Former Premier Soccer League referee Victor ‘The Principal’ Hlungwani believes Mamelodi Sundowns benefited in their Nedbank Cup semi-final win over Stellenbosch FC.
Masandawana ended Stellies’ 25-match unbeaten run with a 2-1 win in front of a packed Danie Craven Stadium, but there were several talking points in the match.
The first appeared in the 26th minute when Sundowns left-back Divine Lunga was adjudged to have fouled Stellies winger Devin Titus.
With Lunga already being on a yellow card, many thought he should’ve been sent but the assistant referee got injured in the same situation and while the match officials appeared distracted, Rulani Mokwena quickly substituted his left-back, who should’ve been sent off, according to Hlungwani.
“We’re talking about SPA – Stopping a Promising Attack,” the Principal explained on SABC’s Soccerzone.
“If a player does that you get a yellow card, especially when there is space for the player to attack.
“In the seventh minute, Divine Lunga holds a player [Titus] on the face that was supposed to attack the space, Jelly Chavani gives a yellow card – it is a yellow card for SPA.
“Let’s go to the second one where we have another SPA – Divine Lunga again, the player [Titus] was tripped and there was also holding and the player is going down.
“The referee was supposed to give a yellow card or a second yellow card to Divine Lunga.
“Why didn’t the referee give a yellow card? Look at the assistant referee getting an injury. I think that disrupted the referee because the referee was more concerned about the safety of his colleague. Then he forgot that there was SPA.
“Then there is what we call tactical awareness of the game – the coach [Mokwena] realises there is SPA, this player is going to be sent off. What does he do? While the ref is busy checking his fellow colleague, he’s substituting the player.”
Once the assistant referee was substituted the following free-kick resulted in the ball being in the back of the Sundowns goal but Iqraam Rayners was judged offside – another wrong call, according to Hlungwani.
“On the same match, Rayners scored a beautiful goal, he receives the ball and he scores,” he continued.
“We draw the line and we see there is a [Sundowns] player on the far side that put Rayners onside. The goal should’ve been allowed because there is no offside.”