Sundowns lucky to beat Chiefs as calls for VAR get louder

Mamelodi Sundowns were fortunate to walk away from Saturday’s Betway Premiership clash against Kaizer Chiefs with all three points in a 2-1 win.

While the assistant referee made a huge mistake to gift Sundowns the winning goal, the Brazilians can also thank their Ballon d’Or-nominated goalkeeper Ronwen Williams for the win.

The Bafana Bafana captain pulled off a number of saves that kept his team in front, but the officiating will be the main talking point.

Like they did against AmaZulu this week, Chiefs caught Sundowns napping and went in front early after Ranga Chivaviro held off Mosa Lebusa to beat Ronwen Williams following a beautiful through pass by Reeve Frosler.

And it should have been 2-0 to Chiefs six minutes later after Chivaviro found himself with space. After holding off Lebusa again, he put the ball across Williams’ goal, but Wandile Duba was not alert, and the opportunity went begging.

Sundowns nearly hit back, but after a couple of touches in the box by Sundowns, Iqraam Rayners’ snap shot flew wide of Fiacre Ntwari’s goal.

Sundowns found themselves back in the game on the half-hour mark when Brazilian Lucas Ribeiro, having been played on by Tashreeq Matthews, fired across Ntwari’s goal to make it 1-1.

And six minutes later, Chiefs came crashing back to earth when Iqraam Rayners made it 2-1 after a squareball from Ribeiro, who turned provider for the second goal.

Clearly offside

However, Chiefs were right to feel aggrieved as Ribeiro was clearly offside in the lead up to the goal.

In the second half, Chivaviro had the perfect opportunity to restore parity, but after holding off Grant Kekana, he blasted his effort wide of the goal.

Williams then showed why he has been nominated for a Yashin Trophy at the Ballon d’Or Awards when he acrobatically kept out Edson Castillo’s header from close range to keep his team ahead.

Ashley du Preez, having just come on as a substitute then had a chance to pull Chiefs level, but Williams pulled off another brilliant save, and the rebound was also kept out somehow.

Deep in stoppage time, Chiefs had a goal disallowed after Ignacio Miguel was judged to have pulled down Lebusa in the box. In the end, Sundowns held on for a famous 2-1 win.

Golden Arrows lose again

At the Peter Mokaba Stadium in Polokwane, a goal in each half was enough to see Sekhukhune United walk away from their clash against Golden Arrows with all three points.

Defender Tresor Yamba opened the scoring in the sixth minute for Sekhukhune, and Mcedi Vandala’s 49th minute strike secured the points.

The result means Golden Arrows, who won their first two games of the season, have now lost two in a row.