| The
nutters were back this week, and any one of three performances would have
walked off with the white stick award on a normal day. First of all
Ramírez Domínguez produced ten yellow cards and consequently two
reds in a game which was not all that violent between Rayo and Numancia. And he
failed to take action on the one real piece of aggression in the whole match,
when Quevedo left Ojeda with a bloody nose just before half time in an off the
ball incident. The Rayo utility man only got a yellow card for that, whereas
Pirri and Cembranos had to leave the field for far less serious second
offences. Secondly there was Prados García, who looks like a cross
between Charlie Chaplin and Adolf Hitler and has characteristics of both.
Prados produced eight yellows and one direct red, (nothing out of the ordinary
there), but also awarded one of the longest deliberated penalties in history.
With a reputation as the man who has given twice as many penalties as anyone
else this season, he may have decided to ignore Arruabarrena's challenge on
Celta's Velasco ten minutes from time to avoid getting his name in the papers
again. But then he had second thoughts, then he didn't, and with the game back
in play he finally stopped everything and walked over to the linesman for his
opinion. "Well now you ask, yes it was a penalty" said the man, much to
Villarreal's disgust, and their manager Víctor Muñoz and
substitute Quique Medina promptly went in to the book for arguing, Mostovoi
converted the kick to end Villarreal's European hopes. But probably the
outstanding performance of the day came from not-so-Bueno Grimal, who races to
the top of our charts for the first time with nine yellows and three reds in
the local derby between Bilbao and Real Sociedad (just for the record, Oscar
Vales was the first home team player he has sent off in all his career as a
referee). As well as upsetting both managers with his overzealous card waving,
he also disallowed a perfectly good goal by Jankauskas early in the game and
then made up for it with a dubious penalty near the end. He may not win our
annual trophy at the end of the day, with Daudén only one card behind
him and due to officiate in the last match, but he has certainly made a name
for himself. And with Bueno averaging a stunning 7.44 cards a game throughout
the season, it is sad to see that one of the most reasonable referees in the
league García-Aranda (average 3.95) will be retiring at the end of the
month. They don't make them like they used to.(11.06.01) |
