Great... Great as in BIG? EDIT : like this, "And the great White Whale sped away. And the sea rolled on as it had been rolling for five thousand years . . ." - Herman Melville
54' - Never fails to amuse me (in the best way) when Lahoz just starts having a town hall meeting with players while the ball is in play.
55' - Good example of deliberate handling that is not a YC. (Queue flashbacks of your local amateur men's hothead screaming "where's the card, that's intentional!")
Guys it’s only a caution when it stops a promising attack. Or if it’s so egregious…which Messi’s was not. The one in the 1H did stop a promising attack…Memphis was about to go around with possession. That’s the difference.
Which is a DFK offense and not a card. The card would be for SPA or trying to score a goal with the arm.
We talk a decent amount about how consistently carding SPA could promote better soccer. Calling fouls when a defender puts two hands on the attacker as he starts to blow by him and the attacker is also one of the best players on the planet falls in this realm for me. Of course Messi goes down easily. But he's only in a position to do so because Van Dijk is unfairly trying to stop him from doing something potentially special. Don't want to giveaway a DFK from 20 yards? Don't put both hands on him there. Of course, then you run the risk of getting sliced apart in the penalty area.
I will rewatch it, but in real time that looked like an egregious action... If there is such a thing as beyond deliberate, this was that from the one watch I had.
Okay, and a WC KO match with Messi on a nothing play at midfield is where we're going to start applying our own subjective line for "egregious action" when that's not even in the Laws? Sorry, I feel pretty strongly that carding this just fuels a myth. And it's 100% the wrong tactical decision in this situation if you're the referee even if it's a hill you would normally die on for whatever reason.
There's only three possible justifications for a YC to Messi for that handling offense: [handling] the ball in an attempt to score a goal (whether or not the attempt is successful) or in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent a goal [showing] a lack of respect for the game [handling] the ball to interfere with or stop a promising attack Make a case for one of these and I'll recant.
There's no level of handball in the laws beyond what is covered under handball offenses. The only justifiable way to caution someone for handling the ball is because it was Spa, they attempted to prevent a goal but the goal was still scored, or an attacker attempted to score a goal with their hand. Nothing else is covered no matter how intentional, blatant or egregious