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| Four
red cards this week as happy thoughts of holidays fade and the realities of a
long hard season start to sink in. Two of those came from Las Palmas, who even
without the injured Vinny Samways are starting where they left off last season.
One of those, young Alberto, was for two yellow cards picked up rather
rigorously in a five minutes period from a very green referee, but the other
one was a more than justified direct red card for defender Sarasua. Even Vinny
would have been hard pressed to produce a hacking tackle of the likes Sarasua
made on Salva, and maybe he would be better off being employed as a lumberjack
cutting down trees. Expect a lengthy ban when the disciplinary committee meets
this week. Talking of the committee, they let Peña off his second yellow card and dished out a three match ban for Osasuna's Sabino after his tongue-lashing of the referee (see our report last week). Another player got a red card for insulting the referee this week, Pablo from Alavés, and we await the verdict on his sentence (and the juicy transcript of his insults). The fourth player to be sent for a (slightly) early bath was Betis defender Belenguer, who promises to be a contender for villain of the year. He somehow avoided a ban in the opening match left over from last season, but picked up a yellow in each of his first two games and two more against Real Madrid. Place your bets now. The television pictures over the weekend produced images of two punches which were not picked up by referees. One was from Sevilla's Javi Navarro, who laid a haymaker on Espanyol's Rotchen, leaving him flat on the ground. Video evidence may be brought into effect as none of the officials saw the incident, and he may be banned from anything from 4 to 12 weeks. With his (now ex) club captain Prieto flooring a Portuguese referee in a pre-season match, it makes you wonder whether they are a bit confused as to which sport they are in. The other punch-of-the-day came after the game between Mallorca and Alavés. This time though it was a brutish security guard who punched a radio commentator from Onda Cero, Paco Muñoz, as he was trying to get an interview with keeper Kike. Nobody can explain why he did it. (17.09.01) |
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