TS Galaxy win a gift for player management insists Miguel Cardoso

The Brazilians thumped Galaxy 4-1 in the Betway Premiership on Saturday night and were out of sight before half-time, allowing Cardoso an opportunity to bring on some of his substitutes early.

With striker Victor Letsoalo sent off prior to the break, the clash was heavily one-sided as Sundowns enjoyed a numerical advantage.

Cardoso admits he was able to have to luxury to rest players for the two games against Sekhukhune United and Kaizer Chiefs.

"After we scored 2-0, you have expectations that might happen but I didn't think about that but after you score the fourth, you should work for that because you should understand that even with the 3-1, if you score the fourth, the game is finished and you can go on that plan,” Cardoso said.

“So that dream could become true or that opportunity could appear during the game, that's why I push the boys to try to enter strong in order to score the fourth goal because after the fourth, the opponent would give up completely [on equalising].

“It is almost impossible at this level, it can happen but not easily. So, I agree with you, it was good that we could manage players."

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Sundowns suffered a 1-0 defeat to the same side less than two weeks ago in Nelspruit, and Cardoso says he had a different expectation to how the second meeting between the two sides would turn out.

"I smile a little bit because the way the match started is not normal. It's not normal for a match to start with both in favour then immediately take one against and when you are in heaven, you can't put your feet on the ground but I think we started the game very well,” he added.

“Then we immediately got an outcome from the fact that we started very well, we knew how to play this game after we played last week against TS Galaxy, we knew what kind of game we had to play.

“Basically, when we played, we knew what kind of game we had to play but TS Galaxy can be very tricky, it can be really tricky because it seems you are in control and they can find spaces to penetrate your defence.

“So, that's how they found space to make a goal and then it was important to manage the emotions in order for us to keep on going and not run away from the plan that we had. Due to that we scored the fourth goal."