With the 2025/26 Betway Premiership season set to get rolling at 15:00 on Saturday, Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso opens up on a 'big challenge' towards a new record.
After opening their season with a 4-0 win over Richards Bay FC in the MTN8, there is little doubt that Sundowns go into another league season as overwhelming favourites for the championship.
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Masandawana are oozing confidence after catching the attention of the world with their performances at the FIFA Club World, although they could not progress past the group stage.
Cardoso will be in the dugout from matchday 1 for the first time in the PSL, as he seeks to become the first coach to achieve an 'invincible' season in Mzansi's topflight.
"It's a big challenge to make a championship without losses. It would be fantastic and a big challenge, I think. We need to understand also that through the years other teams are getting stronger," Cardoso said on The Pitchside Podcast.
"It's clear to see the work being done in South Africa now that I'm here for eight months, but that shouldn't take from us the ambition to try to achieve high standards and looking for the best.
"I always say if we aim to the top, even if you don't arrive there you will be close, and I think that's the mindset we need to continue to develop - not to stand on what we did but on what we can do.
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"We're still winning trophies and individual awards, but we should not sit on the Club World Cup performance but just take it as a standard to go forward. Ambition, ambition, ambition," the Portuguese gaffer continued.
Under Rulani Mokwena in 2023/24, The Brazilians were unbeaten for 29 league games (which stands as a record in the PSL) before a near-invincible campaign was spoiled by a loss to Cape Town City on the final day.
Photo: Lefty Shivambu/Gallo Images
