With the way Kaizer Chiefs head coach Nasreddine Nabi set up his team against Mamelodi Sundowns, a controversial offside call was always going to happen, although Muhsin Ertugral was left impressed.
Chiefs felt hard done by a decision from a referee to award Sundowns a winning goal scored by Iqraam Rayners, in a 2-1 victory on Saturday, after he received a cross from Lucas Ribeiro Costa, who appeared to be in an offside position.
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However, replays and still images show that the offside or no offside decision was a tight call, contrary to what a live game showed, where initially it seemed like Costa was a yard or two offside.
Amakhosi defender Miguel Inacio appeared, in the centre circle, to be at least in line or thereabouts with the Brazilian on the far side and such calls can only be accurate through the Video Assistant Referee [VAR].
Nabi, who is used to playing with the VAR system in place in North Africa, took a big risk, in such a huge game to play a very high line, which provoked such tight calls from the off.
Former Chiefs coach Ertugral has suggested that he was surprised in such a short time that the Tunisian played such a high line with a five-man defence, although he was impressed with their synergy throughout the game, except for dealing with a threat by Costa.
The Turkish-born coach also came short of admitting that it was risky.
"Sundowns were completely surprised about the approach [of Chiefs] that they came with such a high defensive line. That creates pressure on player dynamics," Ertugral said on SoccerBeat YouTube Channel.
"Generally, if you're clever you will push the team backwards, the defensive line will yield [backwards]. I don't like playing [against] three that becomes five, around the zone, you get sucked. When the team pressurizes you, the first ball and second ball becomes highly important, because normally you win the ball back and want to bring the ball back into the game. You're permanently in a defensive line. It creates for a team that is not experienced always a big problem.
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"But what I want to mention, in a short time like that to play five-man line [high] up and in a synergy like that, I was really impressed. In such a short time to play [like that] I don't think they saw it as risky because they believed that they could do it, [but] Ribeiro gave them problems on the side because he was hanging between the lines, in the half space," Ertugral added.
In his post-match interview, Nabi said he was surprised that a big country like South Africa doesn't have VAR.
In hindsight, the former AS FAR Rabat mentor would think twice before playing such a high line in a big game, where decisions by match officials become more paramount than tactics.