MR - what's the difference between going out of his way to step near a player and planting wide in order to cut back along the goal line? The rest of his body is totally in line with that intent - upper body leaning to the right, right foot ready to cut with the ball. He certainly cannot keep going straight or to the left here & is at full pace. Maybe I'm just naïve? The rest of the call, foot planted & caught by the defender or planted on the defender seem quite unclear / not visible, but the 2 refs on scene didn't hesitate. Sad that this is what people are focusing on - a tricky PK call - and not the obvious Ramires elbow & missed RC.
Some might accuse you of straddling the fence here! Seems like there's going to be real debate over this call, which surprises me. Let me ask the question this way: what did Azpilicueta do that was "careless?" To me, he slides in to block the possible cross, which is going to happen in 99.9% of cases like this. He's nowhere near Altidore. I just don't see where he, in any way, commits a foul. Altidore steps on him. We can debate whether he's putting his plant leg to cut back (inexplicably) away from goal or if it's an accident or if Altidore cynically (smartly?) realized the challenged came in and deliberate went out of his way to step toward him (the verbiage I've chosen probably gives away what I think). But it really doesn't matter. I don't see what Azpilicueta has done that can be construed as a foul. We punish the nature of the challenge, not the result, right? I can't see anything "careless" that's been done.
Nothing, ultimately. As I just said in my follow-up post, the standard has to be if the tackling player has done anything careless. Has he committed a careless tackle that disadvantaged the attacker? Or did he attempt to block a cross with care and then the attacker's subsequent actions (for whatever reason they were made) prompted the contact? I don't want to say this is an easy call in real-time by any stretch. But I do think it's pretty straight-forward once you get the luxury of all the replays. If we're punishing defenders for this sort of thing, then it's open season for really soft penalty kicks. We can talk about defenders being responsible for their actions all day, but attackers have to be responsible, too. Again, it shouldn't matter (and we're not supposed to read intent) but how often does a striker/winger cut back in that scenario to face 180 degrees away from goal and temporarily give up the opportunity to cross? It can happen, so I'm not dismissing it completely. But it's rare. My personal opinion here, but I think Altidore sees his opponent go to ground and goes out of his way to ensure there is contact. I get that people are going to disagree on that particular point. But I'd still challenge people to justify how the defender's actions rise to "careless."
Watching the .gif for the 50th time or so, I think Altidore chooses to turn away from goal before Azpilicueta goes to ground. I take that from the way he leans his shoulder into the defender right at the beginning of the .gif, which is him starting to shield. Also, he brings his right foot inside the ball well before any contact - again, I believe he is shielding/protecting the ball from Azpilicueta. Why isn't he going to goal? I don't know. Perhaps he didn't think he had a good angle, perhaps there weren't any teammates to cross to (I've only seen the .gif posted on the last page, so maybe I'm wrong on this). He's playing for a team in a relegation fight at a title contender, with less than 10 minutes to go. It's not that outlandish that he would choose to protect possession by turning away from his defender, even when on a promising attack. Your point about Azpilicueta's carelessness is a good one. It comes down to how we interpret carelessness. What duty of care does a player who goes to ground owe his opponent? The way I interpret it in this situation (and by extension in all situations) is that if you go to ground, you need to take care of your opponent by not tripping him. If you do trip him as a result of your slide, even if that wasn't your intention, then you haven't taken enough care of your opponent while sliding to block the cross. We have to distinguish situations where the striker clearly seeks to take advantage of the defender on the ground by intentionally tripping over him (the Grosso penalty vs. Australia in '06 comes to mind), but I don't think that's what happened here. Altidore is looking at the ball when he steps on Azpilicueta's trail leg. I don't think either player is looking for the contact. My "duty of care" interpretation obviously isn't written in LOTG, but I think we can argue about what "careless" means in situations like this, and that's how I interpret it. Everything I've written might be nonsense, but at least I've hopped off the fence!
To me this is a pretty soft penalty and one I'd normally expect to be waved off in the EPL. That said if I was refereeing and gave the penalty my explanation would be "he slid in and got the player not the ball". Conveniently ignoring the fact that if you had to figure out who was responsible for Azpilicueta catching Altidore you'd have to say the responsibility was with Altidore. On the other hand it doesn't really look to me like Altidore was trying to step on Azpilicueta, more like Altidore was trying to turn away because Azpilicueta had him covered. So yeah I dunno. Tough one. (full disclosure - Liverpool fan, so having Sunderland get that penalty is huge...)
After all this crazy aftermath of the Chelsea-Sunderland game, there is only one man who can handle next week's Liverpool-Chelsea, and that is Howard Webb.
I, of course, don't disagree. It can't be Clattenburg and can't be Dean (he doesn't do Liverpool). And Dowd has had Liverpool and Chelsea a lot, lately. However, Webb had the Chelsea-Liverpool match at Stamford Bridge. How often does the same referee get both fixtures between two teams in the EPL? I honestly don't know, but if it's not "never," it's definitely close to never. I think we need to consider who the alternatives are if it's not Webb. And the only one I see is Atkinson. I think it's probably his match.
As MR says, Atkinson is perfectly capable of handling the game. I'd be happy with either of them, but I'd marginally prefer Atkinson. Not because Atkinson is necessarily any better, but because no matter what kind of game he has it won't be as big of a deal as Webb's game would be (no matter what kind of game Webb has).
Doubleposting, but I thought Marriner handled LIV-NOR pretty well. Could be a case for a red for that tackle in the first half, and Skrtel is playing with fire every time the opposition have a corner (that really should have been a penalty, and that's coming from a Liverpool supporter!), but aside from those two points I didn't see him put a foot wrong.
Skrtel has been mugging people on corners all season. Not just the usual clutch and grab but full on pointy ball wrap up and take down. He's not the only one, but seems to be the worst.
Happy Easter! Anyone watching Everton v Man U? Clatts seems to be calling it pretty loose. Will be interesting to see if it boils over.
Nah, United doesn't have the fight in them. Plus, Clatts called a penalty with fantastic positioning.
Great advantage from Clattenburg on the second Everton goal. I really like his style, and I've never really been too impressed by Webb to be honest. Sorta surprised he isn't England's #1.
It's such a shame UEFA/FIFA won't look past appointing two referees from the same nation to a World Cup. IMO (albeit biased), Webb is the best in the world on the international stage, and I think Clatts walks the floor with half of the UEFA referees selected. Today showed why. The man is fitter than most of the PL players and even at 37 (or so), would beat most in a sprint. He gets into amazing positions and has the balls to give some extremely difficult and contentious decisions. IMO, he's been the best SG ref this season. As for Webb, I think he got both decisions correct yesterday. As for the LIV/CHE game, I'm guessing it'll be Webb. Referees getting the reverse fixture is more common that you'd think, unless there's been some particularly controversy in the first game. The only things that possibly stops Webb getting it are the SG's willingness to seemingly keep him out of the limelight pre-WC, and the furore Liverpool felt after his handling of the ARS/LIV FAC match. If not Webb, then I agree that Atkinson is a perfectly adequate alternative, although I wouldn't rule out Dowd or Oliver.
So Webb has a midweek CL semifinal (first leg - Bayern vs. Barca). Anyone think this might change the assignment for next weekend? I'm thinking Atkinson might well be the front-runner now. And hell, why not throw Oliver's name in the hat too, he seems to be the young gun in the SG.
Atkinson is one of Webb's AARs, though. Also, the UEFA assignment will have been known to the FA for a little bit. So it shouldn't change a planned assignment. We're also reaching the point, depending on results, where the matches for 4th place and to get out of the relegation zone could be perceived as bigger as the ones at the top of the table. Lots of pieces to the proverbial puzzle for the final few weeks now.
Webb gets Palace v Man City. Oliver on Southampton v Everton. Swarbrick on Arsenal v Newcastle, which seems a bit surprising. Lee Probert has a pretty interesting game at Old Trafford, as United plays Norwich. Dowd gets the Sunderland v Cardiff relegation battle. Clattenburg has an almost "meaningless" Swansea v Aston Villa match, as neither team is really threatened with relegation, which likely means he's being saved for whatever big game needs him at the end.
Does the fact that Probert has the FA Cup Final which will involve Arsenal have any bearing on his eligibility to ref Arsenal in the league, or is that not treated like doing a league game?
Interesting morning so far, with respect to fouls in the PA- Oliver (Everton v southhampton) cautions Bosman for a dive after going down with contact in the PA. Lee Mason just waved off a penalty claim in Fulham v Hull when a Fulham player goes down easy after body contact. I wonder if there was some instruction to not reward going down easy after all the talk following the arsenal game last week.
Mason also gave out a YC for simulation very early in the match on a clear dive in the penalty area by a Fulham player.
I don't have a video, but on the couple of quick replays during the broadcast I thought it looked like Osman started down before the contact occurred. I'm guessing that was what Oliver thought he saw as well.
I'd argue Lee Probert just looked the other way on a pretty clear DOGSO. Gave the penalty, but didn't even seem to contemplate a card. Odd to me.