Cardoso not thinking about last season’s cup defeats to Pirates

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso is adamant that his players are not haunted by the ghosts of last season’s defeats to Orlando Pirates in two cup competitions.

The Buccaneers got the better of Sundowns in both the MTN8 final and the Nedbank Cup decider in the previous campaign.

Both teams will once again lock horns in a Betway Premiership match that will be played at Loftus Versfeld with three points at stake.

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Any notion that the Brazilians were still reeling from the cup defeats against Jose Ribeiro’s team was shot down by Cardoso.

“I don’t relate to the past and I also don’t approach the match thinking about the past. We had to play matches that were already tough this season and played them without putting extra weight on the players,” the Portuguese coach said.

“I don’t need to put extra responsibility on my players. They have enough pressure from you, the media, friends, families, and themselves on their own because they know that they also want to push to be the best. What I need to do is leave them with the right emotions. The right emotions can make you closer to the right behaviour and bad ones can take you apart from the good behaviours.”

Although Cardoso says he will not put any undue weight of expectations on his players, the former Esperance coach conceded that victory for either side will give them an edge in the league title race. Pirates, who have one game in hand, are six points behind log leaders Sundowns.

“Everybody is aware that a positive result for us with a victory would give us a good advantage. What I believe is that the championship will continue to be tough whatever happens in this match and no team will give up and both teams can still achieve results,” Cardoso added.

“There’s another second match to play against Pirates. There are other matches to play that are very important. As I’ve seen already, if we don’t put everything into every game we can lose points anywhere.

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“I expect a tough match and an open championship (race) after this game. Regarding the mental approach of the game, from my part this is just one game so there’s no more pressure on this game other than from us.”