Worst. Miss. Ever.
Thu Apr 03 08:52AM
Arsenal's penalty that never was against Liverpool drew a predictably furious reaction from Arsene Wenger last night.
Referee Pieter Vink somehow missed an obvious foul on Alexander Hleb by Dirk Kuyt, thereby denying the Gunners a possibly match-winning spot-kick.
"There was a blatant penalty right under the eyes of the referee. That has happened a few times now and that makes it hard to accept," Wenger fumed.
"He was five yards away from Kuyt and didn't give the penalty. It's difficult to understand, frankly."
Strangely, Wenger offered no such condemnation of Nicklas Bendtner, who failed the task of doing absolutely nothing at all.
The lumbering Dane inexplicably intercepted Cesc Fabregas's goalbound shot about a yard from goal. Even if he had put it in, which he didn't, he was offside. Had he merely stepped aside - goal.
It surely ranks as the worst 'miss' of all time, because he didn't actually have to do anything.
As blunders go, Bendtner's was in a different stratosphere to Vink's, and yet all his manager could do was offer a meek shrug and describe it as "unlucky".
The point, of course, is that people make mistakes, whether players, referees or managers. And these mistakes obviously alter the course of matches.
In Early Doors's experience, it is the team that stops bleating and gets on with it that usually prospers. Not making goalline clearances for the opposition helps, too.
Incidentally, Early Doors fears it may do somebody an injury if it hears another manager or pundit go on about how different the Champions League is to the Premier League. Not when it's Arsenal versus Liverpool, it isn't.
"Ah, but the pressure is so great in a knockout competition - one goal can make all the difference," they say, stroking their beards and completely neglecting the existence of domestic cup competitions.
And that is as opposed to the league, of course, where it takes three or four goals to win a game and no pressure exists at all.
It's a game of football. Strategy should be exactly the same as for any match - score more goals than the other team.
- - -
While English football whipped itself into a frenzy over just how darned good it is, Chelsea were in the process of losing to unfancied (well, not in Turkey) Fenerbahce.
To compound their embarrassment, the home side's equaliser came from a bloke who was once the prize in a soft drink competition.
Brighton brought Colin Kazim-Richards in 2005 with the £250,000 awarded to a fan by a purveyor of carbonated beverages, who will remain unnamed as Early Doors doesn't like to needlessly plug multinational corporations.
Anyway, the Coca-Cola kid has since found his way to Fenerbahce and even the Turkish national team despite having an Antiguan father and hailing from David Beckham's 'manor' of Leytonstone in London.
Having sensibly decided that Colin is not the kind of name a Turkish international should sport, he has taken the 'so good they named him twice' route and now goes by the moniker 'Kazim Kazim'.
He still sounds like he has stepped straight off the set of EastEnders, though.
- - -
Hot on the heels of yesterday's musings on the fleeting nature of beauty, Cristiano Ronaldo has revealed how he used to be "small, feeble and had crooked teeth" before he took the Joan Rivers route to improving his looks.
"I'm a bit vain, I admit" he said before revealing that bears like to do their dirty business in the woods. "I've had a few cosmetic things done and like to change my hairstyle.
"It would be hypocritical of me to say I think I'm ugly," he continued, momentarily distracted after catching a glimpse of his face reflecting off a spoon.
Although the work to fix his teeth is described as 'secret', Early Doors distinctly remembers him wearing train-track braces for a season or so - and as any tortured teenager will tell you, such contraptions are all too visible.
- - -
QUOTE OF THE DAY: "There's no doubt that Ronaldo has quality but it's also true that he has a big head. Some of his little tricks in the middle of the pitch were unnecessary and he needs to show some respect to his opposition. You can bet that we will have something to say about it in the return leg." David Pizarro reckons Cristiano Ronaldo could need plastic surgery on his shins after the second leg against Roma.
TANTRUM OF THE DAY: Frank Lampard's quite spectacular hissy fit when substituted against Fenerbahce, which saw him kick out at a bottle of water and chuck his training top to the deck. A model professional.
FOREIGN VIEW: More mischief-making at Spanish rag Marca, who quote Real Madrid's sporting director Predrag Mijatovic as saying he was in Rome on Tuesday to thrash out deals for midfielders Daniele De Rossi and Alberto Aquilani.
TALKING POINT: Several intriguing suggestions for potential academies, mainly used as vehicles for vicious personal attacks, such as this from grahamnpotter: "The Robbie Savage Soccer School for underachieving poseurs. He has all the attributes required; ridiculous girlie haircut, in love with himself and an unshakeable belief that he is better than anyone else thinks he is."
rachael_blah plagiarises from the film Zoolander - but in a good way: "How about the 'David Beckham Centre For Children Who Can't Read Good and Wanna Learn To Do Other Stuff Good Too'?"
First prize goes to vincentvegaman for this: "The Stan Collymore Soccer academy, rubbish facilities, but it'd probably have a car park to die for."
COMING UP: Didn't we used to have about eight teams in the UEFA Cup? It's just Rangers to be going along with now as they take on Sporting Lisbon at Ibrox at 7.45pm. Minute-by-minute comments of that one, plus live scores and scorers from all the evening's action.
Been nice chatting this morning, unfortunately I have to go out now so will catch up on your comments later. Sorry KHsnowball, whatever do you mean?
From barny1158 on Thu Apr 03 11:11AMIn reply to g-hine at comment 21, I am not sure I agree that in the old days refs were anonymous blokes who just turned up and did a job without anyone noticing. Ask any Everton fan who Clive Thomas is, and you will get an answer containing a lot of expletives, yet he was a ref in the 1970s. You could probably get a similar reply from a Brazilian, because they had a goal disallowed in a World Cup Finals game by Thomas, who took the farcical decision to blow for half time when a corner kick was in flight, and Brazil were a bit miffed when a few miliseconds later the scored with a header, only to find Thomas walking off the pitch arrogantly shaking his head and pointing ot the tunnel. I think the key thing these days is that football is big business, and every game is covered by multiple cameras giving numerous angles on a incident. BBC, Sky etc can analyse and dissect in slow motion every single little thing, and surprise surprise, the refs sometimes are shown to have got it wrong, and some pundit ex-player criticises the ref for actually applying the laws of the game properly. Refs are humans who make mistakes, and you can't blame them for being hesitant about giving pens when there is so much diving (aka CHEATING) going on. Andy Johnson is renowned a diver (with at least aprtial justification), and the problem now is that he could have his legs removed with a chainsaw by the oppositon centre half in the penalty area and he still wouldn't win the penalty because refs consider him a diver. Anyway, when managers start to criticise their players for diving and other cheating as vociferously as they criticise refs, I'll take some notice. If the penalty incident in the Arsenal game had been a case of Liverpool being the wronged party, I am sure Wenger would have done his normal Mr Magoo and not seen it. To be fair to Wenger though, he is no bigger a hypocrit than most other managers on these issues.
From andywalker269 on Thu Apr 03 11:26AMPretty sure it was me who said Fenerbahce was the team to beat a few articles ago, and nobody should be surprised Chelsea did not beat them.
From jasondharrison on Thu Apr 03 11:30AMliverpool will thrash arsenal at anfield next week...Just watch and see
From cherry_smith2010 on Thu Apr 03 11:47AMare u in any way insinuating dat fernerbache re goin to beat chelsea at the bridge,me thinks that is wishful thinking on ur part if u re
From schmokginok on Thu Apr 03 11:49AMFen don't have to beat Chelsea. A draw is enough for them. Funny the only thing Chelsea has to brag about nowadays is the home form. OK OK u guys don't lose at home...but u don't play that well away either. Remember that u didn't even maange to "score" last night.
From tosinsbox on Thu Apr 03 11:56AMWell spotted ED, I sent the same quote from Pizarro to some of my mates yesterday too. Couldnt believe it! I'm sick and tired of footballers whining about 'not being respected' on the pitch because they're playing against better-skilled opponents!
As already noted on this forum, fans pay good money to see 'artists' like C. Ronaldo, Nani, Jay-Jay Okocha, Ronaldinho and Messi beat defenders in style! Pizzaro should just play football or find another job!
From baydo12 on Thu Apr 03 11:57AMffhfh
From hhalleluyah on Thu Apr 03 12:12PMthat has got to be the last straw as far as bendtners concerned, it was bad enough when he was missing chances and doing nothing, at least that meant the odd defender might have to look at him just to check, but now hes started stopping us scoring, please mr wenger, boot the idiot as far away from arsenal as u can!!!!!!
From karenadlington on Thu Apr 03 12:16PMLiverpool were purely defensive and very boring in the 2nd half. They should play in the Italian league. Why have a brilliant striker like Torres and not give him a chance to score??
From tontonsky on Thu Apr 03 12:30PMMaybe they should try Bendtner as a goalie?
From g_tande on Thu Apr 03 12:31PMFinally, Arsenic has admitted seeing an "incident" on the pitch.
From astrophel83 on Thu Apr 03 01:24PMThere are other footballers also good enough to be named twice, such as Vennegoor of Hesselink Vennegoor of Hesselink. Now that just rolls off the tongue...
From tastywog on Thu Apr 03 01:25PMfor those that want to relive the magic
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_IjR9a0JvA
From g_hine on Thu Apr 03 01:26PMWell said Andy Walker! I also totally agree with the comments about video replays. How Mr Blatter can arrogantly dismiss them out of hand is beyond me, after all everyone gets to see the slo-mos anyway, so why allow the refs to make human but blatant (and match-defining) mistakes? How is the proposal of a fifth official supposed to help? So many offside decisions are wrong because of a) the distance between the player passing the ball and the forward who is potentially offside and b) the speed with which the defender and forward are moving in opposite directions. It is humanly impossible to simultaneously clock all those things happening at once. We should leave it to the ref's discretion to decide whether or not to consult a replay. I have seen enough rugby games to know that the disruption is minimal. It really works (as do the various disciplinary measures like retreating 10 years, sin-binning etc.).
Oh, and maybe we could just scrap the offside rule while we are at it as well...
From garethcoletranslations on Thu Apr 03 01:27PMThe fans at any ground without a large-screen would be completely in the dark. The inclusion of video replay should not be allowed to lead to a two-tier rule system whereby the big clubs can have the power to query decisions yet Championship, or league 1&2 etc. have to continue as before. The rules of football should be universal.
From g_hine on Thu Apr 03 01:35PMYour telling me Championship sides can't afford a large TV? What rubbish lol
From double_t_uk2002 on Thu Apr 03 02:12PMPizarro's comments are pathetic. If someone has the ability to outclass you on the pitch, it's not about a lack of respect - it's about a show of superior skill. If you dont like it, get in there and take the ball from him. If you can't, hold your hands up and admit how good the lad is! And don't go 2-0 down at home in the first place giving him reason to showboat even more.
There was a similar case when Nani showboated against Arsenal in the FA cup. A few tricks and everyone was bleating about a lack of respect. I'm not a Man Utd fan, but the answer is surely simple...
Don't go 4-0 down in the first place.
From northern_hamster on Thu Apr 03 02:18PMMy expletive was "s c r a p", nothing too rude... ;o)
From garethcoletranslations on Thu Apr 03 02:21PMOk Championship sides can afford a large screen. but that doesn't negate the problem that a line would have to be drawn somewhere (1st div, 2nd div, conference - wherever doesn't really matter) and a two-tier rule system created.
From g_hine on Thu Apr 03 02:22PMNani had his back to goal, he was in a position where all he could do was header it out for a free kick or hoof it down the pitch, he instead used his skill to his advantage and held possesion of the ball well. He was then criticised for showboating and showing a lack of respect, what a crock of @#$% lol. Newcastle didn't deserve any respect anyways they're @#$%
From double_t_uk2002 on Thu Apr 03 02:28PMg_hine,
Don't you think that kind of distinction applise already? Unless you go to the match, all you get to see of the lower leagues is a few shaky highlights on Sunday morning on ITV. Referee's decisions are commented on but rarely subjected to the same level of scrutiny. I think it would be fine to have a two tier system, with video replays for the premier league and the championship and not for leagues below. You wouldn't be changing the rules of the game for the two top divisions, just trying harder to eliminate human error and (hopefully) cheating.From garethcoletranslations on Thu Apr 03 02:39PMWorse still, I sit occasionally with my ear to the radio and listen to the hilariously biased commentary on Radio Norfolk.
However, I think that the rules of football apply the same to a Sunday league player as they do an international. When you start playing around with rules for some and not for others, it becomes tricky. Which competitions due you apply video evidence to? Personally, I have no problem with video being used in principle. But, I don't believe that football will benefit that much from its use. Instead, the managers will complain that the referees spent too much time referring to the video and ruined the fluidity of the game to the detriment of their team. Managers will always try and blame someone or something else for losing. Bringing video into the sport will not change this one iota. Rather, get universal support for the officials so that every team, no matter what status is treated equally (only going to happen in a perfect world, - I know).
From g_hine on Thu Apr 03 03:06PMdue??? sorry - do
From g_hine on Thu Apr 03 03:07PMI agree that the most important principle is that the referee is always right and must be respected, no matter what. But, when it comes to football supporters, everyone seems to be blind, from the supporters on the stands hurling abuse at the ref for a clearly correct decision that happens to go against them, right up to the obnoxious managers who know no shame when it comes to disrespecting referees. Presumably the FA could help - by punishing for example Ferguson and his assistant where it actually hurts, instead of a puny fine no more expensive than a posh bottle of wine or a flutter on the races. There is so much money at stake in football (and by the way, that is ruining the sport) for principles of fair play and decency to prevail. Give the referees a break and the benefit of video assistance. This would be an important step towards universal support for refs. Of course they could still get it wrong, as not every decision would be clear-cut, but players, fans and managers would be more accepting of the decisions.
From garethcoletranslations on Thu Apr 03 03:18PMI know an Arsenal fan who started a petition to ban the Danish cartoon (that cartoon being Nicklas Bendtner, not the one of the prophet)
From alihatefi on Thu Apr 03 04:59PMWell said garethcole.
I was of the opinion that there was too much money in football, and nearly everything you said in your last comment was right. Most prem league players, no matter how educationally challenged, think that their money can buy anything or anyone almost, so have a hard job in respecting others , on or off the field of play. A case comes to mind, when not too long ago, the brothers Ferdinand were not able to park outside a favourite nightclub of theirs, so they paid off the taxis ranked outside so they could park BOTH their cars outside the door!!Who's to blame for all the problems relating to footie, there is probably a list as long as your arm, but with egotistical overpaid players, who think that everything and everyone can be bought, what price put on RESPECT???From barny1158 on Thu Apr 03 05:07PMYou've got to laugh at the comc due that is Nicolas Bentner and Emmanuel Adebayor.If these two are'nt missing sitters in front of goal they're landing headbutts on each other's nose. In fact it s difficult o know who's the bigger discgarce at arsenal.
From samuelbanks on Thu Apr 03 05:22PMYou've got to laugh at the comc due that is Nicolas Bentner and Emmanuel Adebayor.If these two are'nt missing sitters in front of goal they're landing headbutts on each other's nose. In fact it s difficult o know who's the bigger discgarce at arsenal.
From samuelbanks on Thu Apr 03 05:22PMIt is difficult to argue with the fact that there is too much money in the game and as I said, I'm not against the use of video evidence. I just don't believe that it is the panacea that people believe. Bring back the old 'YTS' player ethos. Make young players clean the boots of the older players to teach them a bit of humility. Then if they break club conduct rules. hit them where it hurts - humiliating punishments like forcing players to leave the Bentley at home and get public transport to training would be much more effective than docking wages (excepting Cashley of course)
From g_hine on Thu Apr 03 05:24PM
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