Mamelodi Sundowns paid the price for sloppy decision-making and getting too emotional in their MTN8 semifinal against Orlando Pirates on Saturday, coach Miguel Cardoso said after the 1-1 first-leg draw.
The Brazilians were ahead at halftime through a Tebeho Mokoena header and had the opportunity to increase their lead, but gave away a late equaliser that left the two teams level going into next Saturday’s second leg at Atteridgeville.
“I predicted beforehand that this match would be a match of different moments,” said Cardoso.
“When you have two strong teams playing for such an important trophy, despite we are still only in the semifinal, and both wanting to go to the final, then it's obvious that you can have different moments to manage throughout the match.
“What we told our players was to deal with all those moments and to try to reduce, as much as possible, any situations that could be uncomfortable for us.
“We also know that Orlando Pirates tries to start the matches very strong. It was important for us to also start strong. I think we managed the first half very well, we dealt with their intensity. We knew what kind of aggression we would get. We prevented them and gradually we started taking control of the match, because it's the way we should always play,” the Sundowns coach added.
A GAME OF TWO HALVES
He was happy with the way the first half went.
“There were still moments where we suffered too much pressure because our players were all dropping for the ball and it was very important to correct that, so that we could be more aggressive. After that, we started being comfortable.”
But after the break things began to change, Cardoso said.
“I think we started the second half quite well, but then as time went by, we start losing the capacity to have all this brainwork, to think the right things and the emotions grew inside the pitch, and because of that, we had difficulty to cope with Pirates in the last 10 minutes.
“Their goal came from a mistake and it cost us because the result should have been very comfortable. Now everything is back to how it was before we started,” he added.