A. J. Crowley
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- Dec 24, 2010
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I'm pretty sure Barca fans will say no and Real fans will say yes, but I'm pretty curious to see where neutral observers stand
Barcelona get well looked after, I'm a Chelsea fan and I will never forget the 3 pens we had turned down. Cheated and robbed by refs, plattini needs a slap, he don't like the English league dominating, so if your a man u fan I wouldn't be surprised if u get mugged by the officials! Still give credit to barca they are world class, and I don't doubt they will wipe the floor with man u. They just need to stop throwing them selves to the floor like they have been shot, and waving the card signs around, if and English club was doing it they would probaly get booked for trying to influence the ref. I thought that was a rule? I might be wrong.
How about when Anelka took a dive that game, reducing Barca to 10 men? Or the goal that was wrongly called back for being offsides in the first half? I agree that one of the tackles and one of the handballs could have gone either way, but honestly I don't think there was enough for Chelsea to seriously complain about that game.
The fact of the matter is that the reffing is often inaccurate and bad calls are made that have a big influence on the game. The big teams in any league generally are favored by officiating, but I don't think you can claim this happens in the Champions League. There are calls that go for you and calls that go against you. Goal.com had a good piece on all of the calls that have gone Mourinho's way in the Champions League over the years, and I think he does a good job of proving the point that it goes both ways. Scholes 2004, Abidal 2009, Milito 2010
Arsenal had a player sent off for nothing, then real Madrid in the first leg, then in the second leg get a goal disallowed so that's 3 poor decisions in their last 3 matches, and thats just mistakes then is it a bit to often for my liking. I agree that everyone has their luck but barca seem get theirs paving the way to the final.
Arsenal had a player sent off for nothing, then real Madrid in the first leg, then in the second leg get a goal disallowed so that's 3 poor decisions in their last 3 matches, and thats just mistakes then is it a bit to often for my liking. I agree that everyone has their luck but barca seem get theirs paving the way to the final.
Van Persie clearly did it to waste time, that's undeniable. Why would he try and get the shot off so quickly on his wrong foot? If he thought play was still going he clearly would have acted completely differently, namely dribbling down the pitch and getting a good shot off. Time-wasting is a yellow-card. I agree it was harsh to send him off for it, but those are the rules.
As far as Pepe's challenge, of course Alves play-acted, but it was a red-card offense. He went in to the player studs up after going for the ball. Although replays show that Alves exaggerated it a lot, and that the contact may have been minimal, it was still an illegal offense that should have been carded, and that's how the ref is going to call it from his angle. I watched the game with a former ref who agreed.
Higuain's disallowed goal was a terrible call, I agree, but when you get one really bad call in your favor I don't think you can cry foul, especially considering that they were definitely the better team against RM, as they were against Arsenal. The amount of **** they've gotten for it is quite remarkable, people are sick of hearing how good they are so now that they behaved poorly in a couple games everyone hates them. Even though this type of stuff happens in football all of the time. Anyway, ManU will beat them in the final, so it doesn't really matter in the end.
Diving is a yellow yet I don't see many yellows getting handed to the barca players, everyone knows how bad they dive yet every time they do it they get away with it, which brings it back to the question are refs letting them get away with it, they dive then 10 players surround the ref flashing the the famous barca card trait. So what's happened to the yellow for diving? The yellow for the players that all circle the ref every challenge, trying to influence a booking? Seemed to be overlooked every game, I think these are the points that are frustrating everyone, no1 is questioning that they are a great side and Messi is a different class, but they cheat and rules get overlooked cause they play great football.
This is totally unnecessary IMO. Although Barcelona had been benefiting from a lot of big calls throughout the years, I would say that it was mostly due to the fact that Barcelona was one of the most loved club in the world (and Real Madrid was the complete opposite). Everyone admired the way the club was run and it wouldn't surprise me if that is what causes the referees to be slightly bias towards Barcelona. Other than that, I also believe that it was due to the tactics employed by the club. When you're hogging more than 65% of ball possession every game, calls are bound to go your way, because you're basically the only team that is doing anything on the field. Last but not least, the disgusting tactics of Barcelona to hoard around the referees to ensure decisions go their way plays a big part too (especially nowadays). The way they surround the referees was as if it was rehearsed, and I wouldn't be surprise if that was a part of their training. And let's face it, there are quite a lot of referees that are incompetent nowadays (Ovrebo, Wolfgang Stark etc). This is why people misses Collina.
And I've got a slight question regarding Barcelona's divers. Many a times had we seen calls not going Ronaldo's and Nani's way (sorry, I'm a Man Utd fan so these are the only examples that came to my mind) merely because of their reputation of trying to con the referees whenever possible. They have a reputation of diving, and they suffer from that. Strangely though, the same could not be said about Busquets, Mascherano and Dani Alves. I've got a friend that is a big fan of Barcelona and even he admits that these 3 dives in almost every game they've featured in (Mascherano being recently). But yet, whenever they goes down holding their face the referees won't hesitate to award them a freekick or sometimes even cards to their opponents. I'm guessing that Barcelona's reputation as the best side in the world currently plays a vital part.
If Real Madrid players/managers/fans carry on the way they did in the 1st leg of the CL then refs are going to treat them unfairly. Every time a Madrid players went down it was like they'd been kung-fu kicked. Rolling around in agony, pleading with the ref to book him. And the rest of their team and fans going mental at the ref (I thought players weren't allowed to surround the ref anymore). This happened after every challenge, and quite a few times when the Barca players hadn't done anything wrong. The amount of times di Maria went down was just embarassing, and many times when not even touched. I have no sympathy for Real Madrid whatsoever!
If Real Madrid players/managers/fans carry on the way they did in the 1st leg of the CL then refs are going to treat them unfairly. Every time a Madrid players went down it was like they'd been kung-fu kicked. Rolling around in agony, pleading with the ref to book him. And the rest of their team and fans going mental at the ref (I thought players weren't allowed to surround the ref anymore). This happened after every challenge, and quite a few times when the Barca players hadn't done anything wrong. The amount of times di Maria went down was just embarassing, and many times when not even touched. I have no sympathy for Real Madrid whatsoever!
As far as the surrounding the refs go, that's a criticism of Barca that is totally unfair. Last year it was the "typical Germans," this year it's Barca. Every team does this, they all surround the referees when calls don't go their way.
This is totally unnecessary IMO. Although Barcelona had been benefiting from a lot of big calls throughout the years, I would say that it was mostly due to the fact that Barcelona was one of the most loved club in the world (and Real Madrid was the complete opposite). Everyone admired the way the club was run and it wouldn't surprise me if that is what causes the referees to be slightly bias towards Barcelona. Other than that, I also believe that it was due to the tactics employed by the club. When you're hogging more than 65% of ball possession every game, calls are bound to go your way, because you're basically the only team that is doing anything on the field. Last but not least, the disgusting tactics of Barcelona to hoard around the referees to ensure decisions go their way plays a big part too (especially nowadays). The way they surround the referees was as if it was rehearsed, and I wouldn't be surprise if that was a part of their training. And let's face it, there are quite a lot of referees that are incompetent nowadays (Ovrebo, Wolfgang Stark etc). This is why people misses Collina.
And I've got a slight question regarding Barcelona's divers. Many a times had we seen calls not going Ronaldo's and Nani's way (sorry, I'm a Man Utd fan so these are the only examples that came to my mind) merely because of their reputation of trying to con the referees whenever possible. They have a reputation of diving, and they suffer from that. Strangely though, the same could not be said about Busquets, Mascherano and Dani Alves. I've got a friend that is a big fan of Barcelona and even he admits that these 3 dives in almost every game they've featured in (Mascherano being recently). But yet, whenever they goes down holding their face the referees won't hesitate to award them a freekick or sometimes even cards to their opponents. I'm guessing that Barcelona's reputation as the best side in the world currently plays a vital part.