Kaizer Chiefs goalkeeper Itumeleng Khune has responded to claims he moved off his line during the penalty shootout win over Stellenbosch FC.
Khune, 35, saved two penalties, helping his side to secure their spot in the MTN8 semi-finals, where they will face AmaZulu.
After the match, former FIFA referee had claimed that Khune “broke the law” by moving off his goal-line when he saved the penalties of Dino Van Rooyen and Luezi Likuta.
Khune now addressed the incident, saying he was in constant exchange with referee Jelly Chavani.
“I think when you are on the field it’s different to when you are sitting on the comforts of your couch and watching it on tv, because you have the privilege of watching it over and over,” he told Thabiso Mosia on SAFM’s SportON.
“With us, we get told about the rules and every season the rules change. Even the referee called us, myself and Lee [Langeveldt] and he told us, ‘it’s fine to move off your line, but one foot has to be on the line, one can be off the line’.
“We will always ask questions as goalkeepers ‘but what if the player comes and stops’ and then you already made up your mind or you already dropped the shoulder, disguising that you’ll going to dive on the opposite side. You end up being slightly off your line, it’s not a plan to cheat but a movement of the player when he approaches the ball that triggers my movement, because I cannot just stand while someone is doing funny things to me.I also have to scare him, so that I also have my advantage of saving the ball.
“I saw a point on social media that I was slightly off my line but with the third penalty I did ask the referee that the guy stopped and he waited for me to jump one side and then he kicked the opposite side. He was like ‘no, that’s not what he did’ but [I think] that [is what] he did because I felt it and I saw it.
“When I made those two saves I cannot be blamed for that because I knew that they were going to come with their tricks of trying to get me to dive to the opposite side.”
