Soweto Derby felt like karate and not football - Abdeslam Ouaddou

Bafana Bafana winger Tshepang Moremi was one casualty of the physical tie after he was stretchered off the pitch through injury, as the match ended in a 1-1 draw. 

The result dented Pirates’ Betway Premiership league title ambitions somewhat, but Ouaddou stopped short of accusing the match officials of not protecting his players in what he says was not a football game but karate.  

"I think that, in terms of duels, we lost that battle of fighting in the middle – there are some games like that, unfortunately, and I think sometimes it was even a little bit on the red line," said Ouaddou.

"And I think sometimes, if we want to give nice football for the fans – and I think the South African fans deserve it, when I see the quality of the organisation of one of the biggest derbies in the world, we must protect the players who are willing to play football.

"Because what I have seen today, I don't know if I can say I have seen a football game or karate today, and I don't want to disrespect other sport, but today was not a football game."

READ: Ben Youssef embarrassed after Soweto Derby chaos

Ouaddou believes there was a deliberate plan from the opposition to break the legs of Pirates players, particularly Moremi, Relebohile Mofokeng and Oswin Appollis.

"Everybody is willing to play some nice football and there are some people that have to protect the players as well, and when I saw our three ball players – Mofokeng, Appollis, Moremi – were targeted, not to take the ball by the rules but to break their legs," he added.

"This is something that I cannot accept in football, and I think if I have to go deep in the game, our first half was not what we wanted to achieve in terms of football because of a team that came not to play football but to destroy and break the legs of our players.

"This is what we have seen today, and it's very sad for football, it's very sad for a fantastic derby because people came to watch fantastic football."