Sundowns Coach Cardoso: ‘Off-Field Issues Aren’t Affecting Us’

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso is pushing back against the idea that non-football issues are impacting the team’s early season form. Despite a mixed bag of results, Cardoso insists the squad is focused. 

The 2025/26 season started strong with an MTN8 win over Richards Bay, but was followed by a draw against Chippa United in the league. 

While the team secured two league wins after that, their MTN8 hopes were dashed on Saturday at Lucas Moripe Stadium, where they lost 4-1 on penalties after a 2-2 aggregate scoreline. The coach believes the team’s performances are the only measure that matters.

‘WE ARE IN PEACE’

“We risked the match against Magesi by not lining up some of the [key] players, not me but you and the fans in general think are the stronger ones, because for me the stronger ones are the ones who are playing,” Cardoso said.

“But I think that has nothing to do what’s happening, because it’s not happening inside the club, it’s happening outside, inside is nothing – we’re in peace, we enjoy everyday, we don’t have problems, the food is there for breakfast and lunch.

“The pitches are okay, we train, there’s no issues, everything is normal, we’re calm, the players arrive as normal in the morning, and we just work thinking about who we have and we don’t relate with those questions.

“Political issues, the board, the Chairman, and the board, the Sporting Director of course, me and the players we work where we are, where we want to be, which is our opponent, we study, we define a plan – and we’ve been doing very well.

“We saw after 10 minutes, it’s what we predicted, and we controlled it, we were okay – we controlled the things that we could, the agression but I felt more active and stressed than usual – it has to do with that. We should be doing more than what we’ve been doing.

“That fluidity of movement, the dynamic movements, Allende and Mokoena, when you don’t have that, the ball doesn’t circulate the way we want, we lose more balls and then you saying this guy is destroying the team – no we’re buudling strong. And this moment will help us build character.”