Mamelodi Sundowns’ Miguel Cardoso left frustrated by ‘horrible pitch’ despite AmaZulu win
Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso expressed frustration over the poor pitch conditions at Loftus Versfeld despite his team’s 2-0 victory over AmaZulu in the Betway Premiership on Tuesday. Picture: Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix
Image: Sydney Mahlangu/BackpagePix
Despite a fairly convincing scoreline, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso was left frustrated by his side’s 2-0 win over AmaZulu in the Betway Premiership, at Loftus Versfeld, in Pretoria, on Tuesday evening.
The champions had been held goalless in the first half before Iqraam Rayners found the opener in the 53rd minute.
In added time, Tashreeq Matthews doubled his side’s advantage to seal all three points.
It was the perfect response after Sundowns drew their opening match of the league over the weekend against Chippa United.
Cardoso Criticises Pitch Conditions and ‘Mobility’ in Match Analysis
“Two very different halves of football. The first one, I think there was too much mobility on the pitch, it’s also not very good,” Cardoso said after the match.
“And I think that we had a lot of players out of position because of too much mobility.
“And that took us to a very uncomfortable place in order to play football, some uncertainty, not finding the connections, not finding the players in the places where usually we find them.”
Ultimately though, it was a bizarrely poor pitch that was the target of Cardoso’s frustrations.
“Obviously we made some corrections, we tried to bring in players that could give some other things, we tried to understand … I don’t know if it’s clear from the outside, but the pitch is absolutely horrible to play football. It was very slippery, difficult to handle for players on their feet so that didn’t help.”