Sundowns’ Cardoso unhappy with poor Loftus pitch

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso might be ecstatic with the 4-1 demolition of Orlando Pirates at Loftus Versfeld last Saturday, but he was left unimpressed with the state of the pitch at the stadium following the Betway Premiership heavyweight clash. 

It’s unclear what caused damage to large parts of the surface at Loftus which Sundowns share with rugby union side the Blue Bulls. Before the game against Pirates, the Brazilians had last used the venue in their Nedbank Cup fixture against Sibanye Golden Stars on January 25 and the surface was in good condition even though the Bulls played Stade Français seven days prior.

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Having voiced his displeasure on the poor condition of pitches in some their previous away matches, Cardoso acknowledged that the bumpy and slippery turf at Loftus, which will host two more football encounters and two rugby matches later this month, was not up to standard.

“When I entered the pitch for the pre-match interview, I felt that the pitch was not in a good condition and I said that in the pre-match interview even before I knew what would happen on the pitch,” the 52-year-old Portuguese said.

“I said it myself and I keep my word because for me, the better the quality of the pitches, the better the football you can get out of it. For our team, we suffer from pitches like this so I’m not naïve to say when we play away we have bad pitches and it’s not all the time but in some places, yes. I can confess to you that during this week I received reports every day on the work that was being done on the pitch.

“Our groundsmen were here every day working on this pitch otherwise it would be even worse but there are things we cannot control. We don’t control events and games that happen here because the stadium is not ours so it’s not our responsibility that the pitch is like this but we fight to have it better and we paid to have it better.”

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Staying true to his word that he wants to give his players the best chance at avoiding injuries due to the high volume of games Masandawana have coming up in the league Nedbank Cup and CAF Champions League, the outspoken coach revealed his plea to Sundowns management to consider moving some of their home games to the alternative venue of Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville.

“I don’t know if you saw I was on the pitch speaking to the groundsman and he was already explaining to me the kind of work that he will start doing tomorrow. He’s going to remove all dry turf and he’s going to plant 60 kilos of new seeds we’re working on the pitch,” Cardoso added.

“At halftime he (groundman) came to us to ask if he should water the pitch and said no because it’s very slippery and with more water it will be worse. We worked as much as possible on the quality of the pitch. I defend as much as I can the quality of the pitch because we want to play good football.

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“I don’t speak like this one day and different the next day because I keep my word. At the moment it’s our home pitch and I even said to people from the club that from now on that for big games, I prefer to play at Lucas Moripe Stadium, just for you to understand my approach.”