As Mamelodi Sundowns prepare to face former head coach Rhulani Mokwena’s MC Alger at Loftus Versfeld on Saturday, in a crunch CAF Champions League clash, Miguel Cardoso must realise it’ll be a battle more of the heart than tactics.
Cardoso got the better of Mokwena with Espérance de Tunis in the 2023-24 Champions League semi-finals, beating Sundowns 1-0 home and away for a 2-0 aggregate win. It is quite likely that this result played a major role in the Portuguese tactician being appointed Sundowns head coach.
Honeymoon phase ending?
Manqoba Mngqithi had been put in charge for five months after Mokwena’s departure in July 2024. After Sundowns started the 2024-25 season slowly, Cardoso took over and results suggested he had an immediate impact.
He improved Sundowns’ organisation off the ball and led the Brazilians to 73 points in a shortened 28-game season (reduced from the usual 30 due to Royal AM’s expulsion from the Premier Soccer League).
For context: in Mokwena’s most dominant season in charge, 2023-24, he had led Sundowns to 73 points in 30 games.
In fairness, Mngqithi had picked up 21 points in Sundowns’ first eight league games of the season, but Cardoso kept that flying form going while also salvaging their CAF Champions League campaign and later delivering an impressive performance during the FIFA Club World Cup.
Sundowns beat Ulsan 1-0, impressed in a 4-3 loss to Borussia Dortmund, and then bowed out of the group stage with their heads held high with a 0-0 draw to Fluminense. It was the subsequent departure of Lucas Ribeiro Costa and lack of preparation for the 2025-26 season which began to expose cracks under the surface.
Managing heart vs mind
A superb tactician does not become a poor one overnight, but in moments such as these, emotional control of heated situations can be lost.
Cardoso had managed the team superbly when momentum was with them, but now finds himself in uncharted territory with Sundowns — trailing Orlando Pirates by three points in the Betway Premiership and needing a win to avoid a shock group stage elimination from the CAF Champions League.
As a tactician, he is capable of standing on his own two feet without looking to anybody else for examples. He has, of course, rubbed shoulders with many of the world’s best coaches in the world’s best leagues already.
Any coach who came up through the ranks at FC Porto, assisted the esteemed Paulo Fonseca at Deportivo La Coruña and Shakhtar Donetsk — and went on to be head coach of Rio Ave, Nantes, Celta Vigo, AEK Athens and Espérance — should be more than capable of finding solutions to pure football problems.
However, the current moment is not one which can be turned around by tactics alone. Rather, Cardoso will have to dig deep within himself and convince his players to rediscover their winning psyche… something Mokwena was brilliant at during difficult times at Sundowns.
A shrewd tactician in his own right, Mokwena’s greatest strength was his ability to convince players to push themselves to their limits for him.
An example was highlighted by Teboho Mokoena in an interview with ESPN, who recounted a wake-up call Mokwena gave him early in his Sundowns career – crediting Mokwena’s man management for pushing him to find his best form.
“I think Sailor (Khuliso Mudau) won the ball and I took a shot out of nowhere and then it went elsewhere. He (Mokwena) asked me: ‘Do you think it was the proper way to take that shot?,'” recalled Mokoena.
“I was like: ‘Yeah, in that moment.’ He said: ‘Did you see the effort that Sailor [put in] tackling that guy and winning the ball? Then, you just kick the ball out of nowhere and take a shot. You must make the players believe in you – not the other way around – because you are new here.'”
Key to Mokwena’s success at Sundowns was that he knew when it was time to challenge his players, and also when it was time to be bold in supporting them. A key example of the latter was his decision to elevate Cassius Mailula, who was 21 years old at the time, into a regular starting role right after being handed sole head coaching duties late in 2022.
Mokwena had previously co-coached the team along with Mngqithi from 2020-2022. However, the duo had initially been appointed “with the opinion of Manqoba Mngqithi prevailing when there isn’t consensus,” as per the club – and then Mokwena was subsequently promoted two years later after a poor start to 2022-23.
At a difficult time for the club, the decision to give more game time to Mailula — now at KV Kortrijk — played a major role in restoring Sundowns’ momentum and setting them on course for another dominant season.
Bafana Bafana head coach Hugo Broos alluded to Mokwena’s man-management skills, dealing with a deep squad, a year ago when he said: “These 35 players can make up three teams that would be top in many African leagues.
“So, the quality of players is there, but it is also difficult to manage 35 players, and he did it indeed for the better part of three years.
“I never heard of players being unhappy, even though I’m sure that some were unhappy, but problems between him and his players never came out.
“On top of all of that, his results were very good, except, of course, and this was the big disappointment, he never made it to the [Champions League] final.”
Cardoso feeling the heat
Cardoso proved with his back-to-back victories over Mokwena that he is capable of outsmarting even top class coaches in pure football terms. However, to survive the storms Mokwena was able to steer the club through requires an altogether different form of intelligence, and it is up to Cardoso to demonstrate.
He has never had a stint at a club longer than his current 60-game spell at Sundowns – with his previous longest period in charge being his first at Rio Ave, which lasted 42 games. He would later return for a second 20-game spell.
Some of his comments in recent weeks have suggested he has been feeling the pressure from multiple angles, including supporters who have not bought into his methods.
Cardoso alluded to this when he told the media after the draw with Lupopo: “We need to go to eat; we need to go to rest, to travel quick, go home, receive the love of the beloved ones we have at home and then hope that at the next match, we have a full stadium with only one thought: to support the team, not support nothing more.”
A major subplot has emerged with the suspension of a performance analyst amid allegations of tactical information being leaked to Saturday’s opponents.
“I hope the opponent doesn’t guess or know how we are going to play. I hope that is controlled so we can make it a fair game from our side,” Cardoso had said prior to the news emerging.
Widespread reports claim the analyst in question denied the allegations. Without jumping to conclusions on whether or not he was guilty, the reports surfacing are bound to add to what should be an emotionally charged affair.
In football terms, Cardoso will have a good idea of what to do to get the job done. In terms of managing his players through the stress, the jury is still out.
