‘Also human’ Cardoso wary of Pirates slayers’ emotional threat ahead of Sundowns’ CAF CL outing

Mamelodi Sundowns are set to host St Eloi Lupopo on Saturday in the CAF Champions League outing that will be staged at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Saturday.

To make the group stage, the Democratic Republic of Congo outfit went past Orlando Pirates in the final preliminary round. They played both a physical and psychological game against the Sea Robbers to advance.

The defending Premier Soccer League champions Mamelodi Sundwons beat Remo Stars to advance.

Coach Miguel Cardoso is aware of the psychological game and how it can negatively affect the players. It is the reason why he has warned his players against losing their mind to stand a chance of getting out of the group that is also made up of Rulani Mokwena’s MC Alger and Sudanese heavyweights Al Hilal.

Whatever is happening on the pitch should be emotionally managed

“We try always, and I make a big effort to make players understand that any emotion that you may feel that is not proper to play a football match should be left in the locker room,” the Portuguese tactician told the media.

“Whatever happens inside the pitch will always be managed emotionally in the right way by the players – you remember when we played at home against Esperance last year, there was a clash between the players and how I was so aggressive.

“That’s why sometimes when things happen that have nothing to do with the game, I stay [measured] because it can touch my emotions, and I’m also human being, but we need to know where we are, what the plan was, what’s happening on the pitch and how can we help.

“Should we correct something, what are we going to say at half-time, which images can we show, should we change the plan, or which players can come in and give something more? If our minds don’t stay focussed on this, for sure we cannot make good decisions,” Cardoso concluded.