Van Wyk didn’t rob AmaZulu, poor bloke ran out of eyesight

● It had everything.

A beautiful sunny day.

A capacity crowd.

Two teams with a rich heritage of South African soccer chasing contrasting goals on Shaka’s Day down in Durban.

Hosts AmaZulu were on a mission to uproot themselves from the root of the long standings.

Visitors Kaizer Chiefs sought to return to winning ways and back to the summit of the standings.

The King Zwelithini Stadium in Umlazi was ready to rock ’n roll.

It was bouncing.

Even the television set felt like it was emitting the energy directly from the venue to the room.

What was missing was an assistant referee with decent eyesight.

The decision by the flagman Marvin van Wyk to disallow, not one but two AmaZulu goals ranks among the greatest robberies ever pulled off in this country of cash-in-transit heists.

It echoed of the Rothmans Cup rip-off when a perfect Joel “Fire” Masilela goal was disallowed for a non-existent offside.

Okay, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt on his first decision, which appears as clear as mud.

But Van Wyk was without a shadow of a doubt sleeping on the job when it came to his second call. It was not controversial; he just got it wrong.

How do we put this diplomatically? Van Wyk did not rob AmaZulu; the poor bloke ran out of eyesight.

He must not be demoted to the lower leagues. He needs to be given time to have a cataract operation to help him regain his vision.

Not only did the player who was in an offside position not play the ball.

He also did not interfere with play in any way.

It was an infantile decision by a

Coaches work hard to have their work undermined

flagman with a super fertile imagination.

To have two goals disallowed and end up at the receiving end of a 2-0 defeat that sees you remaining rooted at the bottom of the log must have been a bitter pill to swallow for Jozef Vukusic.

Making his bow on the AmaZulu bench, having replaced Cavin Johnson, Vukusic felt the pain of the wrong call by the assistant ref.

“But the game’s first goal is very important. I heard now after the game that we scored two regular goals.

“If you score two regular goals and they take those goals it’s [a] shame and very sad for my team.

“They played on limit, they played [to their] potential. They left everything on the ground, and two goals not given it’s too much. The mistake from the ref is part of the game. It’s not easy to decide in such a situation.

“But for the linesman it was not a difficult situation to decide that it’s not offside because the player who was in the offside did not play the ball. So it was a very easy decision to decide,” he said.

There is a buzz in the air about Amakhosi. They are forging forward in a bid to bring back the glamour to King Kaizer’s kingdom.

Back to brilliance they want to achieve. The signings Chiefs have made have breathed life back into the black-andgold. Especially striker Samir Norkovic. Particularly midfielder Kearyn Baccus.

We both know what Billiat and Castro can do when on song. Them getting the goals is a huge confidence booster. The return of Itumeleng Khune between the sticks will always be a shot in the arm for their rearguard.

Chiefs don’t need a helping hand from Van Wyk and his ilk.

Rubbish refereeing led to a Billiat goal being disallowed for an imaginary foul against Cape Town City and it must be condemned wherever it rears its ugly head. Chiefs showed resilience to return to the top of the standings, but not after two controversial calls by a man running the line armed with a flag.

The South African Football Association must root out the rogue elements within their refereeing structures. Coaches work way too hard to have their work undermined by wonky whistlemen and their assistants.

Twitter: @bbkunplugged99