JUSTICE MUST BE DONE: How Dennis Onyango did just that for Mamelodi Sundowns

PENALTY 1: Parker goes down

PITSO MOSIMANE didn’t have to dwell too long on the blatant attempted hi-jacking of the glittering Telkom KO cup on Wednesday afternoon. 

It happened in front of plenty of witnesses. The attempt was thwarted with some gusto. Pitso's witness statement was short, but sufficient when asked about the two shocking penalties awarded to Kaizer Chiefs by referee Khulisani Qongqo.

The Mamelodi Sundowns coach said simply: “I won’t comment on the referee. Everyone saw it.”

And that was enough. Two soft penalty decisions. Two chances for South Africa’s biggest football team to get back in the game. And Dennis Onyango saved them both to scoop the Man of the Match award with the broadest of smiles.

Qongqo is no beginner. He’s a FIFA sanctioned referee and has done big games in his career, though it’s hard to find out much about South Africa officials generally. I do know he was nominated for PSL referee of the year in 2014 and he’s had overseas assignments.

But what we saw on Reconciliation Day, with 52,000 at the Moses Mabhida Stadium, felt like a calculated attempt to alter the course of the game. For a start, when Chiefs were struggling in the first half, he was slow to act on a series of nasty challenges. He failed to control the game which was, frankly, awful, after the opening goal.

After half-time things brightened up. But Sundowns were always in control. Then Qongqo tried to even things up on the hour mark.

PENALTY 2: ball hits Nthethe's upper arm

The first penalty, when Bernard Parker fell over Thabo Nthethe, was distinctly dodgy. Nthethe was simply suckered in, Parker cut across him and went down. Ashley Young of Manchester United is an expert in this sphere.

Ignoring the furore, Siphiwe Tshabalala stepped up and struck it well, but Ugandan Onyango went the right way and parried.

Just 13 minutes later, Reneilwe Letsholonyane broke in to the box. His effort made contact with the unfortunate Nthethe’s arm, Qongqo hesitated… then pointed to the spot once more. Nthethe was floored at the time, the ball made contact with the top of his arm. Never a penalty.

This time substitute Camaldine Abraw, who was eager to take the first spot kick, stepped up… only for Onyango to save again.

By this time Sundowns captain Nthethe had already put his side 2-0 up with a well-taken header after Colombian Leonardo Castro’s early opener.

To their credit Chiefs, a shadow of the side which won the PSL title with a record 69 points last season, soldiered on despite these two huge blows to morale.

Even when Hlompho Kekaha made it 3-0 to Mosimane’s men to complete his perfect set of PSL silverware, Chiefs found their way to goal in injury time, for a late consolation from Abraw.

But in truth, they were never in it. Pule Ekstein, finally given the chance to show us what he’s got on the biggest stage, failed dismally. He went off with Edward Manqele and Lucky Baloyi in the 54rd minute, in a flurry of changes which left the officials in confusion.

The ever-articulate Steve Komphela tried to explain afterwards: “I can’t sit on the bench and do nothing. You have to react to what is happening. But when their second goal went in, I decided to change all three.”

The confusion ended with a yellow card… and then those two penalty saves.

Onyango explained afterwards: “We’ve been doing a lot of work on penalties. My team-mates were reminding me which way to go for both of them. Because we are a team.”

That’s all very well. After Jody February saved FOUR spot kicks to see our U23s to the Olympics last weekend, this was more of the glorious same.

But my question is: What if BOTH of those dodgy spot kicks had been successfully converted? Chiefs, outplayed and lacklustre throughout the first half, would have been back on level terms.

The R4m cheque from Telkom - shared between the players and technical staff by Sundowns’ understandably generous billionaire owner Patrice Motsepe - would have been torn away from Pitso’s men, who had never beaten Chiefs in a final.

And Komphela, who claimed afterwards his side might have won 5-3 if they had scored those penalties and “three one-on-ones”, would have won his first EVER trophy in 30 years as a player and coach.

My question is this: would the urbane Komphela have treasured his moment, given the referee’s two enthusiastically given spot kicks?

Would justice have been done? I’ve watched both decisions again and again. The first was questionable; no referee would give a second penalty 13 minutes later the way Qongqa did. Not in my experience.

On SuperSport TV, analyst Zane Moosa tried to tell us “The referee was Kaizer Chiefs Man of the Match” but he was cut short. Neither penalty was given a good look in the aftermath. But we only need the words of Pitso: “Everybody saw it.” You did, I did. If you remove the estimated 15 million pairs of gold-tinted glasses, we all did.

But hey. It’s Reconciliation Day. Dennis the Menace saved us from having to consider the dreaded conclusion: Our football is manipulated. Right in front of our eyes. Just like those friendlies before the 2010 World Cup.

For now we can simply tweet #komphelamustfall and think it will make it all better. We can ask why Morgan Gould, after months on the sidelines, was drafted in as centre-back ahead of Siyanda Xulu after Tower Mathoho's ankle injury. 

But remember Pitso running for cover after Sundowns lost to Golden Arrows in September? And remember how Bobby Motaung got rid of coach Stuart Baxter, player of the season Tefu Mashamaite and top-scorer Mandla Masango just a few weeks after that epic title win?

For both those reasons: the AmaKhosi must be patient. Chiefs have lost more cup finals this season (two) than they have PSL games (one)… there is still hope.

But if referees like Khulisani Qongqo continue to given the big games, our football will have no hope at all.

ELEPHANTASTIC: FINAL VERDICT ON AFCON 2015: it was everything we expected, but not quite what we hoped for

The Elephant in the Room: Ivory Coast celebrate AFCON2015

AFCON 2015. The tournament that should never have taken place. The tournament that defied expectations. The tournament that defied Ebola. The tournament that defied logic, right down to that extraordinary penalty shoot-out after a drab final.

It’s only football. We know that. The Ivory Coast Elephants were always the heavyweights. But the ups and downs in Equatorial Guinea over the past three weeks have been even more knuckle whitening than normal, surely?

The lows? We’d have to start with South Africa’s own fortunes in Mongomo, ancestral home of the despot President Theodorin Obiang, in charge since 1979 and grinding his people in to the ground. Bafana Bafana couldn’t even conjure a win in Group A as they ground us into the ground.

They went out of the tournament with one point and a desperate record equalled in its awfulness only by Burkina Faso. Yet they led in all three games. Heart-breaking.

Still, as I said when the draw for this African Cup of Nations was made, the limited talents of Shakes Mashaba were never going to get us out of Group C once the dodgy hosts had got their hands on Issa Hayatou’s warmed balls. Pity Ephraim forgot to check who was actually in the Group of Death before he started laughing it off and – laughably – promising a repeat of our great 1996 triumph.

On Saturday, under thermo-nuclear levels of secrecy, Mashaba reported to the SAFA technical committee, dominated (unusually) by Natascha Tshichlas, Ria Ledwaba and Fran Hilton-Smith, Danny Jordaan’s three princesses.

I’m told Shakes was rapped over the knuckles for his treatment of young foreign stars Thulani Serero and Kamahelo Mokotjo and told the search for a modern, highly qualified Technical Director remained a priority. I bet he didn’t like that. Still, he wore a lot of nice shirts during the tournament, between goalkeeper changes.

While South Africans came back down to earth after that fabulous unbeaten qualifying success which left champions Nigeria in disarray, we have had to watch the knock-out stages dominated by Equatorial Guinea cheating, Africa’s No 1 Algeria under-performing and Tunisia sulking.

Weapons of destruction: missiles thrown by fans on Thursday

And then came that awful semi-final. I said on twitter Ghana looked reluctant to add a third goal against the hosts in last Thursday’s second semi-final and BOOM, when they went 3-0 up, we were treated to awful scenes from the home crowd in a nation where so many live beneath the bread line yet still throw plates when they’re angry.

Actually, we missed most of the nastiness which left 14 Ghanaian fans in hospital, the Dictatorial Guinea television producers wouldn’t allow us to see the crowd trouble, the missile throwing, the real nastiness.

And when the final came around on Sunday night, the host nation were denied live coverage of their own tournament at the death. Unbelievable. While commentators and analysts praised long-serving Presidents Obiang and Issa Hayatou, African football slipped to a new nadir with trouble exploding before Zamelek’s game in Egypt just as the final kicked off.

It's a mess. Tunisia have yet to apologise for their accusations of bias after Dictatorial Guinea’s dodgy late penalty in the quarter-final and Morocco, the hosts who pulled out over Ebola fears (but still hosted FIFA’s Club World Cup) are out for the next two AFCONS.

The host nation were given a mere slap on the wrist for their half-hour of mayhem. They were fined $100,000 while Tunisia and Morocco face bills of millions; and Equatoria Guinea played their 3^rd place play off WITH fans, losing to the DRC in an eminently missable consolation clash.

Sadly, much of the “dream final” between Ghana and Cote D’Ivoire was eminently missable too. The highlights? Ghana’s Christian Atsu, the Chelsea striker on loan with a cushion at Everton, hit the post, Ivory Coast coach Herve Renard wore a nice pink tabard and a clearly unfit Asamoah Gyan managed to stamp on an Elephant without punishment.

It was always going to go to penalties, and the drab 120 minutes was soon forgotten as Ghana took a 2-0 lead after four penalties, blew it… and the goalkeepers decided it with 35-year-old Boubacar 'Copa' Barry scoring where his counterpart Razak Braimah failed.

After 22 penalties Barry, a last-minute replacement, was the bemused hero. Asamoah Gyan, the Ghana captain who came off with a minute to play and missed the penalty shoot-out, may well turn out to be the scapegoat, as he was at the World Cup in 2010.

In essence, it was a repeat of the 1992 final, with the Ivory Coast ironically turning the Orange Africa Cup of Nations in to a feast of orange. Yaya Toure lifted the trophy while Andre Ayew wept inconsolably, remembering his father Abedi Pele’s upset when he missed out on the same final 23 years ago.

For Ghana coach Avram Grant, in his lucky blue polo shirt, barely a flicker of emotion. He lost the Champions League final with Chelsea when John Terry fluffed his penalty against Manchester United in Moscow. He’s used to heartbreak.

AFCON WINNER: goalkeeper Barry is carried aloft

Herve Renard, the first man to win AFCON with two different nations, said: “It’s coming from God, but you have to be strong. I believe in history and I’m a lucky coach.

“We are strong because everybody worked very hard. Didier Drogba didn’t win this cup with Ivory Coast, it’s a shame he’s not there. It’s a shame he’s not here. I’d like to give him part of this, dedicate it to him.

“You don’t achieve something in one month, the team spirit made the difference. I discovered (Ghana’s) Andre Ayew at a young age, I felt sorry for him but he’ll be back.”

Ghana coach Avram Grant groaned: “It’s painful to lose and be the better side on the pitch. When you win you can say anything, this is football. Penalties are painful. It’s not the first time this has happened to me.

“We have a good team for the present. In a short time we did a lot of good things. We are crying now, they gave good heart, good football. Good for the future.”

Former Arsenal veteran Kolo Toure, now with Liverpool, said: “Penalties are all about God to me. We waited a long time for this. My generation waited for 23 years. I’d like to dedicate this win to my brother who died during the World Cup.”

In summary, AFCON 2015 was exactly what we expected, though not quite what we might have hoped for. From the moment Morocco withdrew, we knew Equatorial Guinea would be hard-pressed to run the show without a hitch.

A pitch invasion and a drab final won’t spoil the memories for Ivorians. But for Ghanaians and South Africans, we move on. And hopefully for uapologetic Tunisia and 7 times winners Egypt – where 14 died in violence before a Zamalek game last night – there will be a brighter future too.

But to be honest what would really cheer me up: a free and fair election in Dictatorial Guinea. But I guess that's too much to ask.

Hobbling Becks and Galaxy of stars lose in shoot-out

DAVID BECKHAM was forced to play 120 minutes with an ankle injury last night as LA Galaxy went down 5-4 on penalties in the MLS final after being held 1-1 by Real Salt Lake at Seattle.

The former England captain, scheduled to join AC Milan on loan next year in a bid to keep himself in Fabio Capello's thinking for the World Cup in South Africa next year, needed three painkilling injections on his bruised joint to make the glitzy showdown in front of 46,000 but he was clearly struggling - particularly in extra-time when he wandered up front to hobble about after the Galaxy had made their maximum three substitutions.

Beckham, who has also been suffering a "persistent cold" admits that, at 34, the "bones start to ache that bit more" and he looked like he could do with a break until the transfer window opens and he can return to Serie A action in January.

Still, Beckham was able to stick away the first penalty in the shoot-out only for the MLS's Most Valuable Player Landon Donovan to miss his first-ever spot-kick as the Galaxy threw it away.

Beckham and Donovan - at loggerheads early in the season after the American accused Becks of a lack of commitment - combined to produce the opening goal for Mike Magee four minutes before half-time.

But former Galaxy striker Robbie Findley levelled for Salt Lake in the 64th minute and, after seven minutes of injury time, the extra half-hour failed to separate the Galaxy's stars and the MLS's newest franchise.

Beckham, with his sticky-up Jedward hairstyle lampooned by the US commentators (see picture, they said "he loves to draw attention to himself", "he considers himself a fashionista off the pitch"), bravely stuck away his penalty in the shoot-out but Donovan, Jovan Kirovski and Edson Buddle all missed as it went to sudden-death and after £12m and three seasons, the former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder failed to join Trevor Steven (Everton, Marseille, Rangers) as a title winner in three different countries.

Beckham said: “It’s quite a few times I’ve lost on penalty shoot outs now. It was Russian roulette, not a nice way to lose, but we can be proud of ourselves for getting to this point. But that’s the way it is in soccer.”

And with rumours that he will buy his own MLS franchise next season, Beckham insisted: “I’ll definitely be back to win the MLS title.”

Donovan said: "What you don't see is that this guy has been hurt or sick for probably the last seven games but he just gets on with it."