thanks to Kempa and ChaosLord for explaining the LOTG in a clear and didatic manner, without entering into useless babble accusing someone simply asking about the LOTG, of defending Thiago Silva. I disagree. It´s a problem of the forum, in the moment the discussion becomes something aside from refereeing.
Who is responsible for the injury to neymar in the end? It is a known fact : Human nature if left unchecked will always see the levels of violence increase. That's why there is always a need to have "crowd control methods "as well as the different types of ref whose duty is to keep the play from "morphing " into an all out brawl.... Now Zuniga is one of the worlds best defenders excellent at intersecting attacks and very capable of adding to the front as an attacker and scoring beautiful goals....you can not take that away from the man. There is no question about that, and if I was A professional forward I would really have a hard time getting past him... ButThat's not the issue here. A couple of times he did show a slight tendency to do a little more that the technical foul allowed: as if ;he was just testing the refs tolerance level, and what he could get away with; without being admonished! (Most teams have a1 guy that lives on the edge) ... .Finally in the 42 minute he fouls Neymar. and again in the. 44 minute he steps it up a notch. And fouls hulk: high straight to the knee with what is called in martial arts a "side kick". . This infraction is picked up right away by the the excellent U K announcers at ESPN one of which says "the ref should not have missed a tackle like that...because they can be very dangerous ". And then again says...... "Again no warning there ". He further goes on explaining why the refs lack of a due warning could set up a potentially dangerous situation! He expresses his disappointment at the ref.... Translation for those new to the club ... By the ref failing to take proper action when it is imperative: The ref is opening the door to those players that are just waiting for the opportunity to eliminate the creative ones...therefore: the one fully responsible for holding the reins of the game is the ref!,........if so , them that brings another question..does he suffer from selective blindness on his own or he is simply following orders and if so from whom?? This is a no brainier . Fifa has done it again... To those who disagree all they have to do is watch the ESPN replay of the game.. Colombia brazil.... Unfortunately a lot of the new soccer fans think soccer is The NFL.... With a twist. Cheers!,,,,,,
Isn´t it funny we were arguing so much about Silva's challenge being a direct yellow, and that it was pathetic the CBF appealing that yellow, and then at Argentina vs Netherlands, a VERY SIMILAR play happened, and the ref didn´t give a yellow?
Wasn't THAT similar(mid punt vs ball still in hand) Silva was much more reckless, but still think the other challenge deserved a yellow as well.
So two refs in two different games that are playing out in two very different ways reacted to a similar situation differently? The horror. (FWIW I thought this one should have been a caution, too, but to act like this suddenly made Silva's not a caution is silly)