Cardozo desperate to play for all the right reasons

Of all the IGA National Premier Leagues NSW Mens 1 competition players, Rockdale City Suns striker Richie Cardozo is perhaps one of the coolest, most laid back customers there is out there on the playing field – seriously, nothing fazes him!
But rule him out with injury, make him sit in the grandstand and watch on as his teammates fight tooth and nail in a bid to secure a maiden grand final berth and you’ll get to know a completely different side to Richie Cardozo.
Cruelly denied a chance to take the field in last Sunday’s preliminary semi-final game against Sydney United 58 FC due to a last minute ankle injury sustained in the Suns’ final training session, the normally cool, calm and collected Cardozo was forced to agonisingly watch the game from the stands as he literally rode every one of those 120 minutes and the ensuing penalty shootout.
“To be honest, never in my life have I been nervous playing a game – whether it’s senior debut, U17 World Cup, NSL or State teams, but watching that game last Sunday… well let’s just say I really don’t want to have to go through that experience again,” explained a relieved Cardozo who was ecstatic when teammate Nikola Taneski slipped the ball past Sydney United 58 keeper Liam Reddy in the last of the penalty shootout shots to secure his side a grand final berth.
Despite the injury setback, Cardozo remains optimistic of lining up for the Suns come next Sunday afternoon and openly states that whilst it is ultimately coach Branko Culina’s decision, ‘it will take something pretty dramatic’ for him to miss out on the ‘game of the season’.
“It’s been a while since I last played in a grand final,” conceded Cardozo.
“We came close in the Victorian Premier League a few years back when in 2011 we lost in the preliminary final on a penalty shootout and the year before we went down 2-1 again in the same game.
"I guess the last time I played in a grand final it was as a 17-year-old back in 2004 when I was playing for the Stanmore Hawks which we won, so yeah, it’s been a long time since I last played in one which makes me all that more determined to play in this grand final.”
While the Suns may have their work cut out for them come Sunday against the in-form Bonnyrigg White Eagles, Cardozo faces his own personal battle as he races the clock against injury in a bid to play in his first grand final in almost ten years, but should he make the field and the Suns eventually prevail as victors then Cardozo has promised to celebrate by “thanking God for what has just happened and the season that has just gone, and in the same breath, asking for forgiveness for what is about to occur…”
Let’s just hope for the Suns’ sake that their star striker is fit and ready to play – because we’d hate to see what a grand final in the grandstand would do to someone like Cardozo!      
-By Gary McDonald