WARNING: This post discusses game situations in the Colombia v. France Confederations Cup match. You have been warned! (Note: Cross-posted from SOCREF-L mailing list) I was curious what you guys thought about a couple of decisions in the Colombia v. France match today. First off, in the 24th minute, Henry got into a pretty heated bickering match with Ivan Cordoba after Cordoba had given Henry a pretty good hip check. The CR told them to calm down but kept his plastic in his pocket. Not 5 seconds after the restart, Henry came in on Cordoba with a sliding tackle from about the 5 o'clock position with both of his feet taking out Cordoba's back leg. The ball was well on the other side of Cordoba and Henry was never going to be able to play the ball from where he was. I thought it was a cynical retaliation foul from behind and should have been a direct red, but Cardoso only showed Henry yellow. The fact that it was directly off the ensuing restart is what lead to me to believe it was SFP and deserved red. 15 minutes later, Cardoso awarded a PK for a "deliberately" handled ball by Velasquez. It looked like the AR (Silva, I believe) actually made the call. In my mind, this was a bad call. I thought Velasquez had his arm in a natural playing position and the only time the hand moved on the play was once the ball hit it and drove it backwards. Henry (who shouldn't have been on the pitch at this point, in my opinion) buried the PK for the game winner. Colombia played really well but couldn't grab an equaliser and I thought they deserved a point. It's too bad a dubious call lead to the game winning goal. I won't end the thread without saying something good about the ref crew though. In the 78th minute Becerra went down in the box on what could have been a PK for Colombia but instead Cardoso awarded Becerra a yellow for simulation. The replay clearly showed that there was little to no contact between the French defender and Becerra. After the call, Cardoso could be seen giving a big thumbs up to his AR (Silva) again. I was wondering if Silva was whispering sweet nothings in Cardoso's ear through that cool radio headset they were wearing or if he was just telling him how bad of a dive Becerra had took. Thoughts? Jarrett
Well... in World Cup 2002, some said that the home team (Korea) was getting 'help' from the referee's. One could say the same thing after watching the France - Colombia match. I watched the game last night on the Galavision replay. The Henry foul was deleberate, in retaliation, from behind, both feet, NO attempt what so ever to play the ball. Was it a yellow just because it was Henry? The penalty call... If FIFA referees around the world think THAT was a penalty and a yellow card foul. Then for SURE in the USA - Germany World Cup match should have been a penalty and RED card foul. Interesting to read on fifa.com: Wiltord broke down the right and scooped a cross back into the box, the ball hit Velasquez on the arm. Lucilio Cardoso (Portugal) pointed to the spot and Thierry Henry stepped up to convert (1 : 0, 39’). http://fifa.com/en/display/article,70072.html Notice that Velasquez did not handle the ball. The ball hit Velasquez's hand. NO FOUL. Watching the game at full speed, I saw no foul... Heck, I thought that the ball was over the end line or something. I NEVER thought a penalty would be the call. And watching in the slow motion replay... Wow! Really a bad bad bad call. The Portugal crew should be packing their bags heading back by now. Just my humble opinion...
I agree the performance from what you decribed was poor. I missed all of the theatrics of the first half. But there should be no special accommodations made for any player regardless of marquee appeal. Henry should have been sent off. Wouldn't be the first time a Portugese referee made less than courageous decisions in an important international match. Pieriera did the same thing last year in USA vs. Mexico match got the send off of the Mexican captain right for the vicious head butt, missed all the other antics including Torrado's stomp of Cobi Jones leg.
THose ear pieces looks like it doens't work in a neutral way,surely the referees where in France favor. Did anybody saw a handball at the end of the second half by a frenshman?I think it's Thuram who touched the ball,why didn't referee blow a penalty for the Colombians? Damn France
no argument here - henry was quite fortunate to get a goal in this game (although he had several spectaculat moves otherwise) - he should have been red carded for that "tackle" - and there should not have been a penalty kick it's always helpful to be a top player and to be the home team
I saw the highlight of the PK call on FSW World Report, and that was an awful, awful call. Not to pick at this scab again, but as someone noted already, Frings' play in the World Cup was 10 times worse than this.