Is somebody blaming today's outcomes on Elfath? Not me. I should have said, "if Elfath had not called the penalty and everything else had remained the same."
Or how about the absolute boss Darren drysdale getting in the face of a league one player who tried to get in his face. And of course the ref gets the match ban. Imagine if sievert did that and it was like an MLB manager-umpire argument. Gets in their face and just starts screaming at them. So many things I want to see.
Totally agree, and I wasn’t clear. The red comes immediately, and the assault is a “second red” written up in the match report. So I guess you could have “three reds”- field confrontation, OFFINABUS, and then the referee assault. In any case, it’s a terrible look.
Michael Davies (the 'other guy' from Men in Blazers) before MiB, in 2002 did a diary for ESPN while he was at the WC. This was his description of Uruguay. To this day I still think it holds true " The Uruguayans are so good off the ball. In fact, they don't really need a ball at all. They would be utterly content, it seems, if they could have the ball eliminated from the game altogether. That way they could just play their game, "foot" they could call it, and just run around the field kicking their opponents, tugging their shirts, pulling them to the ground and occasionally feigning injury or injustice and having a jolly good whinge at the referee."
I saw a clip that shows Cavani walking past the VAR monitor on his way to the tunnel. He knocked it over. Nice.
During the game things were alright cuz Uruguay (like every other team this tournament) prioritized winning the game ahead of any shenanigans. But their pent up anger exploded after full time, particularly over two PK incidents (OFR for Uruguay penalty recommended in the 58th minute, but Siebert upheld his decision, and in the 93rd minute a pretty weak shout, no OFR).
This joke is always made by those of us who use the legit AR flags, the CONCACAF/B+D flags. "Haha, now we have a baton to fend off angry players/coaches spectators!" We joke about, but I wonder what the ramifications would be if you see a professional ref getting surrounded, pushed, and he just starts hitting the offending players with the rubber handle. It isn't as extreme as carrying pepper spray or a gun like some refs in Brazil do though.
A Peruvian ref friend of mine has a set of flags that are heavy as hell and have a metal rod embedded in them. Many of us hate to use them because of the weight. But his response is that if the (Latino league) game gets out of control, you will be happy to have them....
FIFA has handed out sanctions to Uruguay players. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/f...wing-ugly-scenes-Uruguays-World-Cup-exit.html
To summarize: Gimenez 4 games Muslera 4 games Cavani 1 game Godin 1 game This seems totally inadequate but unsurprising to me. At least of these players committed what would, at least here in the US, qualify as Referee Assault. Cavani is, barring footage I’m not seeing, the line exception, as he “only” commits Referee Abuse. The numbers are just way too small. There was a time when a World Cup player got a six-month ban from for something barely more forceful than what multiple players were doing to Siebert here. FIFA are being so lenient about physical abuse towards referees based upon what we saw at this world cup, and it makes me sick. Oliver getting shoved in KSA-MEX, Siebert here, Al-Jassim in the third place game all could have easily pulled out red cards for such behavior, but none did. None them must have felt empowered or encouraged to stand up for the basic respect of our profession. And seeing weak punishments like this handed down from FIFA, it’s no wonder why. FIFA’s outlook towards these incidents is completely inadequate. Allowing such behavior to happen without major consequences (or often with no consequences at all) has a trickle-down effect on every grassroots game around the world. What a disgrace.