Mamelodi Sundowns will kick off their 2026 Nedbank Cup campaign on Wednesday night with the Round of 32 when they host the Motsepe Foundation Championship side, Gomora United, in the round at Loftus Versfeld.
As they step into a new competition this season, Masandawana will look to reunite with a piece of silverware they last kept in their trophy cabinet in 2022 as they vie for glory starting from Wednesday.
In a press conference in Johannesburg, coach Miguel Cardoso looked ahead to their Nedbank Cup opener against the recently second tier promoted side.
“It’s a new competition but always the same expectations, level of responsibilities, and belief. We have a long way to go, but there is always the first step. For us, the first step is Gomora United – a team we recently played in a friendly and are an opponent we have to respect. So, I would say people should expect a very strong Mamelodi Sundowns line-up for this match,” the Portuguese tactician said.
“We have been working hard preparing for this match, not only on the analysis but also on the preparations of the match for us to understand the details of how to approach the match itself,” he continued.
With the trophy drought, especially where cup competitions are concerned, in recent years, coach Miguel sent a warning, stating teams should not rest on their laurels in this new campaign of this competition. He further promised to have a better side in the competition this season.
“The first mistake people can make is assume they will be hungrier than my players. We expect to be better than Gomora United, but if we don’t take ourselves to the limit, then this theory doesn’t exist. It stays in the books; it’s not on the field.”
“I think the team has indeed had issues managing cup competitions. We have tended to drop and hold on when we are in control of the result, and that’s something we need to change in terms of our mindset. What is important right now is to understand the significance of winning this trophy. We will need special energy to be able to win this cup, and the players know that. To get where we need to be starts with Gomora United, and we are hoping to get a positive result,” the coach concluded.
Mamelodi Sundowns are set to face Gomora United in the Round of 32 of the Nedbank Cup on Wednesday night at Loftus Versfeld. Kick-off has been scheduled for 19H00, live on SuperSport TV.
Even a blind person can see the team is going nowhere but ,our naive management believe in miracle because that is the only thing which can make us win cups,miracle.Are we a champions league winning team?
This useless coach is always complaining,maybe he needs to be told the truth about cv,which cup did he win with his impressive cv prior to coaching us? Cv Just because you have highest qualifications doesn’t make you a good coach and coach you are the epitome of that.Cv in football means nothing,if it had any significance the coach with higher qualification would always against those who has less impressive cvs.It is like with driving, not all who have driver’s licence are good drivers.We only broke records because we were still using our usual style.You started the league with the team and we have less points than we had at this stage last season,less players in Bafana,more goals conceded and we even have fewer goals than we had last season,everything about this team is going downwards this season
The onus lies with Thlopie Motsepe and mst stop being the small puppy of Fleming Berg.Truth b told we r just waiting for nothing to just get rid of Cardoso who always come with cheap excuses that has nothing to do with football.But everything 2 do with his stupidity and lack of football know-how.