Golden Arrows fixture showed PSL at its best Miguel Cardoso

The Portuguese mentor has made a habit of highlighting poor playing surfaces across the Premier Soccer League, but this time made a point of applauding the groundsmen for getting it right.

Cardoso believes the Betway Premiership encounter was a true reflection of what domestic football can offer when teams are provided with quality facilities. 

"Let me praise both teams that played today, it was three matches in a row that we played against each other. Different things we saw a lot of work from the coaches on trying to bring something different, trying to find solutions that we never had but also congratulations because on a rainy day the pitch was in very good conditions last week, this week again,” Cardoso said. 

“I always speak and you know I'm very critical of the conditions of the matches I've played but I also like to praise the matches I play in good conditions. When you see a beautiful football game, well played from both sides like the last match we played in the middle of the week, fantastic also in Loftus. 

“Nowadays it's in fantastic conditions also and we could also see a beautiful match played by both teams, this should be highlighted, it should be praised because it's this way that South African football will continue to develop and that players will also have a chance to show themselves to the national team coaches." 

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Sundowns had to dig deep according to Cardoso having taken the lead and then allowing Arrows to level matters before Teboho Mokoena scored the winner.

"We didn't expect it to be easier, we knew obviously what would be very important to do on the pitch. We were not consistent so we will not make it during the 90 minutes as much as we wanted,” the coach added.

“I think we started very well until the 30th minute, we had the game in the way we wanted to play it. We could have had more chances or more opportunities to score because we spent a lot of time in the box, we had our shots. 

“We could have made the game easier for us with a second goal and then when that heavy rain came, we also started losing the ball too easily and we made the job easier for Golden Arrows. 

“Our dispossession in the pitch was not really to have a crowded middle because we know how strong they are there, we wanted to take the game more for the outside. 

“So that we could avoid losing balls in the centre where they could aggress us because as you know we have players that take the ball very strongly in the middle and can progress and can play outside or on the movement of Dion [Junior] and I think we lost a little bit that moment in the last 10 minutes of the first half. 

“Anyway, half time corrections talked so we could keep the pattern, that was something that I spoke with the boys, most important that we could never forget the memories we brought from the previous matches but we should not get stuck on them so we had to be creative in finding some solutions."