Ledley King made a late challenge on Cristiano Ronaldo inside the box with just ten minutes remaining. Whilst a penalty should have been given, Ronaldo found himself on the receiving end of the punishment, with referee Chris Foy halting play and booking our winger. King then shamelessly applauded the referee’s decision.
Sir Alex Ferguson has spoken about his frustration with the decision, although we need not fear a Ronaldo ban coming any time soon.
“It’s disappointing, not so much because he didn’t give the penalty kick but because he booked Cristiano,” said Ferguson. “You can’t appeal against a yellow card so that has been added to Cristiano’s record now. That’s twice it’s happened this season for so-called simulation. It’s too easy an option for these referees. Chris Foy should be challenged on why he gave the yellow card.”
It turns out though that despite being on four yellow cards so far this season, Ronaldo will escape a ban thanks to the FA ruling which states the slate is wiped clean half way through the season.
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was the ref right -no
but the boy who called wolf comes to mind
doesn’t matter tiny tears
a ref should go on what he sees, not reputation
Didsbury is right.The referee should look at each player like it’s his first game in England.As i said in the other thread,Cristinao contributes to his downfall.He started going down before the contact was made.That tricked Foy into thinking Ronaldo was diving.
I dont think he was already ‘going down’ when contact was made, he was stretching to get to the ball. It did look like he may have been going down already from some angles, but not from chris foy’s, who has let a players reputation rule his decision.
I appreciate that ref’s have a very difficult job, they have to make big decisions in an instant, under pressure from crowds of 80,000. It’s just a relief that it didnt cost us the cup in the end, although an energy sapping extra time wont help us in the coming weeks.
Biggest disapointment was Ledley King applauding the diving decision. I have always like King as a player, and he’s battled through some tough times injury wise, but that is just disgraceful. If i knew i’d just managed to get away with a foul in the box 10 mins before the end of a cup final, i’d be keeping quiet looking sheepish and thanking the heavens!
I am lucky enough to be able to watch almost all the UTD matches on telly here in Toronto. So, while I don’t get the flavour of the stadium atmosphere, I do get the benefit of replays.
What is so striking about them is that the number of fouls committed AGAINST Ronaldo is several orders of magnitude more than against any player in England – only the really malicious RM attack on Leo Messi bears comparison in other matches I’ve watched over the past few years – and yet CR only sometimes gets protection and only rarely do the offenders get penalized.
Why was he yellow-carded yesterday ?
why was he yellow-carded against Blackburn ?
and last year there was an equally ridiculous situation against P’mouth in the FACup while Michael Ball’s malicious stamp on his chest went unpenalized during or after the match.
Cristiano Ronaldo is no angel but he certainly takes a huge amount of punishment with very little countervailing protection. And this argument that he is “the boy who cried wolf” is just silly – sure he gets demonstratively pissed off when he gets persistently fouled and those fouls are consistently ignored. Who wouldn’t ? And don’t tell me that George Best was an angel !
But, more to the point, yesterday’s ridiculous yellow-card brings up once again two of my petty peeves about footie and its Victorian rules
First, no replay; and,
second, even if that trip was given against Ledley King, it should not result in a penalty kick from the spot but rather a direct free kick from the point of the foul.
This latter point is, I think, relevant because how often do we see penalties given when no one in their right mind would consider that the offended-against player was in a scoring position ? The sentence for a foul-inside-the-box is too draconian and should be made to fit the crime rather than being one-size-fits-all.
But, alas, the powers-that-be who run footie are resistant to any attempt to bring the rules of the game in line with something other than 19th century gentleman’s amateurism.
All that said, the replay showed quite clearly that Ronaldo was stretching to reach the ball and that Ledley King stepped on his foot. The referee missed what was obvious on instant replay. This wouldn’t be an issue for me because I don’t expect the referee to be perfect but when in the course of human events we find a consistent pattern of missed calls then that’s tantamount to what I believe the dictionary calls a “conspiracy”, whether or not the parties involved conspire together or it just happens because they are prevented for getting access to the relevant information on which to make a decision.
@ Costas; ”He started to go down be4 tackle was made”. he does this all time he knows its coming so he kind of rides the tackle and think this is 1 of the main reasons he rarely gets injured. OK he dives a bit but like it or not its part of the game when the players feel contact they go dwn, we may hate it but its hear to stay unless SAF stamps out in our beloved
This scenario brings to mind the argument of video ref people say it wud slow the game but yesterday the ref stopped play anyway i think it wud save alot of trouble,just look at sat rugby ire and eng game O’Driscoll might not have got a try but 4 video ref. Then again if there was less mistakes we’d have less to talk about
denton davey i’m in D.C. and lets just say the spurs fans in the bar were very quiet after the replay.
I think the one big point everyone is missing is that the ref blew to stop the play! Didn’t know a “dive” is now a foul.
I just didn’t appreciate how quickly the ref had the card out of his pocket. He couldn’t wait to dish it out, i reckon it made his whole day.
Look, we all know that CR7 drops if slightly touched and sometimes drops when he isn’t. Cheating? Maybe. But all teams have players that do exactly the same so what the fuck is everyone banging on about. I say sell the soft petulant prick to whoever will pay silly bugger money for him and be done with it. He has held us to ransome for far too long now.
Sign Tevez and fuck him off. And fuck Nani off too!!
Get players that WANT to bust a gut playing for us (Rooney, Tevez etc) not prima donna sit on my arse ‘cos I think I’ve been fouled crybabies.
Thats very harsh TonyBee, and you’re out of order calling Ronaldo a ‘soft petulent prick’. I wouldnt be his biggest fan, but as long as he wears our jersey, I’ll stick by him. You’re entitled to your opinion, but theres no need to slag and name call our own, we’ll leave that to the scousers and other hate filled muppets.
North Stand,Tier 3,Back Row well said i hate when people turn on our players like that whats happen we used to be the club who stuck by our players no matter what.
tonybee please fuck off. i smell a racists against nani. He perform ok in final, just because he cannot be better than ronaldo doesn’t mean he’s bad. and fuck off once again.u better of join the scouse when u say ronaldo like that.
Sign Tevez and sell Ronaldo? What the fuck?
Have to admit though my patience is wearing very thin with Nani. As I detailed in a post yesterday everytime I see him play I am willing him on to do well but time and time again he disappoints. Still very young but in my opinion his progress in 18 months has been slow. I hope I eat my words.
dk; You need glasses to think that Nani had a good game on Sunday. To say I,m racist is defo out of order, just because both CR7 and Nani are from Portugal and I feel they both should be putting more effort into games makes me a racist…..Silly boy, I will not fuck off for having an opinoin..
north stand: are you saying that CR7 isn’t acting petulantly after he falls to the floor and when a freekick isn’t awarded to him for whatever reason seems to sit there waving his arms bemoaning his fate expecting others to cover behind him. I feel that he will be off to Spain in the summer so finacially it would be better to cash in now. and of course whilst he wears the red shirt for us i will support him but it is my opinion and that is what this blog is all about.
seanmc26: havent turned on any of our players that want to do their best for the club. CR7,s head has been turned towards Spain and Nani has not performed well all season and they both seem to just going through the motions
Jesus…… anyone want to disagree that Park Ji Sung should have been on instead of Nani on Sunday? A player who never gives in often getting substituted but still bust his hump running all over the pitch whenever SAF gives him a run….. Last few games he has been superb just quietly getting on with doing his best unlike some………
TonyBee: Nani played yesterday mate as he has played in most of carling cup games.Park as we know is always preferred in the “big games”. I know yesterday was a big game with it being a final but as I say Nani played all along. Completely different players so can’t really compare other than to say I would pick Park everytime.
Don’t worry TonyBee,Park will play on Wednesday where he is truly needed.I think SAF could not have handled his squad any better.Of course we could have done without Ronaldo,Evra and Rio playing 120 minutes(since they will have to play again on Wednesday),but that’s life.Against Newcastle we will have VDS,possibly Neville,Vida,Park,Giggs,Carrick,Fletch,Rooney and Berba very fresh.I just hope that next week we see off Inter in regular time since the Scousers will be visiting 60 hours later.Guys we shouldn’t give up on Nani just yet.Remember that it took us 2 and half years for Ronaldo to start reaching his potential.And remember something very important about football.Players show their true form with a run if games under their belt.O’Shea for example is far more reliable now than he was at Stoke 2 months back.Nani can’t just turn on the style every 2-3 games.
@costas.
Agreed on Nani..couldnt have put it better and also on the ronaldo dive that never was. Should be judged on merits not reputations..sounds like someone is getting convicted by the media in LONDON again.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GEm1QJmy9po&feature=related
this is gold
Now I wonder why the referee’s association would appoint a scouser in a match where United are involved??? One has to read into these decisions. Now it’s true that Ron’s reputation is always ahead of him, but for God’s sakes last Sunday’s tackle was so obvious that it was impossible for Foy to even think it was a dive. King knew straight away he tripped him and it showed all over his face. Applauding the referee’s decision was just a sign of relief for King.
TonyBee, my problem was with you referring to Ronaldo as a ‘soft petulent prick’. If you had of said he is petulent, I would half agree, it was the venom of your comment that pissed me off. Yeah, we’re all entitled to our opinions, I say that on here all the time, but I dont want to read fellow United fans abusing United players to such an extent. You didnt need to add ‘prick’ to make your point. As for being soft, I do think alot of what he does is a form of a defence mechanism, by avoiding tackles. He gets tackled (often, badly tackled) 10 to 20 times a game, with clear instructions for the opposition to take him out if possible, a potential leg breaking tackle waiting to happen. That takes alot of mental strength to keep looking for the ball and get up and go again.
Anyway, Im not looking to start an argument or even a debate on Ronaldo, we’re all fed up with it. My gripe was the way you made your point, not the actual point that he is petulent.
Nani does seem to be a lost cause though. Still, I suppose every signing cant work out, and if its the case that for every Nani, we sign a Ronaldo, that’ll do me.
If work rate was everything then Alan Smith would have been a better player than Cantona. If skill was everything, then Nani would be better than Park. But Park is better than Nani because of his work rate. And Tevez worse than Berbatov, because he has nowhere near the skill. Ronaldo has skill AND work rate, but he fucked us about last summer. Funny old world.
north stand: okay i’ll try and tone it down …. but it just annoying when they don’t appear to try. Sort of taking the piss out of us if you get me drift.