Pirates coach bemoans lack of VAR in six-goal thriller

Rulani Mokoena

Sunday Sep 29, 2019. 12:00

The coach of South Africa Premier Soccer League side Orlando Pirates has called for the Video Assistant Referee (CAR) to be introduced into the league after his team were denied what looked a clear late penalty in their 3-3 draw with Cape Town City on Saturday.

Pirates had fought from 2-0 down to lead, only to be pegged back again at 3-3 before a late infringement in the City box might have gifted them the opportunity of going for the win.

“I need to see the last action clearly. I don’t know, maybe we need VAR,” he said after the game, before being shown the clip on a TV monitor pitch-side.

“Ja! Everyone sees it for themselves, I don’t have to comment about it, everybody sees, unfortunately.

“If he [City player] comes from behind like that and Thabiso [Monyane] is in front of the ball, is in control and inside the box, well I’m not in charge of the referees. I don’t talk about refereeing decisions to be honest.

“We focus on trying to improve the team. We can’t control those situations.”

If Mokwena is serious about the introduction of VAR, he need only go speak to his boss, club owner Irvin Khoza, who is also the chairman of the PSL.

The six-goal thriller comes after Pirates had lost their previous game 4-3 to BidVest Wits, showing some potency on attack but an obvious weakness in defence.

“The same week in and week out,” he said. “We started a little bit shaky, we go 1-0 down, we’re still shaky again. We go 2-0 down against a run of play a little bit, try to find our feet again and a bit of emotional stability which we struggled with at the beginning of the match.

“Once you’re 2-0 [down] you go a little bit and show character. We were the better team by far after the first 15 minutes. We should have won the match.”