Four games, twenty-four goals! (From Ed)

    What a terrific weekend for the soccer fan.  The EPL scheduling computer produced two games involving teams from the top six finishers in the league last season, and the other two top-six teams were also in action. These four matches promised a feast of top class soccer for the TV viewer on Saturday and Sunday, and did they deliver on that promise?  Yes, and how!  And for us referees, there were plenty of interesting decisions for discussion.

    The Saturday games featured Chelsea against EPL new boys Norwich, and Liverpool entertaining Bolton. Both games finished with 3-1 wins by the favorites. Norwich had their goalkeeper sent off for DOGSO after he tripped Ramires in the penalty area as the attacker, through alone, was attempting to run around him at high speed.

    As usual the announcers, displaying their ignorance of TLOG and more surprisingly, of players’ abilities, felt that the red card was too harsh.  Trevor Francis felt that the forward was not running toward goal therefore it was not a DOGSO.  This was a quite a comment from Francis, himself an accomplished striker, who played for part of one season in the old NASL for Detroit.  He above all should have known, as did the referee, Mike Jones, that a highly skilled player can turn the ball into an empty net from an acute angle.  I expect that Francis in his heyday could have done it easily.

    Later Mr. Jones showed some lenience when he did not issue a 2nd yellow card to Torres for a very late (“a forward’s”) tackle.  He would surely have received a card if it had not been his 2nd (shades of another league we know!)  Sensing a problem, Chelsea quickly and wisely took Torres off. 

    The referee did however run around bursting some balloons that had floated onto the pitch, so as to avoid any chance of a repeat of the “beachball” goal that he mistakenly allowed at Sunderland two seasons ago.  Fans cheered his efforts; they have long memories indeed!

    In the Liverpool match, referee Lee Probert made an excellent decision to not give a PK to Liverpool. The Bolton defender Steinsson deliberately handled the ball, but although his feet were inside the penalty area, his arms were outside. Mr. Probert had an excellent angle of view on the incident because his position was over towards the left, and just about in line with the left edge of the area. His position enabled him to sell his decision and to brush aside the protests of the Liverpool players who were not so well positioned:

    However, later in the match Mr. Probert was strangely at fault when he failed to penalize a clear case of a back-pass being handled by the Bolton keeper.  This was puzzling because it was a very clear deliberate back-pass, and the keeper was put under pressure by a Liverpool forward, causing him to reach down and handle the ball.  This is an error that we would not expect a level 7 referee to make, let alone a member of the FIFA list.  And the crew also failed to spot the foul on Suarez in the penalty area, although Suarez does not help his cause with his dramatics.

    The referee must have been having an off-day, because his mobility was also suspect, so that he was hit by the ball on more than one occasion and had a player almost run up his back because Mr. Probert did not anticipate the change of direction of the play and get out of the way.  In addition several obvious touch line and goal line decisions were clearly given incorrectly.  In one of these the referee initially indicated a goal kick when everyone knew it should be a corner kick, and he fortunately changed his mind after taking advice from his AR.  Again, even lower-level referees are expected to get these routine decisions correct, and many times a referee can take a quick look at the players’ actions and body language, which can guide the official to the correct call.

    The Manchester United v. Arsenal match gave us 10 goals but it could easily have been more. Rooney will never score an easier hat-trick, with two goals from free kicks, and one from a PK.

Rooney scores with aplomb.

  The PK was awarded by referee Howard Webb, who does seem to award them to Manchester United at Old Trafford at a higher rate than do other referees (see an analysis here).  He had also awarded one to Arsenal earlier in the match but it was saved.  Although it was a poorly taken PK, the Manchester Utd. keeper certainly came off his line early, as do most keepers.  (I wonder when referees will begin to enforce LAW 14 properly.)   But because of the dreadful defending exhibited by the Arsenal back line in this match, Manchester United didn’t need any help from the officials.

    Manchester City have benefitted from emulating Chelsea by having a wealthy owner and buying up as much talent as possible at inflated prices. But they do play exciting attacking soccer, and a 5-1 win away at White Hart Lane, including a “perfect” hat-trick (right foot, left foot and head) from their Bosnian striker Dzeko, is testament to this.

Dzeko scores one of four against Spurs.

    They have a very balanced team, with excellent players in defense, midfield and on the forward line.  One incident that the referee had to deal with in this match was another one that should not happen at this level.  In the 76th minute, a substitute for Manchester City, Savic, ran onto the field when the player to be replaced, Aguero, was still in the penalty area.  Referee Dowd waved Savic back to the touchline, and made him wait until Aguero had left before allowing him to enter, and then promptly and properly showed him the yellow card!  Strictly speaking, it is the duty of the 4th official to prevent a sub from entering too soon, but in these matches, the 4th official has to hold the electronic number board up in the air for all to see, so it sometimes is difficult to hold a player off at the same time.  In any event, most players even at lower levels of competition know the procedure and remain off until the departing player gets to the touchline.  I expect Andre Marriner, the 4th official, was amazed that the sub did this in a Premier League match.  After Spurs had used all three of their subs, their Dutch midfielder, Van der Vaart pulled a muscle and simply walked off.  It was not clear if he had informed Mr. Dowd that he was leaving the game.

    Quite a weekend!  We can only hope to see many more such action-filled matches in the weeks to come.  For me, this comes a close second to actually refereeing professional matches.

Comments

[Ed Bellion]

Follow-up note:
Many of these games are being shown again throughout the week on Fox Soccer Channel if anyone missed them the first time they were shown.

[Brian Smith-White]

After the weak show at the WC final, Howard Webb seems to have learned to reach for cards a bit faster. The "show of force" seemed to suppress the bad actors a bit. I wonder whether there has been some private discussion(s) to lead to this change of behavior. Two incidents, each with a touch of class that television should show more often. First, when he was subbed out, Robin van Persie initiated a "fist bump" with the referee. Never have seen this before. Wonder whether this will percolate into the youth players. Second, after a MNT (England) team mate, but an opponent in that match, missed badly on the goal opportunity and lay on the ground, Joe Hart, the City goalie, gave the player a couple of taps to the torso while both were smiling.

Brian: Yes, there are signs that goodwill is not yet dead in highly competitive football! Cheers, Bob.

[Ed Bellion]

Webb's performance at the WC final was an abberation. He has been fairly consistent WRT cards of both colors in EPL games. But even then remember that there were about 14 cards issued in the WC final.
Perhaps the "fist bump" was because van Persie is still thankful for Webb's lenience to him and his team in the WC final!