Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso questions why clash with Pirates was moved to Sunday

Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has questioned why their crunch Betway Premiership clash against Orlando Pirates is being played on Sunday and not Saturday. 

The Brazilians visit the Buccaneers at FNB Stadium on Sunday and Cardoso's preference was for the match to take place on Saturday to give some of his players a day to rest before reporting for national team camps.

Cardoso has Ronwen Williams, Grant Kekana, Aubrey Modiba, Khuliso Mudau, Teboho Mokoena, Bathusi Aubaas, Jayden Adams and Thapelo Morena in the Bafana squad for 2026 World Cup qualifiers against Lesotho and Benin next week. 

Peter Shalulile and Divine Lunga will be linking up with Namibia and Zimbabwe respectively. 

Cardoso said his players will travel straight to national camps after the match against Pirates and the ideal situation would have been to schedule the match a day earlier. 

“It is not good that this match [against Pirates] was put on Sunday because players will go immediately to the national team camp and this means they will not have time to rest,” said Cardoso. 

“Football players are not machines, they are human beings with families, social lives and physicality, they need to be respected. Sometimes we demand performances from players all the time even when they are not capable to perform in the best way. 

“Everybody is always pushing and it’s impossible to perform at the level we expect all the time. We have an experienced national team coach and he will understand he needs to rest players to have the performance we all want to see. 

“I want the national team of South Africa to win as much as possible because that is what I am working for.” 

After the Pirates match, Sundowns will turn their attention to the Champions League quarterfinal where they host Tunisian giants Esperance next month and Cardoso said they will have to cope. 

“We need to cope with the fact that they will get game time in the national team. We will have more players that will go to other national teams, such as Peter Shalulile and Divine Lunga, who are usually called up to their national teams. 

“We are here to manage it, it is my job and I will try to do it in the best way possible.” 

With all these, Cardoso is happy to have his players representing their national teams. 

“It is a pleasure for the club, myself and the staff to have such a number of players in the national team because that’s what we work for. I am also happy to see we have players in the U-20 and African Nations Championship (Chan) squads. 

“It is because of our work that players are on the level to be called up to the various national teams. It has an impact on us because we are going to play Champions League and we don’t know when we are going to play the Nedbank Cup match.”