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Cardoso’s reaction to Sibia Downs’ debut
Photo: Sarto Sibia
Mamelodi Sundowns head coach Miguel Cardoso has reacted to Thato Sibiya’s debut against Orbit College in the Betway Premier League.
The 19-year-old left-back played the entire 90 minutes and was awarded the man of the match award to cap off a brilliant performance.
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Looking back on Sibbia’s spectacular debut, Cardoso stressed the importance of timing and preparation when giving youngsters first-team opportunities.
“When you talk about a young player, the coach will set him up in different aspects and sometimes we talk about the speed of preparation and I think that is very important if the player is really ready to face the challenge of playing in a team like Mamelodi Sundowns and be successful,” he said.
“I think young players shouldn’t be given a chance if they’re not ready to succeed and we felt Sarto was ready and you didn’t follow our trip to Botswana [for charity tournament]but we, like other young players, have been preparing for him for some time.
“But Sarto gave us a great answer in the Botswana Championship game. It was also because we didn’t have Aubrey [Modiba] For us we have nothing sacred [Lunga]so it is definitely easier to promote him.
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“And then something came up that we thought was very important – the speed of the opportunity. So, when the opportunity presented itself, we felt the time was right, we felt ready, and then it was obviously important for the other teammates to help him. I thought he did a great job, so congratulations to him because he was the best player of the game.”
It is worth noting that Sibiya won the Africa Under-20 Cup of Nations (AFCON) with South Africa last year and was part of Chile’s World Cup squad, but Amarguita was eliminated in the round of 32.