Draw two

Valentin Ivanov had quite an eventful game on 26th June (Indian Time). He played cards, deadly game for the players (*cough* football players). They of course suffered and acted and simulated and did everything they could to make the other team get more cards. The point of this game was to make the opposing team draw as many cards as they could and Ivanov was quite generous, handing out whenever he could.

Chelsea versus Barcelona, of course, you may wonder what I have for these sort of games. So I’ll tell you, nothing in particular. I thought Chelsea played decent football yesterday, and Barcelona still a shadow of their last year’s team. The game of course ended in a draw (2-2) with Drogba equalizing for Chelsea in the 93rd minute. Jose Mourinho for a second thought he had scored the goal and went in for a series of celebrations. Frank Rijkaard on the other hand just got furious with the officials decision to add on 6 minutes of injury time. I don’t blame him. If I were in his place I would have jumped down the referee and the fourth official’s throat (beg your pardon, I didn’t get the referee’s name thus far).

Referee’s are in the game to ensure smooth play. Not to stop the game when its building up at Central Midfield. Rough tackles happen in midfield, especially when clubs of the standard of Chelsea and Barcelona play. Both do their best to ensure a win for their club, even if it resorts to slightly unpleasant methods. When I talk about unpleasant methods, I’m not only talking about rough tackles, but also its direct opposite, simulation.

People regard Chelsea as a diver’s club more than a footballing one, but Barcelona seemed to have taken a couple of lessons from them with regard to yesterday’s match. Deco fell to the floor, supposedly injured and was writhing around when next second the ball was hit at him by someone (again, I forget who) and boom, he’s back on his feet and ready to fight.

The refereeing for yesterday’s game was bad, to say the least and piss poor in the extreme. Bad tackles went unpunished and good tackles were taken into the book. Carlos Puyol lifted his boot to the shoulder of a Chelsea player (cant remember who), which definitely should have been a yellow card, but nothing was given except a free kick to Chelsea. Ricardo Carvalho, inadvertently (perhaps), kicked fellow Portuguese player Deco in the thigh and got away with it, and this time, I don’t think Deco was acting.

Frank Lampard got a yellow card for walking. I kid you not, a (second) yellow card was supposed to be given to Ashley Cole, who would have headed for the showers had Frank Lampard not walked right in front of the referee and Cole. Luckily for Cole and unluckily for Lampard. Watching the replay, it was quite clear that the card was intended for Cole, but Lampard walks into the frame and screams something at someone (possibly a fellow player) and goes into the referee’s book.

Bravo Ref! I always wanted Chelsea to be looked into closely by the referee’s because of their talent for acting, led by Arjen Robben of course, the Olympic Diver. Robben is a powerful winger, and very easy to go to ground, even if there’s no contact. Thus far, I’ve never seen him go into the book for simulation. Didier Drogba happily elbowed a few Barcelona players yesterday. The referee called a few shots, but at all the wrong times. He didn’t nip arguments when it was required of him and he was not lenient on the softer tackles.

A case against Barcelona, young boy Lio Messi, comes into the spotlight, not out of the ordinary, but a piss poor way of making yourself famous. A fight erupted and both Chelsea and Barcelona players gathered round, no doubt passing death threats to one another, but Lio Messi goes one step further and tries to push Khalid Boulahrouz off his feet. Needless to say, he doesn’t succeed, Boulahrouz nearly being double his age and his size.

One bad decision by the ref is all that’s required to make the game go hay-way. If he penalizes someone for a soft tackle, he has set himself a standard. Any tackle on the same level or even a little rougher, has to be taken into account. The little rougher one’s going into the book for a yellow card and the “real rough” ones, which would have been a yellow card in any other game, would see red.

Ace referee Pierluigi Collina says it best, “We aren’t enemies. There are two teams playing and the role of the referee is to help them play better”.Till then, we see yellow and red.