Halftime, dodgy PK in injury time gives Arne the 1-0 lead.. Which includes some weird/angry goal celebration...oh well. Good: - 3 good crosses from geoff, all on target. - making quite a few runs up the line without the ball, Keeps width and stretches the D. But not getting any looks. Bad: - his man gets behind him too often. He's not a shut down D type of guy, loose marking seems exposed on 1-2's with some ball watching. - again 2-3 unneeded turnovers.
I prefer the word soft penalty as dodgy implies it was not a peno. Anywhere else on the pitch that is a free kick, that makes it a peno in the box. Looks like nfonzi has evened it up with the penos and he may have lost the plot it looks like. better settle or Stoke will end with ten.
Refs have been forced to make several big calls on situations that are likely to be seen as borderline. I don't really disagree with any of the calls, so far, but they will generate controversy. Part of what's going on is that Cardiff City started out ready do anything they need to win, while Stoke was a little complacent.
I was thinking Cardiff are playing the rep that Stoke got under Pulis, eith an extra dose of nastiness thrown in.
Finishes 1-1. Uninspiring by stoke, not much to play for to be honest. Arnes worst game ive seen in a while., shawcross is still a stud. 2nd half/geoff Good: - put in good shift, worked hard got up and down when needed. - wasnt challenged much in the 2nd but up for most everything. Bad: - tale of 2 halves, crossing was bad. 3 awful ones. One a worm burner, 2 on a break gets it out wide on a really nice overlap but puts it way behind crouch, 3rd was his very strange avoidance of a "normal" cross, pulls it back to send in his outside the right foot cross. I just don't understand it. - couple giveaways as well, one was mis-hit on a pass forward, the other was a weird miscontrolled ball that he tried to first time down the line but shanks it. I know ive been hard on him with the turnovers, obviously micro-analyzing...i realize that. Overall i still love watching our Yanks on the big screen in the EPL playing a full 90.
Howard Webb had, IMO, a nightmare. He missed two stone cold penalties committed against Crouch. Good gracious, how could he miss the 2nd, especially.