Miguel Cardoso opens up on public backing from Sundowns chairman | OneFootball

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Cardoso reacts to vote of confidence from Downs boss

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Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has opened up on the public endorsement from the club's chairman Thlopie Motsepe.

The Portuguese mentor has been under scrutiny from a section of the Masandawana faithful who are calling for his exit amid a perceived below-par 2025/26 campaign.

Sundowns will finish another season without lifting a domestic cup competition, with their last triumph dating back to the 2021/22 term, and Cardoso has highlighted the factors behind this campaign's cup woes.

“Look, I think obviously that we wanted something more than what we have in hand at the moment regarding the season. Unfortunately, we lost two cups on penalties. If you see the matches we played with Pirates we didn't lose one single match against them in football played [in 90 minutes], we lost on penalties and unfortunately one of them gave us an exit from one of the cups,” said the Downs mentor.

"And then we played Marumo, we exited another cup in a match they didn't almost enter our box, they shot zero times on target against us and they took us to extra time in a moment that the team didn't have the solutions that we have now, also offensively. So, a difficult moment and unfortunately we got out of the Nedbank Cup in a match that was more than already spoken about - I don't want to speak about it.

On Motsepe's vote of confidence, the former Esperance de Tunis boss expressed gratitude, stressing that the support is a testament of the alignment and unity at Chloorkop.

“I think that obviously we are aligned inside the club, it's clear. The chairman is not only a fantastic human being but also an intelligent person that can understand football and is also a person that speaks a lot with me, a lot with everybody in the club. So, we have a vision together with the sports direction that is very clear on how we go forward and it's from the fact that we communicate properly that we understand the moments we live together,” Cardoso added.

"Most importantly is that the work of who is in the club is supported because there's no one else to solve the problems but the ones that are here. So, we feel that support, I think it was clear that you understood also from recent declarations from Ronwen [Williams] and from Themba [Zwane] how the chairman gave support to the team in a moment that we needed so much to get results - I'm speaking about MC Alger, then the Pirates match and what followed from there.

"We understand that the intention from everybody is that we can get all the trophies that we can. It's always our aspiration, always our hard work but sometimes things don't go that way. I also would like my son to have always fantastic grades in university and sometimes he's not able to get them but what we usually react as a family is supporting him so that he can move forward and he finished graduation and now he's a mechanical engineer.

He concluded: "So, in a family like the one we are in of Sundowns, we support each other in the good moments, but we support each other especially in the ones we feel are not so good so that we stick together and we don't lose the direction of where we want to go. Obviously, I'm very thankful for that support. It comes from the same direction as my work that is very hard, very professional and with a high commitment and obviously that what we need is the support of our fans. We really need obviously the support of our fans, they are a very important part of ourselves.