Miguel Cardoso blasts Loftus pitch as Golden Arrows clash looms | OneFootball

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Cardoso voices displeasure with Loftus surface

Photo: Sydney Mahlangu/ BackPagePix

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has slammed the playing surface at his team's home ground, Loftus Versfeld Stadium.

This comes after a vital win over Sekhukhune United in the capital over the weekend, which saw the defending champions draw level with log leaders Orlando Pirates on 41 points.

With the title race intensifying, Cardoso says he prefers his troops to play with calm despite pressure to retain the championship they won for eight seasons in a row.

“What I want my team to have permanently is pleasure when they play. I don't want my team to enter any match feeling pressure to get a result and not allowing them to express the football, the joy, the pleasure, the quality they have in the best way,” said the Downs mentor.

"We have to play with freedom, we have to play with joy, we have to play with a smile - that is Sundowns' DNA. It's how we can get out of the bubble or the pressure and express the best qualities that we have, that's what I want because when it happens usually we play very well.

Despite recently guiding Sundowns to crucial victories at Loftus, the former Esperance de Tunis boss voiced his displeasure with the pitch, calling for a permanent alternative home venue.

“I don't know if you understood but this pitch is again in very bad conditions. It's horrible to play in a [league] match like this, it's mud, purely mud - we're stepping on mud and that touches also the quality of the game,” Cardoso added.

"Sundowns has to find a solution that can be permanent regarding the venue where we play. We cannot expect a team to win the Champions League and playing on a pitch like this because it's not the level where we should stand.

"So, that will also not help us in our home matches because indeed today [Sunday vs Sekhukhune] was absolutely catastrophic and we had to be again strong and try to resist all those things. But we need to play with pleasure because that makes the football we play the one we want to show, the one that guides us to results and the one that allows the players to put the best they have outside and that's also the one that excites our fans.

"But obviously it's more easy when we play at FNB, it's more easy to play when we play in Durban in the stadium where we played [vs AmaZulu], it's more easy to play when we play in pitches that allow good, quality, high-level of players to show the best they have because in pitches like this we stay with 80% of our capacity or less.

Interestingly, Sundowns will host Golden Arrows in a Betway Premiership tie at Loftus Versfeld Stadium on Wednesday (19h30).