Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso was left frustrated by the condition of the Loftus Versfeld Stadium despite the huge 4-1 win over Orlando Pirates on Saturday.
The defending Premier Soccer League champions scored their goals through Lucas Ribeiro – who secured a brace, while the other two goals came from Grant Kekana and Teboho Mokoena. Deon Hotto scored the lone goal for the Sea Robbers who are now trailing the leaders by nine points.
Cardoso has now explained why the surface at the Loftus Versfeld was not friendly to the players and style of play.
‘You can get better football from a good pitch'
“Immediately when I entered the pitch for the pre-match press conference I said I felt the pitch was not in good condition, that was in the pre-match press conference, not conference, the [post-match] interview. Even before knowing what would happen, I said it myself,” he stated.
“For me, as better the quality of the pitch is, the better football you can get out of it. And for our team, for sure, we suffer from pitches like this, we suffer! So I’m not naive to say when we go play away we have bad pitches, it’s not bad pitches, not everywhere every time, but in some places, yes, but mostly I spoke on the pitch in Polokwane where we played, that pitch is very tough.
“But also the approach that is done, because I can confess that during the week every day I received a report on what was being done on the pitch. Our team of people, our green keepers, they were here every day working on this pitch otherwise it would be even worse.
“But there are things we don’t control. We don’t control the events that happen here, we don’t control the games that happen here. The stadium is not ours, so it’s not out responsibility the pitch is like this.”
‘I prefer to play at Lucas Moripe Stadium' – Cardoso
“We fight to have it better, we pay to have it better, so we work on the pitch to have it better. And at the end of the game, I don’t know if you saw I was on the pitch, speaking with the green keeper and he was already explaining to me what kind of work he is starting tomorrow,” he continued.
“He’s gonna remove all the dry turf, he’s gonna work on it and he’s gonna plant 60kg of new seeds, so we are working on the pitch believe me. At half-time he came to me and asked ‘should I water the pitch’ and I said no because it’s very slippery, so with more water it would’ve been worse.
“So we work as much as possible for the quality of the pitch, I defend as much as possible the quality of the pitch because we want to play good football, we want to defend a spectacle.
“I even said to the people from the club, ‘from now on, except for the big games’ I prefer to play at Lucas Moripe [Stadium].”
The next game for Sundowns will be on Tuesday against TS Galaxy at the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit.
