While Orlando Pirates contrived to create 80% of the scoring chances and generally outplayed their opponents, it was Supersport United coach Pitso Mosimane who insisted ”we wuz robbed” after a curious, paradoxical 1-1 draw in the big Premier Soccer League (PSL) showdown at Ellis Park in Johannesburg on Wednesday night.
And while Mosimane’s team finished the game battered and bamboozled, it was not without justification that the straight-talking Supersport coach questioned the decisions of referee Jonas Nhlapo, who had decided the issue and prevented his team from winning.
Mosimane claimed Pirates should not have been awarded the corner that resulted in Phumudzo Manhenze heading home a 64th-minute equaliser.
Then, with every last soul in the 15 000-strong crowd — as well as the players and officials from both teams — in no doubt that Supersport substitute Daine Klate had scored the winner in the 84th minute from a long-range free kick, Nhlapo signified to everyone’s amazement that it was not a goal.
The only justifiable explanation afterwards was that Klate had eluded a bemused Francis Chansa in Pirates’ goal with an indirect free kick — but even this point was not conclusive and aroused heated debate.
Supersport, ironically in view of Pirates’ territorial advantage, opened the score in the 34th minute with one of the most scintillating goals of the season, with Abram Raselemane’s 25m shot curving into the roof of the net like a guided missile.
However, Supersport lost Raselemane and fellow striker Lungisani Ndlela with injuries and recently signed Jabu Pule ran out of steam and was replaced for the second half.
For the rest, however, much of the match was transformed into a contest between Pirates and Supersport goalkeeper Calvin Marlin, who saved breathtakingly on more than half-a-dozen occasions when a goal seemed a formality.
On other occasions, Lebohang Mokoena and Lucas Thwala hit the woodwork for Pirates as the Supersport goal led a charmed life and the Buccaneers surrendered their log lead to Mamelodi Sundowns.
”That’s soccer,” declared Mosimane afterwards. ”Refereeing blunders are not meant to be part of the game.”
Katongo goal thwarts Chiefs
On the evidence of his awesome exhibition of gymnastics after scoring the goal that gave struggling Jomo Cosmos a 1-1 PSL draw against Kaizer Chiefs at the Rand Stadium on Wednesday afternoon, Zambian international striker Christopher Katongo is wasting his talents on the football field.
Although thoroughly deserved on the run of play, Katongo’s 68th-minute, close-range goal was a scrambled affair.
His consequent celebration, however, was the highlight of a dull, sometimes dreary afternoon.
Chiefs entered the game as joint log leaders, with Cosmos firmly ensconced in bottom place.
But, on the run of play — particularly during the second period — anyone in the modest 6 000-strong crowd could have been forgiven for imagining the positions were reversed.
What is more, Chiefs’ second-minute, tap-in goal from Ivorian Serge Djiehoua was almost entirely the product of an inexplicable lapse by Cosmos goalkeeper Walter Khumalo, who fumbled a gently rolling ball when no danger threatened.
After a string of poor results, Jomo Cosmos’ owner-coach, Jomo Sono, reputed not to be unsympathetic to the influence of such factors, must have been firmly resigned to the fact that someone had blighted his team with an abundance of bad muti.
Instead, Cosmos came back after half-time a revitalised team, and with Liberian international Anthony Llaffour running rings round Chiefs’ defence, Cosmos came within a whisker of earning their first victory of the season.
Four minutes after their equalising goal, Laffour spreadeagled the Chiefs’ defence once again — only for Katongo’s close-range shot to be deflected over the crossbar by goalkeeper Rowen Fernandez.
Chiefs played the game in the midst of the succession of disciplinary and court hearings relating to the vandalism and violence of their supporters — and how exactly they should be punished as a consequence.
There were no problems from the supporters this time — not something that could be echoed about the drab performance of their players. — Sapa