Title race could go down to the wire - Sundowns coach

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso predicted the race for the Betway Premiership title could go down to the wire after the champions lost 2-1 to challengers Orlando Pirates at Soccer City on Sunday.

Cardoso suggested both sides might yet drop points in the title race as they both face tough schedules in the last two months of the season.

“I’m sure that both Pirates and Sundowns will still lose points, because they have some tough matches to play,” the Sundowns coach said after the game.

“Let's hope we can minimise as much as possible any losses and if we can win all the games that are left, that will give us what we want,” he added.

Pirates’ victory reduced the gap to the defending champions to 15 points but if the Buccaneers win the four matches they have in hand, then the gap will be only three points.

Sundowns were caught by two early goals from Relebogile Mofokeng.

“In these kind of matches of such importance, it’s very important to start them well, start them with the right conditions, with the right positioning, but obviously that didn't happen.

“It was quite a difficult match to manage after conceding the second goal because we knew that too much risk could expose us. But I think we also lost our brain and like I had told the boys today in the morning, that games like this cannot be played just with heart.

“In the last part of the first half we lost a little bit the capacity to think what we had to continue to do. So at halftime we went through the plan, how we could change things, who could help us and how we should organise ourselves. We knew that a goal could bring us back,” he said.

Cardoso felt Sundowns controlled the second half but accused Pirates of killing off the spectacle with time-wasting tactics.

“After we scored our goal, I think there was no football and I don't feel very comfortable with that because I think that a match of this level … we are speaking about the best football that can be played in South Africa … we can’t have players falling down every few minutes.”