Cardoso happy with Sundowns’ clean sheets and wins, says more goals will come

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso is pleased with his team’s solid start of four wins based on as many clean sheets, and admits there is much room for improvement in the scoring department.

The coach, who replaced Manqoba Mngqithi on December 10, has steered Downs to three 1-0 wins in succession (against Raja Casablanca, Stellenbosch FC and AmaZulu), followed by Saturday’s 2-0 Betway Premiership victory against Richards Bay FC at Durban’s King Zwelithini Stadium.

Downs top the Premiership with 30 points from 11 games, ahead of Orlando Pirates with 27 from 10.

The Champions League win against Raja at Loftus Versfeld in Cardoso’s first game on December 15 was crucial as it left the Moroccan champions floundering in last place on a point in a tight Group B, while the Brazilians moved to the top with five.

Downs, under pressure in the group from their opening 0-0 draw at home to minnow AS Maniema Union (Democratic Republic of Congo), have a tougher assignment meeting Raja at Stade Larbi Zaouli in Casablanca on Saturday (9pm SA time) in Cardoso’s most tricky assignment yet.

Cardoso was asked about his team’s clean sheets and whether he expects goals to flow more in coming games.

“I think it’s important to understand the first game we played at home and the other three we played away,” Cardoso said.

“We play two more away because we play Raja, then Maniema [in Kinshasa on January 11].

“So we are in a phase with a lot of away matches and the statistics will be that at home you have a higher volume of goals. But I think the fact we are winning is important and also that we are fighting to win. I praise the attitude.

“I believe that attitude, together with a lot of commitment regarding behaviours, is allowing us to not concede goals. I hope we can keep it for a long time and a lot of good outcome will come from that.

“Attacks win matches but having a good defence can win championships. I don’t mean we will start being defensive. But as I said in my first press conference, the team needs to understand the four moments [possession, out of possession and transition to attack and defence].

“If you see there is something we can better we will do it. [Against Richards Bay] it was very difficult to make a good defensive transition because when we tried to press the ball was already put out to another space, sometimes with the first touch.

“It was also very difficult to make good [attacking] transitions because ours are usually from foot to foot and the pass sometimes starts it.

“We need to analyse every game. I don’t analyse the games for how you were defensively and offensively. I analyse in general, the behaviours and of course we need to pay attention to the four moments and also the set pieces.

“We can always get better and do better.”

Another Moroccan side, FAR Rabat, also have five points in Group B and Maniema are in third place with three.

Raja will all but be eliminated for a top two place needed to reach the quarterfinals if they cannot beat Sundowns.