Three red cards for one team in two games is not something you see often in the DStv Premiership, but this was Kaizer Chiefs' fate in ties against Mamelodi Sundowns and TS Galaxy.
Amakhosi mentor Cavin Johnson saw Given Msimango sent off in the 19th minute against Masandawana and five days later, had Edmilson Dove go for an early shower on the verge of half-time.
Later on in that match at the Peter Mokaba Stadium, reserve goalkeeper Brandon Petersen was also sent off for what appeared as dissent in reaction to a foul on Pule Mmodi.
Johnson is now of the view that there is a trend of poor officiating against his team – a concern that his Downs and Galaxy counterparts, Rulani Mokwena and Sead Ramovic have also highlighted.
“What a game of football, again, we got a red card and we played three quarters of the game with 10-man and we learned our lessons from last week (against Sundowns).
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“There are a lot of challenges with the decisions that are made against us. We will not talk about them but it is just for [everyone] to know that we had a lot of challenges in the last few games that Chiefs have played.
“Maybe it is deliberate or not [we don’t know] but we get a lot of decisions that don’t go our way.
“It is always difficult with 10-man at half-time but we got a freekick and Ranga converted that which is planned at training. It was a good game of football and I thought we deserved more out of it because of the effort.
“We have to give our players a lot of credit from last week’s performance to this week’s performance. We had more opportunities to win than to draw the game,” said Johnson.
Johnson appears to have a solution for poor officiating, which has been a prevalent subject in the league and cup competitions this season.
Johnson suggests that match officials should be subjected to a certain level of scrutiny.
“It is very difficult sometimes to criticize someone afterwards. In a football match we always criticize the players and the coaches, the medical doctors and everyone else, which is easy to do.
“I think what needs to be done is that we need to show a lot more, like how we show our players where they have gone wrong in a game and where they have gone right and we try to improve that.
“I think we need to take the officiating to another level where we actually show and ask them to explain why.
“It is very difficult to understand because he is also human. That is why I always say it is very difficult to criticise someone after the game. We can call anyone, it will still remain 2-2,” Johnson said.
After the hard fought 2-2 draw against The Rockets, Chiefs head to Durban where they will confront AmaZulu this weekend at the Moses Mabhida Stadium.
Kick-off is at 17:30.
Congratulations to the DStv Man of the Match: Ranga Chivaviro
— Kaizer Chiefs (@KaizerChiefs) May 7, 2024
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