Durban - AmaZulu coach Benni McCarthy criticizing the state of football officiating in South Africa appears to have become a regular theme this season.
The Usuthu mentor once again slammed the officials after his side played out to a 2-2 draw with Stellenbosch FC at the Moses Mabhida Stadium on Wednesday night. The draw was AmaZulu’s 14th of the league this season which is the most out of any side in the division.
In what will be worrying for AmaZulu, they are now without a win in their last three league games.
The last time that they tasted victory was when they downed Mamelodi Sundowns 1-0 in late December. This to date is the only defeat that the runaway league leaders have experienced in all competitions this term.
“We feel hard done every week with officiating and the season is not going our way. We start to ask questions. We play against 14 players so it is tough but we managed to get one back and we will take a point especially when we have not been at our best,” said the former Bafana Bafana star.
In recent times, McCarthy has also criticized his side’s fixture schedule as they often have to play in domestic and continental football within a short period of time. He once again echoed that the fixture congestion faced by his side is likely to have negatively affected their fluency on the field.
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“There was good entertainment for the neutrals but it was not very nice from my side. What do you expect after three days of playing in the Champions League and then we have to go again? The opponent would have had a 10 week break. It was always going to be difficult for us with the Champions League. It’s something that we are not accustomed to. We are adjusting to dealing with the situation,” said McCarthy.
The biggest positive that Usuthu can take from the Stellies result is that they showed spirit. They twice went behind in the game and clawed themselves back through Matarr Ceesay and Thembela Sikhakhane.
The Durban based team’s play was however error strewn and Stellies were the better side for a large portion of the game, something McCarthy himself conceded.
“We can’t compete with fatigue. Stellies want to go and they put pressure on us. They didn’t give us time to get into the game. They knew that a few days before, we faced the toughest challenge we could have found ourselves in. They knew that we would be fatigued,” said McCarthy.
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