Painful. That's probably the only way to describe the state Miguel Cardoso was in after yet another loss for Mamelodi Sundowns to South Africa's cup king in recent years, Orlando Pirates.
Those watching on television could see the world crumbling before Sundowns coach Cardoso's eyes, his body-language revealing how he felt as his troops suffered a fourth successive loss against the Buccaneers in the domestic cup competitions in the last four years.
The three previous defeats were before Cardoso's arrival at Sundowns in December, but there was great hope he would be the man to arrest the slide, even if it meant doing so in the lottery of penalties.
It was not to be as Sundowns were further derailed in the MTN8 semifinal at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Saturday where they lost 4-2 on penalties after the match ended 2-2 on aggregate over two legs.
When all the penalties had been taken, Cardoso cut a lone figure in the dugout while thinking about what could have been — counting the number of chances his team didn't take and the fact that in both legs his team failed to defend their slender first-half lead conceding late goals.
When Cardoso was asked what went wrong for his team, he looked like someone who hadn't been expecting that question, but because the television cameras were rolling, there was nowhere to hide and he had to find an excuse. Fast.
In the end the Portuguese settled on how much the Fifa Club World Cup in the US — which was played just after the completion of last season — had damaged Sundowns' preparations for the 2025-26 season.
Not even the transfers turmoil that has seen so many Sundowns players unsettled could come to Cardoso's mind as an excuse for their unravelling. He chose to shield the club's management by pointing to the Club World Cup — a competition in which Sundowns failed to advance beyond the first round — as the main root of their bitterness.
“Sundowns is still not fresh. We're struggling because we didn't have the preparation time that Pirates had. Our players are also not reacting so quick, but that will come, and we knew that we have to pay the price.
“Then it was penalties, and their goalkeeper [Sipho Chaine] was fantastic. That's the difference in the game, a very equal game, and I think 1-1 is a fair result, like it was in the first leg. Give everything to Pirates, I have to say congratulations,” that was Cardoso's bitter admission of his team's shortfall in front of the cameras.
Behind the scenes where Cardoso had to face the media, he decided to stick to his original script from the first question about why in both matches his team seemed to fade towards the end, which is when they conceded both their goals.
“Do you know how many weeks of preparation Pirates had? Do you know how many matches Orlando Pirates played? I'm going to explain. The fact that we changed our line-up on Wednesday [in the league game against Magesi FC in Polokwane] didn't mean today we'll be much stronger.
“My players tried. But we saw on the pitch the mistakes of simple passing. Fatigue is not a physical thing, it is a brain thing. Because of fatigue we made more mistakes. That's why you didn't see the same fluidity in our game as usual. It's clear ... not only because it was a demanding match, but because in the moment we were not able to do more than that.
“It's important to understand that we don't have many matches played, three matches in the league and two in the cup, and in the pre-season, we played three. When we played the World Cup they were resting, and we were still in the World Cup when Pirates were making their preparation for the season.
“It means that we're a little bit late compared to other teams, and we know that. We know that we're not in a place we would like to be to play such matches. But I don't think anyone can complain about the effort of my players. They didn't rest much, so it means we're still trying to manage them while playing the hard matches.
“I would like to play with more freedom, more creativeness and be unpredictable. But what we saw on the pitch is that we couldn't find the dynamic of movements that we needed.”
But the biggest elephant in the room, — player turmoil at Sundowns — was not mentioned by Cardoso as one of the contributing factors to the defeat against Pirates. Star striker Lucas Ribeiro has written to Fifa wanting a clearance from Sundowns and Khuliso Mudau has not kicked the ball this season as he fights for an improved contract.
“Inside the club there's nothing happening. What's happening is outside the club,” he said.
But that's exactly what seems to be affecting Sundowns — not being in control of what's happening outside, with rumours flying about the future of many players at the club.
Did this have an impact on Saturday's result? Yes it did, because Sundowns lacked the versatility of Mudau at right-back and the dynamism of Ribeiro — the PSL's Player of the Season, Player's Player of the Season and the Golden Boot winner of last season.
But while Cardoso was worried about protecting the image of Sundowns, for Bucs coach Abdeslam Ouaddou it was his time to bask in glory after a turbulent start to his tenure as Pirates head coach.
This will be a week that the Pirates coach will look back on with fondness. He not only claimed victory against Sundowns for Pirates to qualify for the MTN8 final for the fourth time in a row, but his team finally registered a victory in the league with a 1-0 home win over Stellenbosch FC. That win plus the one against Sundowns surely soothes the pain and anxiety Ouaddou must have felt after two league defeats against Sekhukhune United and Marumo Gallants.
One player Ouaddou will be grateful to is right winger Kamogelo Sebelebele, who scored three vital goals in Bucs' last three matches, the last two against Stellies and Sundowns in which he was man-of-the-match.
“The boys did well, they were brave, and they believed until the end. I think this victory will build confidence in the boys, will give more ambition, especially in the coming games.
“For me, I'm very happy of course. But when I leave this room, my mind will be in our next (league) game against Orbit (College in Orlando on Tuesday). Yeah, it's like that. We don't have time to celebrate. As a coach you have to quickly think about the next game.”
The final of the MTN8 on September 13 will be a repeat of last year after Stellies beat Sekhukhune 3-1 on aggregate in the other semifinal in Polokwane on Saturday.
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