Barca - Chelsea 2nd leg [R]

Some people are definitely grasping at straws here. First, the issue with Terry and Sanchez. Terry definitely deserved to go; there's really no excuse for what he did. There are many occasions where a player is fouled and exaggerates the extent of the contact. Generally, only the most egregious and obvious instances result in a caution for unsporting behavior. The supposed exaggeration here was far from clear cut, especially since Terry was sent off for VC. A caution to Sanchez on this play would create problems for all the reasons MassRef already listed.

Second, some of you wanted Messi sent off the VC? I saw the play and I'm not seeing it all. The most I can see for that is a caution - it was a push to the chest and there was no force behind it. A red card here would have been a complete overreaction.

Third, the PK. This one is not as clear cut, but there appeared to be enough contact to me. It was an ill-advised tackle from Drogba and certainly a careless foul, IMO. The PK was warranted. Someone mentioned that Drogba received a yellow card on this play, but I don't believe that is the case, nor was a yellow necessary. The awarding of the PK was sufficient punishment.

 

See for yourself.

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlmknoeyk3g"]Penalty Incident Chelsea v barcelona 2012 - YouTube[/ame]

 

Thanks for providing video. Obviously none of us had seen the penalty yet. We were just going by what we heard about it.

 

You're quite welcome La Rikardo though I'll admit My 5th grader is more skilled at sarcasm.

Freeze frame the youtube video and it seems clear Drogba makes no contact with Fabregas. It would've taken courage, but this should've been caution for fabs - IDFK coming out.

 

Ah, sarcasm critiques as well - how nice! My 5th grader could have found a better video!

@ntxsage - I see Drogba going down, making contact and a trip - good call by a referee who was not "over his head" - are there things that were not perfect? of course - I do agree the caution for Cech was ill-timed.

Overall though, this was, from a refereeing perspective, a nicely run high-level match. I hope we see another quality match today in the other semi.

 

+1 on this.

 

I don't have video to post, but you can add me to the camp who consider Lampard's challenge to be a clear red (scissors). I don't think the referee caught the full extent of it, as a Chelsea player was running across his line of sight.

In spite of the crew's excellent recognition of the Terry VC, I came away thinking they had a so-so day at best. In particular, Fabregas' penalty looks like a pure dive to me.

 

I'm in the "orange" category on Lampard's tackle, I'm honestly not sure where I'd land in a match.

Was Neville getting a physical while the Torres goal was being scored? I've now learned a new word after reading some of the reports on the match: "goal-gasm".

 

I actually thought this was the high point of the CR's decision making.

The red and PK were using his teammates wisely. Well done. But, frankly, I could do that! (OK, there's more too it than that. I know.)

But managing 45 min of "kill the game" took real skill. It could EASILY have gone in the toilet. He didn't make any unnecessary show here but succeeded in drawing a line in the sand. That made the game watchable. Not too shabby.

 

I agree with the others who said the Lampard tackle was very orange. Given the context of the game, with Terry already having been sent off and Lampard not having been a particular problem throughout the match, I think the decision to caution rather than send off here was a good one.

Something that occurred to me when I was watching was that the game provided interesting challenges with positioning. Particularly in the second half when Chelsea had parked the bus, the game was very compressed and the referee didn't have many options where he could be out of the way. With so many players in the penalty area, you have to choose your position carefully to maximize viewing and try to a get good angle. Not easy with so many players in such a small space.

 

Nice observation - especially with Barca's intent and ability to move the ball quickly and in tight spaces at the top of the box - I seem to recall several times of him being positioned correctly for a moment, then the ball is played his way and he had to move quickly out of the way.

Another issue, this time re the AAR - during the 2nd half, it seemed the AAR would stand directly on the goal line during active play near the penalty area - the times I noticed it, the AR was 5 yards up field with the ball or 2LD, so the AAR didn't interfere with his sight lines, but I didn't notice if the AAR then stepped back from the goal line as the ball and/or 2LD came closer to the goal line. Anyone else notice this? I may have to watch a replay to see if my recollection is accurate. Full disclosure: I don't like the AAR on the same side as the AR, so maybe I'm looking for a way to discredit this practice??

 

Rep, rep, and rep for dealing with one of my pet peeves.

 

The problem is Chec wasn't actually wasting time when he was cautioned. The very sophisticated camp nou crowd whistled immediately anytime the ball went out of play, which likely influenced the center's eagerness. Didn't count each one, but I don't think Chec took more than 6 seconds for any restart. It seemed to be a "I know you might start delay tactics eventually, so I'll caution you in advance just in case you do".

 

Sorry, but you're out to lunch on this one. Cech took more than six seconds on every restart, at least until he was cautioned. Not that six seconds is some kind of magic number for restarts, but he was clearly wasting time. That said, I'm not sure that the incident in question was the right moment for the referee to caution Cech, but don't think for a second that he wasn't using delaying tactics.

 

As I watch many Barca games, this appears to be a problem quite often with their style of play. The La Liga referees seem somewhat more used to it and don't get in the way as often, but I've commented here before that in UEFA matches, the other referees tend to get into Barcelona's passing lanes quite often. One CL match a while back I remember yelling at the TV constantly for the ref to get out of the middle of Barca's triangle.. I imagine it's tough with the hundreds of passes they make in any given half.

 

Whether or not he was wasting time on that particular scenario is somewhat arguable (only somewhat, imo) but he was consistently in no rush at all to put the ball back into play throughout most of the match IMO.

I remember watching the match thinking, "when is the referee going to caution Cech?", then when it happened I thought "it's about time".

 

As we were watching, I was laughing with my son about this: "With the ball stuck at the top of Chelsea's 18, even I could keep up with play in this game."

The AR's job was equally bizarre. Probably the (physically) easiest run he will have all season. But on each of the Barca touches you have to keep track of soooo many bodies. Mentally, he must still be recovering.