Furious Miguel Cardoso takes aim at fringe players insisting 'it’s time to go home, rest & understand who deserves opportunities' after TS Galaxy knocked Mamelodi Sundowns out of Nedbank Cup

Coach Miguel Cardoso stayed true to his word and rotated his squad against TS Galaxy in the Nedbank Cup Round of 16 outing.

However, things didn't go as planned as Sphamandla Ngwenya and Junior Zindoga sent Masandawana home as the Rockets won 2-0.

Coach Miguel Cardoso was unhappy with the way his players conceded the two goals, especially the 'avoidable' penalty.

 "I remember last year in the semi-final of this cup; we were winning 1-0 against Chiefs and we did a ball inside and we allowed them to score,” he said in his post-match interview.
"It’s unbelievable how you again give this ball inside for the goal, and then you suffer a penalty that’s also completely avoidable. The story of the game is exactly that, ourselves losing 2-0 and had to recover from that result.

“We did create four very good chances, but we didn’t score. If we had scored one goal, it would’ve been completely different. We can only complain to ourselves; there’s not much more to say," the former Esperance coach added.

The tactician further told off players who didn't rise to the occasion when needed the most.

"Look, we need to be objectively clear on the analysis, the goals that we suffered had to do with the line-up," Cardoso added.

"There are individual mistakes that you obviously cannot make. It’s time to go home and rest, please, and obviously understand who’s able to be on the level of those matches or not.

“Because we cannot make those mistakes, it means everything is wrong; it’s not just evaluation that we need to do, we need to go beyond that, but we also need to understand who deserves these opportunities that we’re giving them," the 53-year-old concluded.

Masandawana fans are worried that their team, for the first time in years, might end the season trophyless.

They have been inconsistent in the Premier Soccer League, where Orlando Pirates look like the real deal. 

In the CAF Champions League, the Brazilians have been far from convincing despite making the quarter-finals, where they are paired with Stade Malien.