Football 2010-2011

[The Nal]

Good result for City there at the weekend. Good to see that after spending half a billion on players alone, they cant string three passes together and bicker, bitch and moan at each other when things don’t go there way.

As for their captain who cant be bothered to learn English, hes in Argentina now (obviously the best place to recover from a dead leg, a 14 hour flight!). How can someone with such a good attitude on the pitch be such a c**t off the pitch?

As for Utds 2nd goal! What a total f**k up.

[sifi]

I feel for Mancio. He was a god amongst men at the Samp.

[eFestivals]

As for Utds 2nd goal! What a total f**k up.

Yep - by the ref I reckon.

It might have been a penalty, but the ref decided it wasn't, so that's no part of what happened after.

What happened after was that Nani clearly handled the ball. So Gomez took it to be a free kick, which is fair enough (tho he should have played to the whistle of course).

The ref decided to play the advantage - fair enough. But it's also the case that when the ref plays advantage but there isn't actually an advantage gained he calls the play back to the original offence, and the free kick is given.

So in this case, although he tried to indicate that they should play on, the fact that Gomez didn't play on and an advantage was gained by Utd means that the goal shouldn't have counted and play should have re-started with the free kick for Nani's handball.

I hear that ref has a history of giving Utd the benefit of the doubt.

[ampersand]

good to see that it's not just scotland with incompetent refs!

[The Nal]

I feel for Mancio. He was a god amongst men at the Samp.

Edited November 1, 2010 by The Nal

[Cardboard Box City]

I feel for Mancio. He was a god amongst men at the Samp.

[Cardboard Box City]

I hear that ref has a history of giving Utd the benefit of the doubt.

Edited November 1, 2010 by Cardboard Box City

[ampersand]

Not sure that Clattenburg does, can't remember any well publicised ones in particular.

Chris Kamara, Roberto Martinez and Tim Flowers put the blame at the door of the assistant.

[The Nal]

Chris Kamara, Roberto Martinez and Tim Flowers put the blame at the door of the assistant.

[eFestivals]

Gomez rolled the ball out for a long kick (not a free kick as it was 10 yards away from the offence)

Hmmmm .... not sure that really holds true, given that Nani was still on the floor, pointing out the sniper who'd shot him to the policemen in the stadium.

Gomez couldn't have taken the free kick from the place where the foul happened, cos Nani was still lying there.

And free kicks being taken ten yards from where the offence happened is the norm, particularly at the opposite end of the field from the goal that team is attacking.

and then Gomez decided to stand there like a tool looking at the ball after the ref had told him to play on.

when the ref made an indistinguishable gesture, you mean.

When the ref told Gomez to play on, Carrick, Scholes and Fletcher ran towards it and told Nani to score. Gomez stood there like an idiot. “Play the whistle” you’re told from age zero. If he was in any doubt he should’ve banged it into row Z. The goal was fair to the letter of the law. It was controversial yeah, but “play on” means play on. I blame Gomez and Gomez alone.

Gomez was extremely dumb, I can't argue against that.

But all the same, it's normal for a ref to stop the "advantage played" bit if there's been no advantage gained. The ref should have ruled the goal out, and restarted things with a free kick for the handball.

And the ref's actions become even more unjustifiable when the Spurs players were shoo-ed away but Rio was allowed to shout in their faces. Then Modric (or was it someone else?) gets a yellow for complaining, while Scholes got nothing for manhandling the ref.

The ref f**ked up.

[eFestivals]

Not sure that Clattenburg does, can't remember any well publicised ones in particular.

he was the ref when a good spurs goal was ruled as not having crossed the line, wasn't he?

(I could be wrong)

[Cardboard Box City]

apparently he was involved in the roy carroll farce.

[ampersand]

Ah well, that was the fat-arsed linesman's fault really (think he might have been ginger as well). I'm fairly sure Clattenburg was in the other half at the time?

[sifi]

It reminded me of Gary Crosby's goal years ago, when he headed the ball out of the keeper's hands.

[ralph250]

Goal doesn't completely sit right, (not exactly in the spirit of the game etc), but Gomes is primarily the one at fault imo. Agree that usually when an advantage isn't realised that play goes back, but generally all comes down to timing and how long has expired.

If a foul's committed in the middle of the park, and a player without being impeded (so not being off balance), dribbles the ball 10 feet further, has 6 seconds unchallenged where the ball is clearly in his control (in Gomes' hands), another 4 seconds before an opposition player gets into a position to play the ball (4 seconds ball is on the ground before Nani stands in front), then surely there's an argument that any advantage given has been wasted by that player.

There's 10 seconds between Gomes picking the ball up and Nani standing in front, 12 seconds before Nani kicks it, another second for it to hit the back of the net. It's a fairly hefty phase of play and 10 yards gained is a pretty good advantage, especially when for the majority of that time, the opposition has a player lieing down in no mans land and their other forward behind your back four line; two men in no man's land. A Good distribution and a very good chance to launch a good counter, outnumbering the opposition.

With 5 minutes to find a winner, I'd prefer to have the advantage and the goalkeeper distribute from his hands, than a freekick on the byline, allowing the opposition to reorganise themselves.

Gomes f**ked it up more than anything.

[The Nal]

Hmmmm .... not sure that really holds true, given that Nani was still on the floor, pointing out the sniper who'd shot him to the policemen in the stadium.

[eFestivals]

Nope, hands out in front of him, means play on in any country. Even Carrick understood it.

To me it looked more of a "what are you asking me about?" sort of gesture. It was certainly nothing like the 'waving play on' gestures refs normally make.

Gomez had time to throw it out, kick out of his hands, roll it and then kick it while Nani was still on the deck but he didn’t do that. He didn’t hear a whistle but still stood there looking like he’d never heard of “play on” before. The fact that he decided to disadvantage the advantage by placing the ball on the ground and standing there like a twat isn’t the refs fault.

As I've said, Gomez certainly has his own culpability (if not responsibility) for what happened.

But I don't see how what happened can be regarded as fair within the game, or fair play. In fact I'd go so far as to call it 'unsporting conduct' by Nani.

Will there be as much fuss about it as the fuss there was when Arsenal scored a goal via a throw-in that should have seen the ball thrown back to the opposition - which was clearly 'unsporting conduct', but to a lesser extent (cos it was less of a scoring chance)? Of course not, cos this happened at Utd.

People not playing the whistle or paying attention to the rules. Simple as.

Yet the rules say "it's a free kick if someone handles the ball to gain an advantage" - and no arguments.

And the rules would have certainly not allowed that goal 40 years ago, as it would have been classed as unsporting conduct.

[Cardboard Box City]

It goes beyond making the most of an opportunity presented to you when you celebrate like you've won the World Cup

[Cardboard Box City]

I saw a far worse piece of reffing at the weekend but because that was at Goodison and not Old Trafford the armchairs aren't up in arms.

[ralph250]

And the ref's actions become even more unjustifiable when the Spurs players were shoo-ed away but Rio was allowed to shout in their faces. Then Modric (or was it someone else?) gets a yellow for complaining, while Scholes got nothing for manhandling the ref.

The ref f**ked up.

[The Nal]

It goes beyond making the most of an opportunity presented to you when you celebrate like you've won the World Cup

Edited November 1, 2010 by The Nal

[eFestivals]

I saw a far worse piece of reffing at the weekend but because that was at Old Trafford the armchairs aren't up in arms.

corrected for you.

If what had happened at OT had happened to the advantage of Arsenal or Liverpool the moans would be deafening.

And just imagine fergie's words if it had happened against Utd. He'd have never shut up about it, and if they'd dropped two points via it and then no won the league by 2 points it would have all been that refs fault (and no0t only in fergie's eyes but just about every Utd fan in the country).

The double standards here are massive. But it can all be swept under the carpet because it was Utd that gained the advantage.

[eFestivals]

Rio he f**ked up on. Shouldn't have been allowed. Pen decision is tricky. Would be slightly soft but there is definite tugging; first holding the arm, then when Nani frees himself, Kaboul uses both arms plus slight shirt tug. Would've had to have gone, for 2nd yellow even if not straight red for clear goalscoring opp. Some could argue he bottled that.

the 'penalty or not' bit is naff all to do with anything here. The ref makes that call, and he decided (rightly or wrongly - but in this case rightly) 'no penalty'. The game moves on to the next bit.

Still though, more on Gomes for me.

I'm sure you'd be saying the exact same thing if it had been the equaliser for Spurs.

Gomez f**ked up - but the ref f**ked up more than Gomez did.

[Cardboard Box City]

Why?

[modey]

it's all very similar to the goal liverpool scored earlier in the season against sunderland, but imo gomes was the one at fault in the utd one, what was he doing just standing there waving his arms? he had plenty of time to clear it, and with 5 mins left and spurs looking for an equaliser, that's what he should have done