Hard to call this a "Week," as it's an FA Cup weekend, but there is one stray EPL match today: Liverpool : Swansea - WEBB
"Premier League to introduce goal-line technology next season" http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21624953 Sounds like the EPL will choose the system, and the clubs will have to buy it -- will be the same one for refs every week, no matter where they are.
Some big talking points for Mr. Foy in the Sunderland/Norwich game. 1) DOGSO-H for Norwich GK for handling a backpass outside the area. Even after 5 or 6 replays I can't tell if it hit his arm or his chest with his arms raised above it. 2) Sunderland penalty for handling. Probably go this one right. 3) Norwich denied a penalty for handling. Foy lines the ball up for a FK with part of the ball touching the penalty area. 4) Holt booked for going in on the keeper. Sorry, but going in two footed studs up at the keepers head is a red not a yellow. I don't care that Holt got the ball.
I only saw the replays but it looked to me like the GK got the ball with his right arm or elbow. So that one seemed correct. They did certainly miss the PK that should have gone against Sunderland but it you can understand how that got missed since the player was essentially jumping right on the edge of the area. From the AR's perspective it would be almost impossible to tell if the handling was inside or outside. And I don't think the referee was going to call it at all. While I agree with you on the foul by Holt on the GK, this is England where almost nothing is a send off. All of that macho, "get stuck in" crap does the game a real disservice in England.
But he got the ball! Without having seen the whole video, I can only assume that Halsey was directly behind the Wigan player and didn't see it like you could from the side. Quite bad for not even a free kick to have been given though. EDIT: Found an image showing Halsey. Looks like a Newcastle player crossed in front of him at the wrong moment. Should AR1 or the 4th be able to help with this?
I think Halsey needs to get himself in a much better position for this situation. AR1 and 4th are much too far away to make a decision on this type of foul.
I guess that the video review authorities will now be able to throw the book at him, what an absolute horror tackle.
If I'm looking at this correctly, Haisley is screened and that is where he misses the contact. It is likely AR1 is more focused on the offside/back line and probably did not get a good look, if any on the foul. I also would not want him making that call from 75/80 yards away. While the 4th could help, he is likely further away then AR1 and probably can't see much based on all of the players in between midfield and where the ball was. AR2 likely can't see the tackle because of the fouled player blocking his view. This one comes down to Haisley who was unfortunately out of position.
Graham Poll has a pretty scathing attack on Halsley in his latest Daily Mail Column. He basically said that he wasn't moving enough the whole game. I think Halsley is too old and not fit enough anymore to referee in the EPL. One thing that I don't understand is why referees can not put two and two together and come to a conclusion that a certain incident is not a good tackle? I get on handling calls and PK calls in the area that you can only "give what you see." But on tackles like that, it shouldn't really matter if you were "screened" or not. You see a player coming a 100 miles an hour and then you see another buckle as a result of the collision. Immediately the thought in your mind should be that something isn't right there. Then you see the guy being stretchered off. Put two and two together.
Because guessing and getting it wrong is seen as worse than not guessing and getting it wrong. There's lots of studies out there that show that humans dislike errors of commission more than errors of omission. There's two possibilities (at least) for what Halsley was screen from: 1) a bad tackle 2) the attacker's knee suddenly giving out on it's own. Calling a foul in 2 would be received much more harshly than not calling a foul in 1. So we call what we see and accept that we are human (and hopefully work harder to get in better position next time).
See everybody, its okay. The Wigan chairman has weighed in and said that the tackle wasn't reckless. http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/21830721 Not even a yellow he says. So sure it was probably a foul and Halsey missed that but hey, we all miss a foul or two in our games. Seriously, the damage control by Wigan is disturbing. You always know when its a bad tackle because the magic phrase "he's not that type of player". Well thats nice. I'm glad he isn't intentionally trying to destroy other players careers. He should be in a jail if he was. But the fact is he did destroy his opponents knee and the fact that he didn't mean to do it, doesn't excuse the tackle (thankfully).
He said that the player didn't go over the ball, which is pretty amazing. When I come to power such lies will be dealt with by jail time, then we'll see how many people choose to keep their mouths shut.
I just started a brand new thread...but just wanted to cross-post the news here as well... http://sports.yahoo.com/news/soccer...anaman-escapes-punishment-173144137--sow.html