Cardoso was part of the recent Bafana squad that sealed their places in Egypt for the 2019 AFCON, after beating Libya in hostile conditions in Tunisia two weeks ago.
The 30-year-old centre-back thus experienced the jubilation in the changeroom following the win and is aware that his place is not guaranteed for the tournament kicking off in June.
He thus feels their remaining games in the league and Nedbank Cup could prove decisive in whether he makes the cut, called on his club teammates to use this as motivation to get themselves back into the setup.
“It’s good being part of the [Bafana] setup again, but obviously my place is not cemented there. I’ve still got quite a while and a few games in which I’ve just got to be consistent, and hopefully I’ll be back and called-up to the AFCON side,” said Cardoso.
“I’m sure there are a lot of players wanting to be part of the squad for the tournament, and we [Chiefs] also have a lot of good players in our team that can be there.
“If we can keep consistency with the team going forward and we all work together, I mean, we have more than enough internationals in our team.
“We’ve got ‘Rama’ [Mphahlele], ‘Itu’ [Khune] – unfortunately he’s injured, Lebo [Manyama] – hopefully he can get back to fitness because I think he’s a great player, ‘Tight’ [Molangoane] – he’s almost back, he’s training with the team. So, it’s a bit of motivation for them as well as myself.”