White Stick Awards

Much talk of our men-in-black this weekend, with the Madrid press criticising Iturralde González and saying that Barcelona were going to be handed the league "by decree" after the referee turned down two penalty appeals by Recreativo, awarded one to Barça and ruled a late strike by Ersen Martin to be offside (he also ruled out a similar goal by Henry).

The Barcelona press responded the following day by saying that Ramírez Domínguez had allowed Real Madrid the victory by waving away Valladolid's penalty claims for a foul by Pepe on Goitom immediately prior to Madrid's second goal. No change there then!

Espanyol were probably the hardest hit by referees' decisions though, Mejuto González failing to see (or deciding it was accidental) a hand ball by Moreno on the line, and disallowing a strike by Sergio Sánchez for what he considered a previous foul. When the chips are down..... (14.04.09)

Name Games played Yellow cards Red cards Total
Velasco Carballo 18 131 13 144
Muñiz Fernández 18 126 12 138
Clos Gómez 17 104 15 119
Rubinos Pérez 18 106 8 114
Pérez Lasa 18 106 7 113
Ayza Gámez 16 99 10 109
Alvarez Izquierdo 16 96 12 108
Iturralde González 17 100 8 108
Teixeira Vitienes 18 98 9 107
González Vázquez 14 100 6 106