Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has pointed out the reason that he feels contributed to their loss to TS Galaxy.
The Brazilians lost 1-0 to the high-flying Galaxy in a Betway Premiership match at the Mbombela Stadium on Tuesday evening.
Kamohelo Sebelebele scored the only goal of the match, handing Masandawana their second league loss this season.
Speaking to the journalists after the game, Cardoso explained that his team started strong, with the energy needed to dominate the first half. However, he felt conceding a goal just before half-time made things challenging for their analysis during the break.
He also pointed to the short turnaround between recent fixtures as a contributing factor to their lack of sharpness on the day.
CARDOSO SAYS THEY HAVE PLAYED MANY GAMES IN A SHORT PERIOD OF TIME
“This game has nothing to do with the previous one, and the analysis after the match is always easier,” said Cardoso. “Obviously, we wanted to start the game stronger. I think in the first half, we had the energy in us to control the game. We had to deal with the counter-attacks.
“Obviously, from TS Galaxy, I’d say they are always difficult because they are quite aggressive on the counter-attacks, but we managed to cope. We controlled the match, but we were penalised at the end of the first half. It was an emotional and difficult moment because we went to half-time expecting to win, but we did a result of 1-0.
“During the second half, it was clear that energy, we were with low batteries, very low batteries, very difficult, despite the intention to try to do things. It was not easy to make good decisions. [The players had] very high levels of fatigue, for sure.
“We tried to change the players we put in to help the team, change strategically, approach differently, the positioning of the team in the pitch, but a lot of [TS Galaxy] players defended very aggressively, and stronger. We could not overcome that defensive system, and we got a negative result.
“There’s only one thing to do is look forward – get up, rest and recover. We were not the best in the world after the last match…We just clearly understand that it’s absolutely impossible to have a schedule like this and play the fourth match in 72 hours in a row.
“And so I think that we made also a big mistake by having [same players] to play a game in 72 hours, it was impossible. So, eventually, it was important to have a good game, [give opportunities to ] some of the fresh players to play. But we tried, we tried our best.”
Bafana Ba Style are next in action against Mpheni Home Defenders in the Nedbank Cup Round of 16 on Sunday, 16 February at the Lucas Moripe Stadium at 3 PM.
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