“I didn’t understand why because it was so far away on the other side, so it was very difficult for me to understand what happened,” Cardoso said.
Despite Divine Lunga being sent off in the 2-1 win over Magesi FC, Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso insists that his team does not have a poor disciplinary record.
The Brazilians came from a goal down after Wonderboy Makhubu had given Magesi the lead in the first half. Lucas Ribeiro and Tashreeq Matthews were on the scoresheet as Masandawana claimed all three points in the Betway Premiership match on Wednesday.
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The hard-fought victory was soured by Lunga’s red card in injury time. It’s unclear what led to the sending off, but Magesi’s Samuel Darpoh was also given his marching orders in what appeared to be an off-the-ball incident at Old Peter Mokaba Stadium.
“What I understood is that (Bathusi) Aubaas had the ball in his hand, gave it to Divine and he got a second yellow card. I didn’t understand why because it was so far away on the other side, so it was very difficult for me to understand what happened,” Cardoso said.
There’s a growing concern over Masandawana’s indiscretions that were also evident in their CAF Champions League group stage campaign. Aubrey Modiba was sent off on the stroke of full-time in the away match against AS FAR. Both Bathusi Aubaas and Khuliso Mudau did not finish the match against Raja Casablanca in Morocco.
“We’re not an ill-disciplined team. We got red cards away to Raja (Casablanca) for Aubaas. It was an unfortunate moment that was a clear red card, but it happens in the moment when he stepped on an opponent without any intention and got a red card,” Cardoso added.
“Mudau had a bad individual action and got a red card, but we’re a disciplined team, and most of all, we have a locker room of wonderful people. Sometimes I even tell them not to be naïve. For example, if you look at the goal of Magesi, we could’ve taken the ball out to finish the action.
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“Sometimes we want to continue playing, but football is a competition. It’s a fight on the pitch, but we don’t fight outside of the rules that the game allows us to. We’re a group of good men with the intention of always playing good football and doing things in the right way.”
