Cardoso Highlights Downs’ ‘Fantastic’ Super Subs

Photo by Philip Maeta/Gallo Images

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso gave some special praise to the second-half substitutes following their 2-0 win over Sekhukhune United on Tuesday night.

The Brazilians needed late goals from Nuno Santos and Brayan Leon to secure maximum points against a stubborn Sekhukhune outfit at the New Peter Mokaba Stadium.

Read: Downs Leave It Late To Open 3-Point Lead Over Pirates

Santos came off the bench to score Sundowns’ first goal while fellow substitutes Khuliso Mudau and Peter Shalulile played a role in both goals late in the game.

“I think today everybody that entered were fantastic from Peter, Tashreeq, Nuno and both fullbacks that went in after the other ones suffered and struggled physically.

‘He team understood the variants, we brought a lot of tactical variants as you said forcing them into mistakes, getting them tired and the problem with people sometimes they don’t understand the work the players do,” Cardoso said.

“Sometimes, it’s not the goal-scorer but what he does put others to score and I’m pretty with the boys, the ones that are here, the ones that are at home, the victory is theirs, congratulations also to them.”

Cardoso also spoke about how important trust is with the squad, having rotated his team quite heavily for the last three games.

“Trust, I always speak about trust. We need to trust the players that we have in the group and that’s exactly what we have been doing, three line-ups, completely different so that we can go through the challenge we have.

“They just need to understand it’s just the leadership that you need to have in the team, if you want to succeed in this team, we need to succeed as a group because that’s what we need in every match bring all the energy so that we can be up to challengers, today was absolutely fantastic,” stated the Portuguese-born coach.

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