| Fun
and games with the disciplinary committee this week after Esquinas Torres left
Celta with nine men last weekend. In the first meeting Mostovoi was given a two
match suspension for his insults and Berizzo got one. However the appeal
committee reduced the Russian's sentence to one, and after the referee appeared
on a television programme admitting he had made a mistake, an second appeal to
the CEDD, the top sporting body, got Mostovoi's ban removed entirely (strangely
Berizzo who said sorry was not pardoned). Mostovoi went on to score the winning
goal in the Gallician derby against Deportivo. Six sendings off this week as
the villains stood up to be counted. One of our early leaders, Rayo's Poschner,
has been lying low recently, and was gradually slipping in to the obscurity of
mid-table in our chart. But you can't keep a good man down for long, and the
German midfielder stepped back in to the limelight with a high tackle on
Bilbao's Alkiza which earned him his fourth red card of the season from referee
Muñiz Fernández. But you don't want to hear about Poschi's
misdemeanours, do you? No, what you want to know is what happened to Barcelona
this weekend. We can read you like a book. Well, as anyone who lives on planet
Earth will know, Barcelona were left with eight men against Osasuna after three
players were all sent off in the second half. The atmosphere was tense after
Barça's elimination from the UEFA cup at the hands of Liverpool, and
they fell behind to a silly goal directly from an inswinging corner. Serra
Ferrer brought on two half time substitutes, Simao and De la Peña.
Neither made it to full time. Simao earned himself a direct red for a
two-footed tackle on Llorens twenty minutes after coming on and De la
Peña got his marching orders near the end for kicking Gancedo three
times from behind, each time harder than the last. By then Osasuna had scored
again, and Sergi added to their woes right at the end bringing down Sabino from
behind to earn himself a second yellow card. With Kluivert picking up his fifth
yellow of the season, Barcelona will be four men short for their next game
against Celta. They are also likely to be missing one manager. And that was not
all this week, with Villarreal's flambouyant striker Martín Palermo
getting his name on the agenda for what promises to be a long disciplinary
hearing on Tuesday. Palermo tried to emulate his fellow countryman Maradonna
punching the ball in to the net near the end of the game against Mallorca.
Unfortunately he got caught by Pérez Lasa and was given a second yellow
card and subsequent red. By coincidence Zaragoza's Jamelli got away with a
similar offence this week, for all the good it did his side. And lastly
Valencia's Pellegrino earned his second red card of the season at the end of
his team's match at Oviedo, a direct red from Iturralde González having
already picked up a yellow earlier on. Several illustrious names are due to
miss next weekend's matches after picking up their fifth yellow of the season,
including Diego Tristán, Oli, Tamudo and Larrazábal amongst
others. (23.04.01) |
