Socceroo_06
September 14th, 2006, 11:09 AM
The beautiful game gets ugly (http://blogs.smh.com.au/sport/archives/2006/09/the_beautiful_g.html)
http://blogs.smh.com.au/sport/190654875.jpg
Unsavoury challenges are not uncommon in football, there have always been "hard-men" who play the game a certain way. With the second season of the Hyundai A-League only three weeks old, already there have been a few surprises, not all of them welcome.
Queensland Roar and Melbourne Victory are undefeated, both teams finishing 6th and 7th last season respectively, New Zealand Knights have already equalled their games won for the whole of last season and two of the four teams in last seasons finals are yet to win a game. But this is not the surprise I wish to talk about.
In the first three rounds of season 2006-07 we have already seen three disturbing incidents occur. The first happened in round one in the game between the New Zealand Knights and the Newcastle Jets at North Harbour stadium, the second occurred in the second round game between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC at Telstra Dome and the third incident occurred in the third round game between Perth Glory and Sydney FC at Members Equity Stadium.
The incidents I speak of involve players committing fouls which can only be described as 'not in the spirit of the game'. The first foul was committed by Jets replacement Shane Webb on Knights substitute winger Michael White, the second foul was committed by Victory's Brazilian import Fred who, last week, was found guilty of violent conduct for an elbow to the throat of Sydney player Mark Milligan.
In the round just completed, there were 12 yellow cards handed out and one, in particular, was a bit lenient. It was in the game between Sydney FC and Perth Glory and involved a late challenge from second half subsitute Jeremy Brockie on Perth Glory's Simon Colosimo.
These types of challenges are not only confined to the A-League, however, in the English Premier League Ben Thatcher of Manchester City was charged with serious foul play by the FA for elbowing Portsmouth midfielder Pedro Mendes.
Mendes suffered a seizure after being struck in the head by the Manchester City left back during a 0-0 draw in the English Premier League on August 23.
Is the beautiful game turning ugly? Should there be harsher penalties for incidents of violent conduct?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firstly i think there are a few alarming things about this blog from the smh.
One is that they still claim Fred elbowed Milligan's throat, when we have seen video evidence showing he did not touch his throat, rather it was his chest and shoulder.
Two is the way they chose 2 minor yellow card incidents, that were late challanges but not red cards, in order to isolate the severity of Fred's incident.
Three is the pictures they have chosen on the Blog page, which shows 2 pictures from the Fred incident. Surely if they wanted to highlight the severity of the other 2 incidents they would have shown the pictures of those incidents too.
Finally the end of the piece where they choose the Ben Thatcher incident, which was an elbow to the head, to compare it to the rough play in our game. This comparison once again alludes to the Fred incident as they both involved the use of the 'elbow'.
Here are some comments on the Blog page:
3 weeks for Fred is an absolute joke. And the fact that Melbourne are appealing it makes me livid. Should have been out for 6 weeks. Anything less is a travesty.
Posted by: Nick at September 12, 2006 01:11 PM
The beautiful game is still beautiful. The rash tackle is actually pretty well policed. Most of them are honest timing mistakes by the tackler and that is just part of the game. For highly reckless or intentional tackles designed to stop a goalscoring opportunity, a red card usually follows with a consequent automatic suspension - which is about right.
The type of conduct engaged in by Fred and Thatcher has no place in any code of sport and is just common assault. Even in League you would expect to sit out for a long spell for an elbow or fist to an opponent's neck or head....
Posted by: md at September 12, 2006 02:22 PM
Get over it. a 3 Week ban is enough. Im not sure that he meant to throw the elbow out, either way it was careless and he got done for being careless. The way sydney FC complain about every little thing makes me think of how similar they are to Italy in the world cup.. Diving, Falling over, cant handle tough competition.
Stop your bitching and get back to what this game is really about, Playing Quality Football.
Posted by: Tez at September 12, 2006 09:07 PM
I don't think it's a huge issue in the A-League, but incidents like Fred's assault on Spike are unsavoury to say the least.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The last post i think sums up my thoughts exactly:
Fred raised arm has no place in a game ... but it is hardly the issue Sydney has strived to make of it ... Trying to make excuses i feel ...
What do you make of Milligan preposterous play acting? ...
Is there room for that in the game? ...
^^^^^
The above is something that this blogpost has unfortunately ignored. Once again another un-balanced Sydney FC article.
http://blogs.smh.com.au/sport/190654875.jpg
Unsavoury challenges are not uncommon in football, there have always been "hard-men" who play the game a certain way. With the second season of the Hyundai A-League only three weeks old, already there have been a few surprises, not all of them welcome.
Queensland Roar and Melbourne Victory are undefeated, both teams finishing 6th and 7th last season respectively, New Zealand Knights have already equalled their games won for the whole of last season and two of the four teams in last seasons finals are yet to win a game. But this is not the surprise I wish to talk about.
In the first three rounds of season 2006-07 we have already seen three disturbing incidents occur. The first happened in round one in the game between the New Zealand Knights and the Newcastle Jets at North Harbour stadium, the second occurred in the second round game between Melbourne Victory and Sydney FC at Telstra Dome and the third incident occurred in the third round game between Perth Glory and Sydney FC at Members Equity Stadium.
The incidents I speak of involve players committing fouls which can only be described as 'not in the spirit of the game'. The first foul was committed by Jets replacement Shane Webb on Knights substitute winger Michael White, the second foul was committed by Victory's Brazilian import Fred who, last week, was found guilty of violent conduct for an elbow to the throat of Sydney player Mark Milligan.
In the round just completed, there were 12 yellow cards handed out and one, in particular, was a bit lenient. It was in the game between Sydney FC and Perth Glory and involved a late challenge from second half subsitute Jeremy Brockie on Perth Glory's Simon Colosimo.
These types of challenges are not only confined to the A-League, however, in the English Premier League Ben Thatcher of Manchester City was charged with serious foul play by the FA for elbowing Portsmouth midfielder Pedro Mendes.
Mendes suffered a seizure after being struck in the head by the Manchester City left back during a 0-0 draw in the English Premier League on August 23.
Is the beautiful game turning ugly? Should there be harsher penalties for incidents of violent conduct?
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Firstly i think there are a few alarming things about this blog from the smh.
One is that they still claim Fred elbowed Milligan's throat, when we have seen video evidence showing he did not touch his throat, rather it was his chest and shoulder.
Two is the way they chose 2 minor yellow card incidents, that were late challanges but not red cards, in order to isolate the severity of Fred's incident.
Three is the pictures they have chosen on the Blog page, which shows 2 pictures from the Fred incident. Surely if they wanted to highlight the severity of the other 2 incidents they would have shown the pictures of those incidents too.
Finally the end of the piece where they choose the Ben Thatcher incident, which was an elbow to the head, to compare it to the rough play in our game. This comparison once again alludes to the Fred incident as they both involved the use of the 'elbow'.
Here are some comments on the Blog page:
3 weeks for Fred is an absolute joke. And the fact that Melbourne are appealing it makes me livid. Should have been out for 6 weeks. Anything less is a travesty.
Posted by: Nick at September 12, 2006 01:11 PM
The beautiful game is still beautiful. The rash tackle is actually pretty well policed. Most of them are honest timing mistakes by the tackler and that is just part of the game. For highly reckless or intentional tackles designed to stop a goalscoring opportunity, a red card usually follows with a consequent automatic suspension - which is about right.
The type of conduct engaged in by Fred and Thatcher has no place in any code of sport and is just common assault. Even in League you would expect to sit out for a long spell for an elbow or fist to an opponent's neck or head....
Posted by: md at September 12, 2006 02:22 PM
Get over it. a 3 Week ban is enough. Im not sure that he meant to throw the elbow out, either way it was careless and he got done for being careless. The way sydney FC complain about every little thing makes me think of how similar they are to Italy in the world cup.. Diving, Falling over, cant handle tough competition.
Stop your bitching and get back to what this game is really about, Playing Quality Football.
Posted by: Tez at September 12, 2006 09:07 PM
I don't think it's a huge issue in the A-League, but incidents like Fred's assault on Spike are unsavoury to say the least.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The last post i think sums up my thoughts exactly:
Fred raised arm has no place in a game ... but it is hardly the issue Sydney has strived to make of it ... Trying to make excuses i feel ...
What do you make of Milligan preposterous play acting? ...
Is there room for that in the game? ...
^^^^^
The above is something that this blogpost has unfortunately ignored. Once again another un-balanced Sydney FC article.