This post is a moan.
The referee in the Dynamo Kiev - Arsenal match called a penalty on Bacary Sagna when the actual incident was a foul by the Dynamo Kiev player; one worthy of a yellow card.
The call was a mistake. Mistakes happen, and it was a clever bit of cheating by the player, reaching behind his back, grabbing Sagna's jersey, falling, and bringing Sagna down with him. I assume the referee is not corrupt, and just made a mistake: he must not have seen what really happened.
I saw the incident watching the highlights on UEFA.com, and the match commnetator, who earlier called Manuel Amunia, Marcus Almunia, described the incident, watching it on slow-motion replay, as "a needless challenge by Sagna." That match commentator is either corrupt or really stupid.
Update: I just threw out the possibility that the commentator, Tim White, is really stupid as a hopeful alternative, and sited his misnaming of Almunia to support his case. Watching the incident again, I can't see how it couldn't have been blatantly clear to him, as he's watching the replay and commenting on it, that Sagna was pulled down. Maybe he's glancing back and forth maniacally between his notes and the replay, and really was confused, but there are several replays and for whatever reason, it appears that he chooses to pretend that Sagna wasn't pulled down.
Gallas got a late equalizer from a Walcott cross.
3 hours ago
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5 deflections:
Looks like you're an idiot too... At least the commentator knew Almunia's position...
The clumsy challenge by Sagna was not on a "forward", as you mentioned twice, but on a holding midfielder( how many forwards wear a no 5)..
Arsenal got screwed. I admit it looked like a penalty at first but from the replays it was clear that the Dynamo player pulled Sagna on to him. Not sure if the linesman was in position to see it but you could see the ref wasn't so it looks like an unfortunate call to me. At least Arsenal managed some justice with the draw.
Chinaski, point well taken...however the idiot bit was uncalled for. The fact remains the Kiev player pulled Sagna down and won an unfair penalty. Is this something you saw differently?
Chinaski - Good point about forwards not typically wearing 5. Right off hand, I can't think of any forwards who wear number 5. Zidane wearing 5 as an attacking midfielder for Real Madrid was rare. I've changed "forward" in the post to "player." When I posted that moan, I'd only seen the extended highlights, so I was biting off more than I could chew by calling the player a forward. He was in a forward position, waiting for a cross in the box, which is putting himself about nicely for a holding midfielder.
I'm still irritated about that commentator who said Sagna made a needless challenge, when he was watching the same replays as me. Outrageous! There was something creepy about it, like in the Orwell novel "1984" - The guy with the big megaphone telling us something which is clearly not true.
I appreciate your implicit signal of agreement - based on your conclusion that I'm an idiot too, I gather that you're also disappointed with the shoddy commentary. Solidarity, brother.
Cannon - Thanks a lot for leaving a comment.
I've since seen Arsene Wenger's post-match comments where he complained about a lack of injury time at the end of the game and about fouls against Walcott that weren't called, in addition to the penalty call. Sagna told Wenger he was pulled down. Arsene had a bit of humor in his moan, talking about everyone having a different "computer" to calculate the injury time!
kdat - So the Kiev player's tactic was unfair, but it's the referee's job to make the call...do you reproach the player? If it was your country in a World Cup final, and one of your players used that tactic to earn the penalty that won the World Cup, what would you make of it?
I'd like to see an incident like that punished with video replay after the match. A one-game ban might suffice for that kind of cheating. I'd like to see more deterrents. Of course for a world-cup trophy, a one-game ban would be a fairly small price, maybe, but it would be nice to have some kind of official acknowledgment from the authorities when there's a blatant violation of fair play.
To have the UEFA commentator pretend that there was no violation of fair play does my head in a bit.
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