Sundowns ready to compete on all fronts: Cardoso

AsMamelodi Sundownsprepare to start their season with the MTN8 quarterfinal fixture against Polokwane City this weekend, coach Miguel Cardoso says they are ready to fight on all fronts this campaign. The Brazilians arrived back from their preseason camp in Austria at the weekend after they were given permission to postpone their openingBetway Premiershipmatch against Marumo Gallants this past weekend. They will only start on Saturday when they host Rise and Shine in the MTN8 quarterfinal, and after winning only one competition last season (CAF Champions League), Cardoso said they are ready to go all out this time.

“We need to honour the badge we represent and play every match to win. Last season, unfortunately, we went out of two cup competitions on penalties. Hopefully this year we can settle those matches within the 90 minutes so that we do not have to reach a stage where the result can fall either way,” Cardoso told the club media department.

Polokwane are a tough opponent. We played them towards the end of last season, but they have a new coach and will surely have new dynamics. “We will look at what they do in their championship match and try to get some information from that, but most of all we must worry about ourselves and how strongly we can start.

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“We need to be mentally strong enough to deal with the difficulties the match will bring but also remain focused on our objectives. Those objectives are very clear. We must play every match to win and then assess where we stand as the competition progresses.” Cardoso added that they are now physically and mentally ready to play after the death of midfielder Jayden Adams.

“I think it was an important turnover in terms of emotions. We had to interrupt the preseason. We went to the memorial.

We were not in the best place emotionally, so coming out of the country and escaping a bit from the context was very important,” he said. “We had to deal with a lot of situations. A lot of players were here and then out of the preparation, but we went through that working every day with a strong focus on the development of the team and on challenging the players for that.

Team building, the spirit of the team, receiving the new ones and making them feel part of the family and welcoming them in the best way.” Cardoso also believes they benefited a lot during the preseason despite being interrupted by the memorial service. Click here to join Sowetan’s WhatsApp channel and get the latest news delivered to you on the move

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