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The tickets for both legs are sold out. More than half a million fans queued for seats at the Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium in Rabat for the second leg on May 24, a number that tells you what AS FAR's appearance in this final means to Moroccan football and to a club that has spent 41 years returning to this stage. In Pretoria, Mamelodi Sundowns confirmed this week that Loftus Versfeld is full and asked supporters to arrive in yellow. Tomorrow's first leg begins in a stadium that is sold out and charged with ten years of expectation.
Sundowns last won the CAF Champions League in 2016. Since then, this club has built the most dominant domestic operation on the continent, has appeared at two consecutive CAF finals, and has come away from both without the trophy. The 2025 final defeat to Pyramids, 3-2 on aggregate, is the specific wound that tomorrow's match reopens. Most of the players who lost that final are still here. Cardoso, who was not the coach in 2025, joined this season and has driven the squad back to the same stage by the same route: 1-0 away, 1-0 at home against Esperance in the semi-final, controlled and unspectacular and exactly as a team should manage a knockout tie.
The cost of getting here in nine matches over 21 days is written on the injury list. Grant Kekana is suspended, his ban carried over from the semi-final second leg. Mothobi Mvala remains unavailable from a long-term injury. Keanu Cupido is doubtful after picking up a knock against Kaizer Chiefs on May 6. Three centre-backs either out or uncertain heading into the biggest match of the season. "No team played seven games in 21 days," Cardoso told reporters on Friday, as quoted by Afrik-Foot. "FAR Rabat has more rest days." He is correct. AS FAR's final domestic fixture before the continental showdown was postponed to give them additional preparation time. Sundowns had no such consideration.
Brayan Leon and the Run That Defines This Season
The most important statistic in tomorrow's match preview is simple. Brayan Leon has scored in each of his last four CAF Champions League starts. According to CAF Online's official match facts, no player on record since 2016 has scored in five consecutive starts in the competition. He arrived from Independiente Medellin in January, largely unknown to South African football audiences. Fifteen goals in 24 matches across all competitions later, he is the player Sundowns build their biggest moments around.
The semi-final second leg captured what makes him unusual. His penalty against Esperance was saved. He scored from the rebound before the goalkeeper or any Esperance defender could respond. It was not the save that defined his character in that moment. It was the five seconds after it. That kind of composure in a continental knockout tie is what Cardoso has built his attack around, and tomorrow AS FAR's goalkeeper Ahmed Tagnaouti, who has prevented 4.6 goals above expectation from his 25 saves this season, faces the player most likely to extend that run to five consecutive scoring starts.
Midfielder Teboho Mokoena is also central to what Sundowns produce. According to CAF Online, he has been involved in 42 open play shot ending sequences in this season's competition, the most of any player and at least 17 more than any AS FAR player in the same category. He connects the defensive structure to the attacking moments and gives Cardoso's system its tempo. Keeping him available and sharp after nine matches in 21 days is the fitness question that sits alongside the injury concerns at centre-back.
AS FAR: Why Underestimating Them Is a Mistake
The narrative around this final has focused, understandably, on Sundowns. But AS FAR have done something genuinely difficult to reach Pretoria. They eliminated Pyramids, last year's CAF Champions League winners, in the quarter-finals, beating them 3-2 on aggregate. They beat domestic rivals RS Berkane in an all-Moroccan semi-final. They have not lost a first-half goal in the entire competition. They have conceded just five goals in ten matches, the fewest of any side in the tournament this season. Their defensive record is not luck. It is a system.
Head coach Alexandre Santos, speaking exclusively to CAF Online this week, gave the clearest summary of his approach. "We know very well the strength of our opponents. They are a well-organised team with great continental experience. We are focusing on tactical discipline, reducing mistakes and making the most of the opportunities that come our way." Santos has used the week to prepare AS FAR physically and mentally for a first leg at Loftus Versfeld that he knows will be noisy, pressured, and tilted toward the home side from the opening minutes. His task is to ensure that pressure does not become a goal before his side has the chance to settle.
AS FAR have won just two of their 12 away CAF Champions League matches historically. That road record is the most significant weakness in their profile. Sundowns at home, unbeaten in 11 matches across the last two Champions League seasons, represent the sternest test of it. But Santos also noted something in his pre-match comments that carries tactical weight: "When you reach the final, it means you deserve to be there." His squad arrived at Loftus Versfeld for a walkthrough on Saturday believing that. It is the right mentality for a team going into the first leg of a final as the side expected to defend, absorb, and survive.
The First Leg Logic
Jayden Adams, Sundowns midfielder, framed the objective for tomorrow with the kind of directness coaches prefer their players to avoid but supporters appreciate. "The plan is to win our game here at home. When we go to Morocco it will be difficult. North African teams are very difficult to beat at home. So in the first leg we must focus on ourselves and play our game. If we do not win, we will go to Rabat and fight there for the team," he told the South African press this week.
That framing carries a practical acknowledgement: Sundowns know Rabat on May 24 will be the harder venue. The second leg tickets sold out before the first leg was played. More than half a million people tried to get into that match. The atmosphere AS FAR will generate in Morocco in a week's time is the reason tomorrow's first leg matters so much. A comfortable home win tomorrow reduces the pressure significantly. A narrow advantage keeps the tie alive for 90 minutes in one of African football's most intense atmospheres. A draw sends Sundowns to Rabat needing a result in conditions that have historically favoured North African sides.
CAF Champions League finals have been tight in the first leg across the competition's recent history. Only two of the last five have produced more than two goals combined. The statistical probability points toward a narrow margin tomorrow. Both Cardoso and Santos know this. The match they are preparing for is one where a single goal, from either side, could be the difference between control and pressure heading into the second leg.
The winners receive $6 million USD, a 50% increase on previous prize money confirmed by CAF President Motsepe this week. They also qualify for the 2026 FIFA Intercontinental Cup and the 2029 Club World Cup, the expanded version that FIFA has positioned as the centrepiece of its new global club calendar. For Sundowns, those prizes are secondary to the ten-year wait ending. For AS FAR, they represent everything a club from Rabat could not have imagined accessing when they last stood in a CAF final in 1985.
Loftus Versfeld. Sunday. 16h00 local. The first leg of the 2026 CAF Champions League final starts tomorrow.
