Mamelodi Sundowns took full advantage of an early lead against 10-man TS Galaxy to go on and secure a comfortable victory in their Betway Premiership clash in Atteridgeville on Saturday and allow coach Miguel Cardoso a chance to rest key players ahead of two matches this coming week.
Sundowns went 4-1 up early in the second half, prompting changes by Cardoso as he looked ahead to Wednesday’s clash at Sekhukhune United and next Saturday’s ‘Classico’ against Kaizer Chiefs.
“I think we started the game well, obviously, and we immediately got some results from the fact that we started very well. After we played last week against TS Galaxy, we knew what kind of game we had to play. But we also knew that TS Galaxy has a way to play that can be tricky because it seems you are in control, yet they can find spaces to penetrate your defence,” he said.
FAST START
Sundowns were 2-0 up within seven minutes but Galaxy quickly pulled it back to 2-1 after 10 minutes before Victor Letsolo got sent off midway through the first half. Jayden Adams made it 3-1 to Sundowns before the break.
“At halftime, it was important to remind the players, and I used the expression, ‘we should respect football”. Because when you respect football, you do your best. Obviously, we know we are under a tough schedule, we know that we need to manage players, we know that we need to avoid injuries, we know that we need to avoid the (red and yellow) cards. And I think the team was clever in doing that during the second half.
“What I asked them at halftime was to start very strong again in order to score again, because after you go 4-1 ahead, the contest is over. So the intention at the beginning of the second half was to score and we did.
“And immediately after that, I must confess to you, my work as a coach was more to concentrate on the management of the team rather than on the game that was being played. It was important to take out the players that needed more rest, because some of them we already left out of the game, like Aubrey (Modiba).
"We didn’t want to play Tebeho (Mokoena) more than 45 minutes but due to the injury of (Bathusi) Aubaas, we had to put him on earlier. Grant (Kekana) was out because of suspension. We took out (Marcelo) Allende, Lucas (Ribero), Lucas Suarez to rest them. And as you saw, even in the last five minutes of the game, when Thapelo (Morena) just had a small question, not even an injury, I immediately took him out not to take any risks, because we cannot take risks anymore,” the Sundowns coach added.