If you had written it in a
book nobody would have believed - it would be considered too far fetched. But
in a repeat of history linesman Rafa Guerrero struck again some ten years since
he first came to the attention of Planet Earth in the famous match between
Zaragoza and Barcelona. The referee at the time was Mejuto González, and
everything was going smoothly until Rafa's X-ray vision (some say he is from
another planet) spotted something that only he could see - "penalty to
Barça and red card for Zaragoza's number 5!". "No me jodas Rafa" was
Mejuto's reply, a phrase which was picked up by the microphones and broadcast
around the Spanish speaking world.
Ten years later the referee
was Iturralde González and the ground was the Nou Camp, but midway
through the second half Rafa called across his boss, and the world stopped to
listen: "red card for Barcelona number 3 (Motta) for handing off an opponent!".
The stadium erupted, and this time it was Barcelona captain Carlos Puyol who
was heard to utter the famous phase. Frank Rijkaard's assistant, Johan Neeskens
and Zaragoza's Juanfran grabbed each other by the throat, Barça delegate
Carlos Naval was shown a red card for insulting the referee, and all hell broke
loose. Iturralde calmed things down, and just a couple of minutes later he
found a way to even things up when he sent off Gabi Milito. But Rafa had made
his mark, and the papers had their headlines. (14.11.06) |