Cardoso: “There was something missing”

Cardoso: “There was something missing”
Mamelodi Sundowns players reacts in disappointment after defeat during the CAF Champions League 2024/25 2nd Leg Final match between Pyramids and Mamelodi Sundowns at 30 June Stadium in Cairo, Egypt on 1 June 2025 ©Ayman Aref/BackpagePix

by Staff Reporter

Monday Jun 02, 2025. 11:00

Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso believes his team did not compete at the level they should have in the CAF Champions League final on Sunday.


Sundowns fell 2-1 to Egyptian side Pyramids FC in Cairo on Sunday night after drawing the first leg of the final 1-1 in Pretoria last weekend.


“The fact that we are not happy, or that I’m not happy, doesn’t mean that I’m not proud of everything we did to get to this final. But at the same time, I think that there was something missing for us to be at the level that we needed to be, in order to win,” said Cardoso after the match.


Despite not being satisfied with his side’s performance, Cardoso expressed his pride in his team and their achievement of making it to the final of the continental competition.


“What I feel is that in some moments, we didn’t find a way to compete at the level that we should have competed at, in order to win the trophy. Anyway, it’s not many people that play Champions League finals and that have the right to win a medal,” Cardoso said.


“What I mean is that throughout the tournament, our players were able to show a great commitment, a great attitude, and also quality, and guiding them to the final obviously makes me, as I said, very proud.


“The feeling when you play a final and you don’t win is obviously very bitter, very disappointing. But as I said before the match, the sensation that pervades for me is that I have a wonderful group of men in my locker room, that obviously at this moment are suffering,” he stated.


Admitting that Pyramids denied his side the opportunity to play their style of football, Cardoso also stated that his side did not rise to meet Pyramid’s intensity for much of the game.


“We didn’t play at the level that we should have played. And we needed to get up and play in a different way, to be able to fight.


“And when we did, when we got up and we looked them in the eyes and we didn’t worry about what was on the other side, how they were playing, we just worried about what we had to do. We could even have won, because in the second half … in the last 20-25 minutes, we came close to the goal that would have given us a victory,” Cardoso said.


“But I have to be honest with myself and with my players and I think that the feeling I have about not being at the right level, they also have,” he added.


After a long 2024/25 season, Masandawana’s season is not over yet. Sundowns will now turn their attention to the upcoming FIFA Club World Cup, which will take place in the United States of America from 14 June to 13 July.


By Nic Gleeson







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