PSIM Yogyakarta coach Risto Vidakovic highlighted a number of refereeing decisions during the match against Dewa United in the ninth week of the 2026/2027 Super League at Sultan Agung Stadium Bantul, Yogyakarta Special Region.
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"You know, I don't like to make excuses or use referee decisions as an excuse for the team. However, today's decisions were very strange, strange decisions," Risto said in his statement after the match at SSA Bantul.
Risto highlighted the referee's decision to award Dewa United a penalty in the first half, resulting in a goal that left PSIM Yogyakarta trailing 0-1.
In addition, Risto assessed that the referee stopped the match too often, especially in the early minutes, so that the game did not run smoothly.
"In the early minutes of the match, play was stopped too often. I think there were too many stoppages, but there was nothing we could do about it," he said.
However, Risto did not completely blame the referee's decision for the outcome of the match because he considered his players lost concentration in the last 10 minutes, resulting in the goal being conceded.
"We lost concentration a bit in the last 10 minutes, and in the final minutes we conceded a goal because we didn't control the game well," he said.
Meanwhile, PSIM Yogyakarta player Raka Cahyana added that the referee's decision-making process at several moments was considered too slow, which confused the players.
"The referee took too long to make a decision. There was already a foul before the goal, and that's what confused us on the pitch, but we remained focused on the game," he said.
Raka, representing all the players, apologized for the match result and accepted the 1-2 defeat to Dewa United at PSIM Yogyakarta's home ground even though all the players had performed optimally.
"I apologize for the less than satisfactory result. Regardless, you can judge for yourselves how the referee performed, that's all," he said.
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