Miguel Cardoso wary of Borussia Dortmund superiority

The Brazilians take on Bundesliga giants Borussia Dortmund in their second FIFA Club World Cup Group F encounter at TQL Stadium in Cincinnati this evening (18:00 SA time).

Usually dominant in ball possession in the Betway Premiership and CAF Champions League, Sundowns are likely to encounter a much tougher test against a European force, and Cardoso 

"I think we really need to understand that it's not about whether we're going to play with or without the ball, we know that the more equal the teams are, the more they split the moments of the game," said Cardoso.

"But we also know as South Africans, and being one of the few strongest teams in Africa in general, throughout the season we don't have a lot of games where we have inferior moments of possession.

"But obviously it will require from us, I think mostly mentally, the capacity to be resilient and stay organised, even when we're just waiting for the moment to get the ball again.

"At that moment, we'll need to keep the mindset of being what we are and having it, and playing the way we usually do against a team that is very aggressive, mostly in our first third of the pitch.

"They are a team that scores 30 percent of their goals from counter-pressing, so Dortmund don't mind losing the ball because they work hard to get it back immediately and then score from there.

"But we also know that we have many things to put on the pitch, so we need to have the right focus on that, not because there's one moment that we have to play that the other moments should not happen, they have to happen and we have to highlight them."

READ: What Dortmund expect from Mamelodi Sundowns