"I think we had a good first 20 minutes until the substitution of the goalkeeper from Golden Arrows," said Cardoso.
Miguel Cardoso on post match interview during the MTN8 Semi Final 1st Leg match between Mamelodi Sundowns and Golden Arrows at Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday. Photo: Zamani Makautsi/Gallo Images
Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso blamed lapses in concentration for his team’s 1-0 defeat against Golden Arrows.
Sede Dion’s first-half strike was enough to hand Abafana Bes’thende the first-leg victory at the Lucas Moripe Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Speaking after the game, Cardoso stated his team “fell asleep” after dominating the early minutes and failing to manage simple transition moments.
“I think we had a good first 20 minutes until the substitution of the goalkeeper from Golden Arrows,” Cardoso told SuperSport TV.
“It took a little bit of the rhythm of the game. We were ok for seven minutes to make a substitution and then we fell asleep, we fell asleep until halftime.
“Completely asleep and out of a mistake similar to the one we did in the match against Chiefs where we see we lose the ball and out of position for the rest-defence and we still make a mistake by dropping a player in the front and we suffer a goal.”
‘It’s time to learn’
Cardoso added that Sundowns needed to learn from the Arrows defeat.
“It’s time to learn how to deal with these situations, otherwise you cannot continue to dominate the game and suffer from a simple action.
“Two times they were able to counter-attack. And two times they were able to enter the box to take danger and the story of the game is creating opportunities one after the other and the goalkeeper did very well.
“They weren’t able to oppose our target; we also didn’t manage to get as many shots on target as we could because they defended very well and halftime of the match let’s see the second half when we go to Arrows what would have,” commented Cardoso.
Cardoso will be hoping for a better showing from his charges when they face AmaZulu in a Betway Premiership clash at the same venue on Wednesday (kick-off is at 7.30pm).
