Mamelodi Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso has criticised the playing conditions at Buffalo City Stadium after his side drew 1-1 with Chippa United.
A later goal from Antonio van Wyk saved Sundowns’ blushed to earn his side a 1-1 draw against a stubborn Chilli Boys side.
The draw keeps Sundowns top of the Betway Premiership table, with 20 points from eight matches so far this season.
Cardoso praised his players for showing commitment and fighting for the result, but questioned whether top-flight football can continue to be played in such conditions, arguing that it turned the encounter into more of a battle than a game of football.
“Look, these fans deserve they something different. It’s like you invite them to their home and then give them nothing to it. Horrible, horrible conditions to play football and remember that after the World Cup South Africa said that they want to reverse distance from Morocco,” Cardoso told SuperSport after the game.
“Well, not with this conditions- the distance from Morocco increase more and more because Morocco understood the conditions to play football, bring better game, increase the level of the players and allow the national teams to become better.
“It’s a hell of a job for Pitso Mosimane to do in the future if the players, the best teams to play in these pitches, it’s not proper to play football. We made our best, we fought with all the conditions we had. I think we were committed with the intentions to take three points from here and for sure in the end we are rewarded. But the reward came very late considering how the boys played during the match.
He continued, “We know that it’s their 4-3-3 that shifts very well and just bringing the teams like us to a pitch like this. Let’s see because the best teams that didn’t play here are competing with us and let’s see where the other one will play because at the moment, we’re just the only one from the top that play here.
“Because they just want the pitch to be small, if we could play in a seven-a-side pitch it would even be better and try it would even be perfect. It’s not the way to see things, I see things in a different way.
“I think we played a good match considering the situation, the slippery the pitch was, the difficulty, the dumpy that it was, it was more a fight game than a football, the way it should’ve been played. But I understand the arrogance of who wants to defend and who wants to close the spaces. But late with a little bit of a reward which is absolutely unfair,
“it’s already unfair to get a draw. It would be absolutely unfair to lose a match like this,” Cardoso concluded.
