Ruthless Sundowns all-terrain machine revved up to run Chiefs ragged

During February, the ruthless Mamelodi Sundowns scored four goals in several matches, prompting fans to compare them to all-conquering 4x4s on the toughest terrain.

This prodigious Sundowns machine, with Portuguese mentor Miguel Cardoso at the helm, will be running full tilt at the vulnerable Kaizer Chiefs in Saturday's Premiership match at the Lucas Moripe Stadium in Atteridgeville.

Starting with Golden Arrows on February 2, Sundowns won 4-0 and followed this up with scores of 4-1 (Orlando Pirates, February 8), 4-1 (TS Galaxy on February 22), and most recently against 4-2 against Sekhukhune this past Wednesday).

After their match in Polokwane earlier thsi week, the Sundowns squad returned to Johannesburg in the early hours of Thursday morning. Cardoso said the players returning from Polokwane were given the day off and would report for training on Friday. The rest of the squad trained on Thursday.

Cardoso reminded the media at Thursday's pre-match presser that when he previously mentioned the team only had a 20-minute pre-match training session, he wasn't being disrespectful towards the opposition.

"We prepare for matches in the best way under the circumstances. Today (Thursday), the focus is obviously on recovery, and the players who played in Polokwane stayed at home to rest," said Cardoso.

"You might imagine when you arrive at 3 o'clock in the morning, the most important thing is to release the players to get the energy they need and the support of their families and loved ones.

"There was a group of players that trained today. I was here early in the morning to prepare for Friday's training session.

"I was told some of you joked that I was being pretentious by saying I prepared for a match in 20 minutes. It is 20 minutes because there's no chance to do much more. It is 20 minutes of tactical work, and the rest is warm-up. This way, you prepare the boys for the level they need to reach in the session."

Cardoso said the technical staff would be working flat out to prepare the team strategy for the match.

"It will be a hard day's night, like the song says, because there's a lot of work we must do," said Cardoso. "In that 20-minute session, we must condense all the information. We must prepare videos for players for the meetings we will have throughout the day and on the day of the match.

"Saturday's match is at 3.30pm, rather than at night, so there is not much time to plan," said Cardoso. "We will try to cope with all the variables that must be considered on match day to create our strategic approach. We want to be as strong as possible to put ourselves at the level needed to win the match, of course."

Cardoso was not flattered that his team was considered the out-and-out favourite in this crunch fixture, which was sold out eight days ago.

"If I accept the tag of favourites in this match, I would be trying to pass something to my players that they don’t need, and I’ll never accept that," said Cardoso.

"There are no favourites until the whistle is blown. They should go there and show whatever they have to show.

"In the end, you can say you were favourites, but not before the game. That doesn’t exist, and you need the right attitude from the beginning. I always say that by giving 100%, you can win everything, but at 99%, you can lose everything.

"I don’t allow the players to lose that 1% because if I allow it, it would be such a discomfort on my part."