Sundowns went into the halftime break trailing after a strike from Flavio da Silva, before Brayan Leon rescued a point for the Brazilians in a heated encounter dominated by crunching tackles and stoppages.
Cardoso’s frustration was compounded early in the game when defender Keanu Cupido was stretchered off in the 15th minute after a dangerous challenge from Siphesihle Ndlovu, who avoided a red card despite the severity of the tackle.
“It’s quite difficult to comment because many things could’ve been said but I need to take a better look on TV, what is clear is that… let’s just think about what happened in Pirates’ match against Chiefs to be against two broken shoulders,” Cardoso told SuperSport TV.
“It was a fight that the referee has an obligation to control, this is not the football we want for sure to be played officiated. I don’t really want to comment much more. I think the beginning of the match, the first 20 minutes was just a fight kicking, looking for the players, man and kicking, kicking, second match.”
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The Brazilians coach emphasised that match officials need to take extra steps to prepare for matches.
“Referees need to prepare themselves, make the homework so that they know what they come for and they can control the game. Because now we have players in the hospital, shoulders broken, arms broken, come on who will control this? Control the match in a proper way!” said the visibly frustrated Sundowns mentor.
Despite dropping points, Sundowns remain top of the league standings (65 points) with a three-point advantage over Orlando Pirates (62 points), although Cardoso insisted his side are focused only on winning their remaining fixtures.
“I think we did what we had to do; we tried to play football but it’s very difficult, very difficult. It’s a result we need to go for the next matches, win the matches and see what happens that’s it,” he added.
Sundowns will be looking to bounce back to winning ways following the Amakhosi draw when they host Siwelele FC in Pretoria on Saturday.