Former Chiefs coach Dos Santos says both Pirates goals were offside

Former Kaizer Chiefs head coach Sergio Dos Santos believes both Orlando Pirates goals in Saturday’s Soweto Derby should have been ruled out for offside.

Orlando Pirates beat Kaizer Chiefs 2-1 on 31 October 2026, but the result was overshadowed by several contentious refereeing decisions during the match.

Pirates took the lead in the 24th minute when Yanela Mbuthuma’s effort reached the net after taking a heavy deflection off Kaizer Chiefs defender Thabo Moloisane.

Dos Santos said Mbuthuma was already beyond the last Kaizer Chiefs defender when the ball was played to him.

“There is no question about it, that first goal of Pirates was offside, that is for sure,” Dos Santos told KickOff.

“So straight away it changed things a little bit. When the ball was kicked to the Pirates player, he was already a little bit ahead of the Kaizer Chiefs player.”

Kaizer Chiefs supporters also questioned the build-up to Orlando Pirates’ second goal, suggesting Thapelo Mokobodi had been in an offside position.

Tshepang Moremi scored the decisive goal in the 55th minute to put Orlando Pirates 2-1 ahead. Dos Santos said that effort was also close to being disallowed.

“Even the second goal, also from Pirates, was very close to being offside. But the first goal is definitely offside,” he added.

Dos Santos stopped short of blaming the referee for the outcome, saying the movement of the Kaizer Chiefs defender may have affected the assistant referee’s view of the incident.

“I’m not gonna say the referee decided the game because, as the ball was played, the Chiefs player made a move. So it looked like the linesman wasn’t watching properly. To him, the movement might have made it look like the Chiefs player came back to put the Pirates player onside.”

However, the former Kaizer Chiefs coach maintained that the defender’s movement happened after the pass had already been made.

“But by the time the Chiefs player moved, the ball had already been kicked. When the pass was made, he was already offside,” he said.

The 2-1 victory ended Kaizer Chiefs’ unbeaten run, with Mbuthuma and Moremi providing the goals that secured Orlando Pirates’ narrow win in the Soweto Derby.