Photo Courtesy Mamelodi Sundowns.
Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has discussed how the champions prepared to humiliate their South African rivals Orlando Pirates 4-1 in a top-of-the-table Betway Premiership fixture at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday.
The Brazilians looked the better side from the onset and they secured two early goals courtesy of Grant Kekana and Lucas Ribeiro to make it 2-0 with only 27 minutes played.
Ribeiro scored his brace in the second half, while Teboho Mokoena sealed the game with a beautiful goal, leaving the Buccaneers with no chance of a comeback.
“This game with Pirates, was prepared in 20 minutes, we had 20 minutes on the pitch, no running just positioning the players, where the ball moves from there to here and when we win the ball, the different moments that we do,” Cardoso told reporters after the game as quoted by idiskitimes.
“Video analysis, then team meetings, that’s how we prepared, there’s no time to train, if we do train, they will not arrive in the game with good condition, so we didn’t even exercise in terms of physical questions, just positional sessions 10v10, building up. How we should press when we are high on the pitch, how to press from a low block.
“Then when we have the ball, how do we start from the goalkeeper, what variations we can introduce to the game, when we’re building up with three, when we will be higher, when we lose the ball, what to do.”
Cardoso concluded: “From now on our worry is Tuesday, we have a big responsibility on Tuesday, as you can imagine, after we win Pirates, the responsibility to win increases, we made wonderful number of points after the first half of the league, but the end is far away.”
The win was a huge morale booster for Sundowns in the race for the league title, while it was a blow for the Soweto-based club. After 15 matches, the Brazilians sit at the summit of the table with 42 points, while Pirates are in second place with 33 points.
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