Is this the one that I mentioned? First of all it was definitely a "push" by Capoue, then it was a "trip" by Hughes...
[THREAD_DRIFT]When I was in Lithuania I was always struck how strong their attempts to reinforce a national identity were. The country, an ex-colonial "power", had a significant "indigenous" ethnic populations (Poles, Byelorussians, Russians - "Old Believers" escaping religious persecution in the 17th century, Kairites/Tartars and "Jews" (I know, I know); who were added to by large-scale Soviet Russian immigrants (although to a much smaller extent than the other Baltic states). All official events had a selection of people in "National Dress" (yeah right) and "folk" music/dancers coupled with semi-official recognition of old Pagan festivals (please note the Romuva movement's "iffy" symbol). Much of the identity was formed "around" the Lithuanian language. When I pointed out to my quite nationalist wife that it was a shame that England had "lost" quite a lot of this stuff I was quite taken aback to hear her say that we didn't need all this shyte as we were so certain of identity and who we were/are.[THREAD_DRIFT]
He lives near the training pitch and quite frankly is fed up of Andre ringing the door asking for his ball back.
Nothing enrages me more about football when players/fans say this or the "he got the ball though" that means nothing if the play was deemed dangerous or reckless. Zaha and Ward should have been off the pitch. I doubt we would have won still though.
I haven't seen replays so I might've misidentified the player or midjudged the tackle, but Ward seemed to be booked for his second foul on Pereyra and not his first, which was seemed to be a cynical hack down, just outside their box because he had been beaten all ends up and the next stage would've left Pereyra bearing down on their goalie or slotting the ball to a puffed Deeney on the penalty spot. Seemed like an unarguable yellow which would've seen Ward sent off within 20 minutes of KO.
....and those who say "if it's not a penalty he's got to book him for diving". No he hasn't. If the ref isn't sure it's a penalty he can't give one. If he isn't sure it's a dive, he can't book him. ....and those who say "there was contact". So f****** what ? The contact needs to be enough to send him over, and half the contact these days is created by the fwd sticking out his leg to initiate it.
"He's got a right to go down there" No he hasn't. You are either forced to fall over by the foul or you are not. If you feel a brush against your thigh and throw yourself to the found, then you are as much a cheat as if you weren't touched at all
I felt a brush against my thigh on the District Line this morning but I didn't hurl myself anywhere. Probably just looked a little self conscious until Hammersmith.
To be honest, with the way Ward was playing, I'd rather he stayed on the pitch. He was more of a hindrance to Palace.
There There have been so many of those this season, I think one of the worst was Hazard against Arsenal? This is one of the weird quirks about modern football. It has now unofficially become a non contact sport inside the penalty box, certainly as far as most of the pundits are concerned it has. They and sadly lots of referees seem incapable of seeing any shades of grey. If a player gets any sort of contact in the box and goes down, then generally it will be a pen and all the pundits will agree with the decision, because there was contact regardless of how slight. It’s a sad state of affairs really. It’s a shame common sense can’t be used in these situations. Yes there may have been contact, but was it enough to send a fully grown athlete tumbling to the ground?
Anyone see the penalty Man City got against Swansea yesterday? That was 100% a dive by Sterling anticipating the tackle. He was almost horizontal before the contact was made. Most footballers do this sort of thing now, but it’s the authorities trying to make everything black and white that have caused this behaviour to be acceptable.
To be fair to him, we've all seen that evidence, and it was blasted over a goal that was 2-3 feet tall itself, so the bar was quite a lot easier to blast over.
I agree it was a small goal, but the shot would have gone over a full size goal. It just went up in the air like a rocket.
I actually disagree that it would have missed a regular goal, though I do agree that it obviously has to be said to have represented an obvious miss. But I do think we should be careful just how much be base our judgements on one snatched incidental clip from a weird small goals exercise in a training montage. I have observed Gray finishing abysmally multiple times this season, and been just as disappointed as anyone else. But I also watched the compilation video of the Burnley promotion season someone else posted, when he won the Golden Boot and Championship Player of the Year award, and a fair amount of his goals made him look like a Vydra-esque clinical finisher. I'm not even trying to totally defend Gray, he's obviously not quite good enough. But he's also not quite as bad as a lot of people make out, and has been dealt a fairly poor hand into the mix this year. As I've just posted elsewhere, if we don't improve our striking options this summer, we will be in serious trouble. But for Gray to be a scapegoat over Deeney seems mixed up to me. Gray has not been banned at any point, is actually capable of playing as a lone striker (if not amazingly well), actually moves; allowing the team to play better collectively as a result, and only has one fewer goal than Deeney whilst three of Deeney's goals have been penalties, having played 500 less minutes than Troy and earned one more assist and a superior goals to minutes ratio in the process.
If I get my shirt pulled it should be a penalty. I don’t need to fall over but if I don’t the ref is far less likely to give it. Several times I’ve seen honest players stay up despite being clearly impeded and the ref doesn’t have the guts to give it.
But that works both ways - refs rarely seem to penalise the shirt pulling against defenders in their own penalty area. What's good for the goose... Not to mention other bad habits that you would expect to be pulled up by a ref - such as Sakho continually pushing his elbow into Kabasele's face on Saturday whilst lining up for a corner.
Could be a role for VAR here. It's the equivalent of a marginal LBW & no sentient being can be expected to get a satisfactory proportion of these decisions right. Everyone was against Hawkeye in cricket. Now it's an intrinsic part of the spectacle. An umpiring saws (eg never giving an offspinner an LBW) have been correctly overthrown. 30 secs to make a decision otherwise benefit of doubt to the defender. Also, I can get to Stockley Park in 20 mins outside rush hour.
Well, being a glutton for frottage, I'm on the District Line tomorrow. I've had my panic button redirected to WFC Forums so you'll all be the first to know.
Has anyone found a good secondary use of the foil things? Inserting it into Zaha would have appropriate.
I still have a few in a saucepan. Odd really as I couldn't find my V5 last week but located the foils!
Also, of course, the birthday of William Shakespeare. And, according to my sources, Bubba the Love Sponge. For full disclosure, my sources are Google. The list of Apr 23 birthdays was an exercise in anonymity. I hadn’t heard of any of the top 20, apart from Shakespeare, who was also the only one aged over 25.
Is that your logbook? I keep mine in a metal box thing, behind the tax returns & insurance docs. German & dull. In future, it’s all about the le Creuset.
It is! I had to order a new one as I collect my new car on Thursday. I may order some more foils from the 1881 and form a giant turnip!
Didn't Shakespeare die on his birthday too? David Evans was born yesterday too.Not quite in the same league as Shakespeare. As I'm not acquainted with Mr Love Sponge,I'm not sure how David compares to him,although Mr LS clearly cannot be as right wing!
A bonus point for IBB. (My telephone was insisting that should be Ibrahimovic.) Love Sponge is, apparently, a radio personality. Don’t we all qualify as online or digital personalities?
I'm not that tall and not remotely Swedish! Is Mr Love Sponge a presenter or on 'Gardener's Question Time'?