The match officials who took charge of the World Cup qualifier between Bafana Bafana and Ghana have received widespread criticism for their decision in the Percy Tau offside call.
Bafana secured a narrow 1-0 win over Ghana and moved to the top of Group G with four points from their first two World Cup qualifying games.
The score could have been different as Tau had put the ball past Richard Ofori earlier on in the game, but the goal was wrongly disallowed for offside, as television replays suggest that the former Mamelodi Sundowns star was onside.
“It was a good game and what is important is that those youngsters stood the test of time. A lot was expected from them, and they delivered on the day. Yes, the scoreline might not be what was supposed to be if you take into account the Percy Tau offside call and the chance that Evidence Makgopa had to score. If that game is anything to go by, it is the performance that we can build on to prepare for the next game against Ethiopia. We will have to guard against the challenge of consistency because sometimes we play well against the big nations and only to struggle against the so-called small nations,” former Sundowns defender, now television pundit James Mayinga explained in an interview.
“Those youngsters have raised the expectations of the nation and have showed that they can deliver. Now, it is for them to keep the same performance and improve against Ethiopia. We will have to make sure that we bury the chances that we get because some other time we might not be lucky with a 1-0 scoreline,” he said.
“That was not an offside. Yes, assistant referees are human beings, and they make mistakes but some of their mistakes can be costly. Imagine if that was our last game to qualify for Qatar and such a mistake happens and we lose. I think the officials need to up their game and make sure. That should also be a lesson to our youngsters that they should score as much as they can. Had we scored from that chance that Makgopa got, we would be talking a different story today,” concluded Mayinga.