Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso praised his players for “showing the badge” in a 3-1 comeback win against RB Leipzig at the Lucas Masterpieces Moripe Stadium on Friday.
The Brazilians hosted the German Bundesliga outfit in a post-season friendly to celebrate their CAF Champions League triumph with the Yellow Nation in Pretoria.
The Red Bulls got off to a good start when Samba Konate opened the scoring on 22 minutes, but a second-half fightback saw Bryan Leon (76′ 89′) bag a brace before Bennet Mokoena (90+2′) sealed the victory late on.
Cardoso was pleased with how organised Bafana Ba Style were in the first half to keep themselves in the contest before turning up the intensity in the second half.
“I think the first half was very good in terms of compromise from the team, trying to be always organised and have the ball as best as possible, we saw Denis [Onyango] giving the strongest example of how to keep the ball, being always available to play under big pressure,” the Portuguese tactician told SABC Sport.
“You saw a lot of numbers in the front but I told the boys they have to enjoy it and profit. It will be better to suffer a goal from a mistake than from a throw-in the front that can give a counter-attack and then the excitement came at half-time.
“They were feeling so comfortable, I told the guys let’s keep the rhythm, dynamic, discipline and let’s enjoy the game and try to bring the game as much as possible to our intensity.
“They released energy, let it flow – it’s a match without responsibility, well it’s a match with responsibility but no pressure with the result and we had a beautiful, beautiful game with a lot of boys showing [themselves].
“Bennet with a fantastic bend, Kutlwano [Lethlaku] was good in the first half – well there’s no space to speak about individuals when you see such a beautiful match like today.
“But I really want to leave a word to complement the players today. I think our president is very happy because they asked us to really try to show the badge.”
