Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso outsmarts MC Alger's Rulani Mokwena in fiery Loftus Versfeld showdown

LOFTUS VERSFELD - SOMETIME AFTER the final whistle had been blasted and the celebrations somewhat subsided, Miguel Cardoso rushed to the goals on the northern part of the pitch to score a penalty past one of the ball boys.

He then walked back towards the centre of the field, and paced about alone as he waited to be called to the post-match television interview.

He walked with a swagger, content that he’d silenced his detractors by leading Mamelodi Sundowns to a 2-0 defeat of MC Alger to book the Brazilians a place in the CAF Champions League quarter-final.

Even then, the Portuguese coach waited until his adversary Rulani Mokwena had done both the SABC and SuperSport interviews before he went for his.

Such is the bad blood between the two men who avoided each other like the plague throughout the match fraught with tension as it was following the accusations of a Sundowns technical analyst leaking tactical information to the Algerians.

Cardoso had sparked a mini fisticuffs between the two benches by rushing towards the opposition bench in celebration of his team’s second goal, the Algerians chasing him back. The Portuguese was duly booked for encroaching into the technical area of MC Alger, and given what his action led to – he was lucky to not have been sent off.

The ‘leaked’ tactics - if they really were given that Mokwena denied the accusations - did not help. Whatever the truth of the story might be, the ‘Marsha-gate’ scandal which saw the analyst – Mario Marsha - suspended worked in Sundowns’ favour.

Whereas MC Alger seemed to be all emotional about the match, Cardoso’s Sundowns were all business-like, clearly focused on the job on the pitch.

Prior to kick-off, the home side went to the opposition bench to shake hands and give their adversaries pennants. It was a masterstroke, albeit done in the absence of the two coaches who clearly wanted to avoid each other at all costs.

There were moments of the two staring off each other during the match but on the whole, it was clear that Cardoso was the more relaxed of the two coaches.

While he received some love from the Sundowns fans prior to the match, Mokwena was clearly not intent on having any engagement with his adversary. Typically, Mokwena lived the match with his players – hovering about in the technical area and occasionally going out to protest to the fourth official but never goading the opposition as most would have expected.

Instead it was Cardoso who seemed to be in the mood for mind games, the Portuguese suspected in some sectors to have been behind the story of the conversations between Mokwena and Marsha being put out into the public.

That there was a 'throwing of handbags' among the two teams’ players at half time after the coaches and the match officials had long gone down the tunnel was not surprising, the tension having built up all week.

Made out to be about Mokwena’s return to Loftus, the reality of this match was that this was a Cardoso game. The Portuguese has been under tremendous pressure from the fans that are unhappy about how he plays and the poor results in the Champions League which saw them going into the final group tie still not assured of a knockout spot meant this was a do-or-die affair for him.

He did. And his delight was understandable. In outsmarting and outplaying a coach the Sundowns fans dearly love to ensure continental knockout football for the South African champions yet again, Cardoso has surely kept the wolves at bay.

They might not like the pragmatic way he does things, but so long as he produces such results the coach will remain at Sundowns – the fans’ feelings notwithstanding. And you could see from the swagger with which he walked about on the pitch, hands in pockets, that he knows it.