Sundowns’ Cardoso highlights importance of Williams

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has highlighted the importance of newly crowned Caf Interclub Player of the Year and Goalkeeper of the Year Ronwen Williams.

The revered goalkeeper put in another solid shift in Sundowns’ 1-0 over Raja Casablanca in a Caf Champions League encounter on Sunday. He then jetted off to Morocco, where he won the two prestigious awards a day later.

Williams plaudits

Not only is Williams a great shot stopper, his distribution has also earned him plaudits. He led the Brazilians to the domestic league title and African Football League last season. The SuperSport United academy product also led Bafana Bafana to bronze medal at this year’s Africa Cup of Nations finals.

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“Watching the full pitch as a goalkeeper is very important and Ronwen is capable of doing it. That allows us to create different variants that we can use,” said Cardoso about the qualities that make the 32-year-old the best goalkeeper in Africa.

“Sometimes our opponents will press us high and if they press us high, there are spaces that are probably exposed. If they stay in a low block there are other spaces that we have to use. (Against Raja) I felt we were not too clever in using the opposite space of the pitch.

“Sometimes we sat in the same corridor of the game and the same lane rather than change, But that’s what we will for sure get better in terms of collective and individual analysis of decisions. Ronwen is an experienced player and he’s capable of doing it (good distribution) so let’s profit from it as much as possible.”

Cardoso will get his first taste of Betway Premiership football when the defending champions come up against the tricky Stellenbosch FC at the Cape Town Stadium on Wednesday night. 

“I believe we’re far away from the level we want to achieve. Mostly we should be able to control the game with the ball and find the right spaces. The commitment we have and the energy can multiply when we win, so it was very important to have that,” he added.

Sundowns’ Cardoso – let’s continue working

“We obviously believe in each other so let’s continue working, go through the games, recover and analyse. All the players are committed and you saw the players from the bench celebrating. And the players that were not on the list came and joined everyone.”

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Cardoso will miss influential midfielder Teboho Mokoena against Stellies. He is suspended for the match. Stellies will be without the services of defender Ismael Toure due to suspension. The side from the Cape Winelands got the better of Sundowns in the two-legged semifinal of the MTN8 earlier this season.