Cup hangover: Why Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates paid the price for rotation in Nedbank Cup exit

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After their epic Betway Premiership clash last Wednesday, Mamelodi Sundowns and Orlando Pirates suffered humongous hangovers that paralysed their Nedbank Cup performances on Saturday.

The outcome of their lacklustre displays was defeats of monumental proportions, as both Sundowns and Pirates were strongly fancied to advance to the next round. Fresh from victories in two high-intensity matches against MC Alger and Pirates, Sundowns coach Miguel Cardoso made a staggering 10 changes to the team that faced TS Galaxy at a sold-out Solomon Mahlangu Stadium in KwaMhlanga.

TS Galaxy coach Adnan Beganovic said he was puzzled by the choice of an untried Sundowns combination, but he was delighted that goalkeeper Ronwen Williams was not in the team.

For most of the match, Sundowns were pale shadows of their former selves and on occasions were made to look ordinary. In his post-match reaction, a visibly upset Cardoso blamed costly errors for the defeat and questioned the playing standards of some of his players.

The victory was a wonderful turnaround for TS Galaxy, who came into the match having suffered three successive Premiership defeats.

Over in Soweto, the title-chasing Pirates followed Sundowns to the 2026 Nedbank Cup also-rans scrapheap. Pirates coach Abdeslam Ouaddou took a philosophical stance regarding the unexpected penalty defeat to Casric Stars, a lower-tier team. He attributed the outcome to the ‘magic of the cup’ and said knockout competitions are often unpredictable.

Ouaddou made four changes to the side that ran Sundowns close in the midweek clash. Incredibly, this team, although vastly superior on paper, could not break down the Casric Stars defence after 120 minutes of play. As the shoot-out unfolded, it ended in ‘death by penalty’ as three Pirates players missed their spot-kicks.

The fearless Casric Stars, nicknamed ‘The Believers’, prayed on the field before and after the match. A lot of what was said post-match in the Casric Stars camp suggests that their victory was down to ‘divine intervention’.

After the match, Bucs Mthombeni, the Casric Stars coach, said his ‘penalty takers nearly killed me’ as he reflected on the tension during the sudden-death penalty shoot-out.

As two of South Africa’s strongest clubs reel from these defeats, questions abound about the depth of their squads and their readiness to contend on multiple fronts. Saturday’s performances suggested they may have been suffering from more than just physical exhaustion; both teams struggled to find any rhythm, appearing distant shadows of their usual formidable selves.

The exit of the league's heavyweights serves as a stark reminder that in cup football, momentum is fragile and rotation is a gamble.

While the "Big 3" shift their focus back to the Premiership and continental duties, the Nedbank Cup now belongs to the dreamers and the "believers".