Referees were not in a good mood this week, probably
because they had to stand out in the rain for 90 minutes watching 22 grown men
kick a lump of leather around. Fernández Marín made all the
headlines on Saturday with his handling of the game between the two Deportivos,
Alavés and La Coruña. Everything was going well until the
visitors got their third goal to ttake the lead again seven minutes from the
end. But then he left the home side with ten men after sending off Iván
Alonso with a second yellow card for arguing, and with the game coming to an
end ruled out a late equaliser from Geli, deciding that Coloccini had fouled
Djorovic. Television pictures after the game though suggested that the
Coruña defender had got in the first blow, and that the goal was valid.
Needless to say the crowd were not throwing rose petals at him at the end.
New boy Pino Zamorano moved
to the top of our chart with another bag full of yellow cards and the fastest
sending off of the season in the match between Las Palmas and Málaga.
And the weather was good where he was! We await the transcripts to see what
Zárate said to him to make him produce the second yellow so quickly.
Losantos Omar was booed off at Zaragoza, although all he had done was to send
off Juanele, and López Nieto missed a possible penalty when Mostovoi
handled in the area. He was at a loss though as what to do when Mallorca's
Cristian Díaz lost his patience with a ballboy who appeared to be taking
too long to fish the ball out of the pit. Díaz wrenched the net out of
the boy's hands to get the ball himself, and the youngster incredibly whacked
the player on the back of the head. The referee wisely decided not to get
involved, but if he had sent the ballboy off, would Pinto for example have had
to substitute him? Or will the lad be banned on video evidence? That's one for
FIFA's next committee meeting. (24.09.01) |
