Manchester United 1 Chelsea 2: match report

[Rockman]

At least regarding all so-called fouls the referee was consistent, the number of infractions that made up the non calls has nothing to do with a particular team(we can't expect him to share it evenly). There is less room for off side regarding discretion.


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[Tilla]

Good to have an input from an unbiased person.

Thanks Peter R.

[Tilla]

Rocky, why am I no surprised?

[Tilla]

Hand ball is hand ball. Offside is offside. Both goals should not have been allowed. You still would lose at the end of the day. And if you are begging a penalty, then Chelsea should have had one for the tackle on Anelka too.

[Rockman]

What, Peter R family(Paul Marin) has as his avatar a disparaging picture of the great Rooney, he and Paul just happen to be Liverpool fans. As such he is at his worst now and is glad for the unfair demise of Man U.

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[Rockman]

Not so, Macheda was surprised by the ball, he had no time to react by chesting it into goal, why the leap it was anything other than ball to hand?Bottom line , I can understand why a ref would get such a call wrong.


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[Tilla]

You do not play a ball in goal with your hand and it is ball to hand. Once it is going to result in a disadvantage to the other side, it has to be called a hand ball.

Hey, the referee could have missed it yes, but I do not think his two assistants should.

My point in all this discussion, the officiating was poor. The outcome however did not rob you of a victory anymore than the other side. In other wordds, recall the two miscalls which counted as goals and you are still in the hole by one goal.

[Rockman]

Would you have faulted the ref had he ruled Drogba off side?



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[Peter R]

Agreed. Offside is not discretionary. A hand ball falls into the same category although there is some discretion where ball to hand vs hand to ball is concerned. In the case of the offside the refs definitely blew it big time as it wasn't even marginal. I wouldn't blame ManU fans for thinking conspiracy. In the hand ball I would say they blew it too but won't come down on them as much as it is harder to detect on the fly... we have the benefit of replay so it was clear he handled the ball DELIBERATELY.

The argument about discretion really to me applies to instances where refs either believe there was contact with the ball by the tackler before a man goes down (as in the Berbatov incident) or an advantage is allowed., Otherwise, a foul is a foul if it is blatant. Anelka's was blatant... the ref simply missed it in the same way that the assistant ref missed the offside. Don't ask me what happened with Park, it was a non-call in my books as I thought he went down much too easily...and that is the danger of trying to assist the ref to make a decision in your favour; it could backfire.

Anyhow, this debate could go on forever, to neutral viewers (and I must confess I was hoping for a Chelsea win) the better team on the day prevailed.

[Rockman]

That ius fair but look, the issue isn't whether the ball made contact with Macheda's hand, it is about the officials' interpretation....not so in the case of off side. They made a call in the blind so to speak.



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[Tilla]

No I would not as it was offside by a mile. If you read my other posts, you would see I said that already.

I think though that if he is going to deny Chelsea an obvious penalty, allow ManU an handball goal, then allow the damn offside goal.

Anyway, referees will continue to make mistakes as long as FIFA refuses to implement the technology to correct the problem. Just think about it though, if FIFA were allowing the useof replay for th ereferee's benefit, then Chelsea offside goal would have been called back and so too would ManU handball goal.

At the end of the day, Chelsea would have won the battle of the geriatrics.

[Peter R]

I would be glad for their (ManU) demise, don't get me wrong, but "unfair demise" is not me bredrin.

As for Paul's avatar I cannot answer for that.

Anyway, my honest opinion is that the EPL title is still a two horse race with a possible late charge by Arsenal, but I think they don't have it to finish. ManU has proven to be extremely resilient over time and I admire the team(grudgingly) for that and I have not counted ManU out yet. I hope HL is correct and that Tottenham and ManCity will out your lights... but it aint over til its over. be thankful you have a team in the race...my team has self-destructed so you have to give people like me a little leeway in seeking joy in another's demise... sorry it's your team...

Think of the rest of the season as a mini season and all bets are ON for the top two.

[Rockman]

Look, there is room for we to disagree on the so-called non calls, there isn't regarding offside(finally spell it right).
Seems we have to make goal difference irrelevant, that is the tall order we have.

Westman was spot on regarding Neville, the great Fergie missed it.



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[Peter R]

Missing an offside when it was so blatant is inexcusable. Anything else I agree the ref or assistants could miss in the mix of players.

[Rockman]

Suh unnuh really gwaan try fi beat Chelsea? )


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