had followed the coach’s career. What impressed the Dane was how Cardoso made Celta Vigo “one of the most exciting teams in Europe” and taking “a team like Rio Ave, who have maybe the 12th-biggest budget in Portuguese football and making them a solid No 5”.

Then of course there was the success at Esperance do Tunis, taking over a battling combination in January 2024 and steering them to the Ligue Professionnelle 1 title and Champions League final — where they lost 1-0 on aggregate to Al Ahly — by May and June.

When he arrived at Sundowns, Cardoso started with a string of wins by single-goal margins that indicated he was toughening the Brazilians, though it raised questions about scoring. Downs squeezed through Champions League Group C — their battles there had been part of the reason for Mngqithi’s exit — and Cardoso said he was not concerned because the quarterfinals were two months away and by then Downs would be more fluent in his gameplan. That his words were proven by results indicates not a prophet but a planner who has confidence in his method.

From late January to early March Downs scored 30 goals and conceded three in nine wins and a defeat. They negotiated past Cardoso’s old team Esperance in the Champions League quarterfinals in a tie laced with tensions and undertones. Sundowns showed formidable fortitude beating record 12-time victors Al Ahly in the semis despite drawing 0-0 at home, grinding a 1-1 draw in front of 80,000 home supporters in Cairo.

After that, with second-placed Orlando Pirates playing catch-up in matches but mathematically still completely a factor, Sundowns won five league games in a row performing a balancing act between protecting major performers for the Champions League final through rotation and getting the Premiership points they needed. They seemed to grow in strength doing this, their last two wins at home to Richards Bay and Wednesday night’s league-clinching result against Chippa United in East London coming by 3-0 margins with combinations that combined front-line stars and fringe players.

Now Cardoso has two trophies — both league titles. And he has two Caf Champions League finals. He can add a third trophy — the biggest of them in African club football — if he schemes victory for Downs in the two-legged final against Pyramids FC in Pretoria on May 24 and Cairo on June 1.

It is not easy arriving a third of the way in matches into a league campaign, with no preseason. Cardoso said winning the players’ trust through the period of instilling his philosophy was crucial.

“We invested a lot in the relations because football is not only the way you touch the ball, it’s the way you connect among yourselves,” he said. “And with the players, staff and the club, I think that was the key — the ambience and spirit.

“It has been hard work but the energy we receive also pushes us forward. We always feel excited to wake up and go to work. That’s how we overcame difficulties.

“I was speaking now with my family — I haven’t seen my mom and dad for seven months, my wife and son came to South Africa twice; it’s so far away from Portugal. We struggle but we live with pleasure every day.”

Cardoso had to juggle preventing major performers breaking down ahead of the Champions League final while clinching the Premiership. This while matches came thick and fast. He said Downs used games as effective training exercises but that the management process was made easier by how his side kept winning.

“The way the players could look at the last matches with the understanding of the need to bring victories was wonderful, bringing us the results that allowed us to manage players.

“We were able not only to take out players during games but also leave some players out [of the match-day squad]. For example tonight [against Chippa, regular fullbacks] Khuliso Mudau and Aubrey Modiba stayed out. We didn’t play Themba Zwane because the pitch was a bit risky [for a veteran recently back from injury].

We developed trust among ourselves. The players understand me when I say that even if you don’t play today you could play tomorrow because I have no problem [with you] if you don’t play for two or three matches. We trust the players, we trust the group, a group that it gives me pleasure to work with. I really feel excited to work with these boys.

—  Miguel Cardoso

“I know some of you [in the media] joked about us preparing for matches in 20 minutes, but it was close to that. Our response was that if we played the way we wanted to we could use games as a training session. Of course, when you play badly the games give you nothing. But the way we committed ourselves to playing well, playing the way we wanted to; the way we developed the team through playing was also the best training sessions we could do.

“From there we just needed to highlight the tactical plans for matches, recover the players, give them freedom, clear their heads, make them happy when they go home, so they also feel happy when they come to work at our home that is Chloorkop. And that’s what we are going to do until we go to the Club World Cup [in the US in June and July].

“We developed trust among ourselves. The players understand me when I say that even if you don’t play today you could play tomorrow because I have no problem [with you] if you don’t play for two or three matches. We trust the players, we trust the group, a group that it gives me pleasure to work with. I really feel excited to work with these boys.”

Winning with the best team is expected but it is also not always easy. The best teams require the best coaches, or things fall apart. Cardoso has shown he is among those.