Miguel Cardoso downplays pressure to reclaim league title

11.08.26 FT South African Betway Premiership

TS Galaxy

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Mamelodi Sundowns FC

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Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has shrugged off the notion that his team is under pressure to reclaim the league title, with the 2026/27 season gathering steam.

The Brazilians surrendered the Betway Premiership crown to Orlando Pirates in the previous campaign, which saw their run of eight championships in a row come to a halt.

Having secured a hard-fought 3-2 victory over TS Galaxy in their league opener at Mbombela Stadium on Tuesday night, Cardoso insists there's no pressure to retrieve the trophy to Chloorkop this term, albeit gunning for the title.

“Obviously, it's our intention to fight as best as possible and as much as we can, with the energy that we have to put, the maximum commitment possible for this league,” said the outspoken Downs mentor.

"It's not because we lost it before, it's because it's our ambition to state ourselves and dominate South African football, so we have to do it because it's the history of the club.

"And last year we didn't win the league, there was a lot we had to fight against throughout the competition. I think everybody obviously knows it was a very tough year, we fought against many factors.

"Why do you think that we did very well in the end? We had to fight throughout the season in the Champions League and the way we did until the end and getting that trophy was the ultimate challenge and achievement.

The Portuguese tactician went on to address his team's defensive frailties, with the African champions having conceded four goals in their first two matches of the new season.

“We have a lot of energy to put in this league, it's important that we don't drop energy when we are winning matches so that we don't have to fight because sometimes you don't win the matches like today [Tuesday],” Cardoso added.

"Sometimes you can even lose them if you allow the opponent to score the goals. Obviously, you cannot suffer two goals. If you want to see last season how many times we suffered two goals, for sure not many times - it's quite rare.

"So, unfortunately in the last two games, two shots, two goals. It's not something that makes us happy, we have to correct it as a group, as a team to have the right behaviours when we defend high or low, and when we defend set-pieces.

"We all have to be on the level that we need to have to reduce the number of goals [we concede] because you're also not going to score three goals every time, so when you concede two you have high risk of also losing points.

"And we obviously cannot lose points regularly otherwise it will be a problem. But in the moment it's two matches played, two victories, get the energy out of there, grow over the victories, over the points and stabilize some behaviours.

Sundowns, meanwhile, swing back to action with a Betway Premiership clash against Kaizer Chiefs at the FNB Stadium on Saturday, 15 August.

Hlayisani Magoro

Editorfr, en

Football journalist from South Africa covering African football news, exclusive stories and key events while sharing insights with passionate fans of the game.

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