Mamelodi Sundowns News Today: Williams worries Khune, Motsepe reveals why Cardoso wasn’t sacked & more

Latest Mamelodi Sundowns news with Itumeleng Khune raising concerns over Ronwen Williams and Thlopie Motsepe shares why he kept faith with Miguel Cardoso.

Khune: Williams can’t afford to be over-confident

Itumeleng Khune has admitted he was uneasy about Ronwen Williams’ display as Bafana Bafana thrashed Eritrea 5-0 in their 2027 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier.

Relebohile Mofokeng scored twice, with Sphephelo Sithole, Iqraam Rayners and Luther Singh also on the scoresheet as South Africa moved top of Group D qualifying with six points from two matches.

Despite the comfortable scoreline, Eritrea had their moments early on, with Williams forced into a save inside the opening minutes. Khune believes the Mamelodi Sundowns shot-stopper needs to guard against complacency.

“It was a nervy start for Ronwen,” said Khune as per iDiski Times. “Even in the second half, I was a bit worried.”

“I think sometimes he’s over confident, and that’s when he makes mistakes,” he said. “So I think he needs to eliminate that because maybe he was taking the opposition for granted, because at the end of the day, if you concede like that, there’s Sipho Chaine there waiting.”

Khune also pointed to a specific error during the win, suggesting Williams should have dealt with the situation more decisively.

“Look at the other error, he wasn’t switched on,” he added. “Instead of tipping the ball over, he gave them half a chance.”

Sundowns chairman on why he kept Cardoso

Meanwhile, Mamelodi Sundowns chairman Thlopie Motsepe has spoken candidly about the decision to retain coach Miguel Cardoso last season, when the team was going through a rough period, with rumours that Pitso Mosimane was set to replace him.

“The important factor was the feeling I had to say; ‘can we really find somebody in a short space.’ And he took us to the final of the CAF Champions League, which we hadn’t been at for nine years,” said Motsepe in an interview with Robert Marawa.

“Do we let go of somebody who allows our players to express themselves and to play with such bravery at the Club World Cup if we are just going through this period right now?

“Football is a passion-driven business. We live and die by the passion of the game. I think we are all in this game because of passion but it is very important sometimes to be able to remove yourself and see the bigger picture.

“If we had let go of coach Cardoso at the time, who knows if we would have got the Champions League or the Asia-Africa Pacific Cup? What I did believe in at the time was the fact that we saw elements at the Club World Cup that just showed us a shoe shine and piano.

“A Mamelodi Sundowns that was touching something that we hadn’t really touched before. Maybe we were not playing openly as we had done the previous seasons but we adapted a little bit in terms of our openness, we strengthened in terms of our robustness and I think that was a beautiful lesson we had to learn.”