Cristiano Ronaldo dives. We all know it. Last weekend we saw him booked for it. Cristiano Ronaldo gets kicked off the park every match. We all know it. Often, he’ll be rewarded freekicks for it, sometimes, penalties.
In the League Cup final yesterday, Ronaldo was fouled by Ledley King in the box. Chris Foy brandished a yellow card straight away. It was the wrong decision.
Had Ronaldo dived, it still would have been the wrong decision to stop play to hand out a yellow card, which was detrimental to United as we were in possession just outside the area. The fact Ronaldo hadn’t dived makes it even worse.
I’m not getting on my high horse, I just want this to be noted, for all the times the media and opposition fans criticise Ronaldo for cheating, and for all the times the media and opposition fans (and managers) claim United get all the decisions, that this was an occasion, a massive occasion, where the referee got it completely wrong on every level.
This isn’t the first time and it won’t be the last time when the referee has judged the decision on Ronaldo’s reputation, rather than reality, and he doesn’t have anyone but himself to blame. I’m also sure that the next time he wins a soft penalty, this incident will be well and truly forgotten about in the media. If only this country was obsessed with every player who dives as much as they are with Ronaldo…
The Times: Chris Foy, the referee, had been getting his wish to be an anonymous figure until midway through the second half when he was forced to rule on the one controversial moment of the match. Ronaldo tumbled over a lunge from King in the area and although his fall was somewhat theatrical contact was made. It could easily have been a penalty, instead the Portugal forward was shown the yellow card.
The Telegraph: Foy booked Ronaldo for diving when he had clearly been brought down by Ledley King inside the box. Reputation, not reality, was punished here.
Evening News: Ronaldo should have been celebrating a penalty when Ledley King stretched and stamped on his right foot as he raced along the edge of the box. Instead referee Chris Foy booked him for diving!
Sky Sports: Ronaldo breaks into the Tottenham box and falls under the challenge of King. The referee surprisingly halts play and books the Man United forward. That looks to be the wrong decision as the Spurs defender caught the Portugal international.
The Guardian: Ledley King brings down the marauding Ronaldo just inside the box – and Chris Foy books him for diving. Ronaldo doesn’t make it easy for himself with his antics, but that was a clear penalty. Ronaldo got there a fraction before King, who stood on his toe and sent him over. What has really narked me about that whole incident is not Chris Foy making a mistake – it happens – but Ledley King, who would have felt his boot going onto Ronaldo’s, applauding the referee for booking Ronaldo for diving. That’s a risible disgrace and he should be ashamed of himself.
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I’m pretty sure his momento was already taking him down before Ledley King even touched him… Even if it was a foul and he got booked for diving, he’s only got himself to blame, how can you complain… He’s given you numerous unjustified free-kicks/pens, so just deserts.
Only Man U fans would bother moaning about something like this, after winning.
You going to discuss O’Shea’s tackle and absence of a second yellow?
Look, and I am a United fan, if you dive as much as Ronaldo, of course you’re going to have a reputation as a diver. It’s not the right decision, but think of all the times Ronaldo dives or goes down lightly. It’s bound to bite him on the ass sooner or later.
And people say that Ronaldo’s diving is harmless.
Give me a break.
terrible decision. the ref was against us from the go. O’Shea got booked on his first foul yet Didier Zokora made at least 7 fouls in the game and got nothing…… I think the ref was trying his best to prove he is not afraid of Man U… the clown….Whatever about refs trying to be fair to all clubs big and small….. that’s fine, I agree with it….. but when in order to do this a ref punishes the big teams I think its ridiculous. Maybe FSW’s rant may have ruined not influenced our play while certainly influencing theirs but I do think it influenced a lot of refs…. we seem to be getting no decisions in our favour (not that we necessarily need them)
that was a defo 2nd yellow but I think the ref realised that he made the wrong decision with the first yellow….
Okay, noted. One incident.
One incident so rare that you’ve taken the chance to highlight it.
Also noted are the tens of times that he DOES dive during a match.
Also noted: The times when United gain set-pieces and at times get the opposition booked as a result.
Also noted: Goals scored from these situations.
Also noted: These are all occasions when the ref gets it wrong.
Do the maths and tell me which out-number which, only it strikes me that this blog entry is pretty much, ‘Look! See! That one time he didn’t dive!’
If this is any measure by which United or Ronaldo are hard done by, then you’re clearly very much blinkered.
Perhaps he should consider not diving at all? Isn’t this the answer?
I think the ref had a pretty poor match and neither side were overly impressed with him – he seemed to let a lot go in the first half.
The clown is from Merseyside. Nuff said.
Yes it was a penalty, no doubts there. But when you’ve developed a rep for diving you do end up casting a rod for your own back. My personal beef with Ronaldo is that he doesnt need to do it, he has the talent to be better then that. Watching him on Sunday pleading that this time he really was fouled made a lot of non United fans smile. He shouldve learned a lesson, but I bet he doesn’t.
If you’d lost you could really go to town on this, but you didnt, so maybe you should let it go, just like fans of other teams will have to let it go the next time Ronaldo earns some dodgy match winning pen by “simulating”.
WELL DONE FOR WINNING THE CUP AND HAS FOR THE RONALDO INCIDENT THERE ARE TWO CAMERA ANGLES THAT TELL DIFFERENT TALES .THE ONE FROM BEHIND THE GOAL SHOWS KING TOE POKING THE BALL AWAY THEN CLATTERING RONNIE RONALDO THE OTHER ANGLE IS SKYS AND GRANADA SHOWS A PENALTY . THE SIDE ON VIEW THE BALL GOES STREIGHT UPFEILD AND IF IT WAS KICKED BY RONALDO WOULD HAVE GONE SIDWAYS . ANYWAY THE GAME WASENT A CLASSIC BUT WAS GOOD ENTERTAINMENT AND BOTH TEAMS COULD HAVE WON THESE TEAMS ARE NOT A MILLION MILES APART AND EVEN WITH BOTH SETS OF TEAMS PLAYING ALL THERE BIG GUNS STILL WOULDENT MEAN UTD HAVING IT ALL THERE OWN WAY WE TO HAVE SOME EXCITNG YOUNGSTER LIKE UTS BOSTOCK MASON TOWNSEND OBIKA PARRETT ROSE MPOKU DERVITTE TARRABT DOSANTOS . IAM LOOKING FORWARD TO THE APRIL GAME WHEN HUTTON AND DEFOE WILL BE BACK I THOUGHT INJURYS TO WOODGATE AND LENNON DIDENT HELP OUR CAUSE BUT I MUST SAY THAT WE WERE NEVER GOING TO BEAT UTD ON PENALTYS AND THE ENGLISH CURSE HAS STRUCK AGAIN BENTLEY OHARA AND TERRY UTD CAN THANK THE ENGLISH FOR GIVING A SCOTSMAN A GOOD DAY OUT .GOOD LUCK WITH THE 5 CUPS
Selective vision I’m afraid. Ronaldo was given a nuber of free kicks in the first half that were not fouls, but dives. Even if the King challenge was a penalty (and even the MU supporting press are not unanimous on this) Ronaldo only has himself to blame for not playing fairly – he didn’t get his reputation for nothing.
Fact is, MU couldn’t beat a Spurs team missing 6 first choice players and this is an attempt to cover that up.
Ronaldo is an easy target for fans saying that he goes down too easily, but every team in the league has at least one player that goes down like a hooker, Ronnie does go down too easy of course but he isn’t the only player that does it, Gerrard goes down and nothing is ever made of it, if Ronaldo does then everyone is up in arms, Andy Gray said something like he deserved his yellow card, whay for getting fouled?
Got your red tinted specs on again Republik… Ref was just a joke in general, so please don’t go on that Fergie ‘we’re so persecuted tip’ (what was it? Complaining that all your games were at home at the end of the season!?!???)
By the way, you really should tell your prawn sandwich brigade that it’s customary to sing BEFORE the end of the game.
@scimmino: As already pointed out, the first yellow wasnt really there – the ref seemed to point at somewhere else on the field, claiming the card was giving for repeated fouling, but I dont really remember O’Shea giving away any big FKs, or enough small ones, to give him a yellow card for. And it certainly wouldnt explain why Zokora got away without a yellow. The incident after his card was a clear yellow though, yes – but the balance was kept in order.
On the pen: Absolutely shocking decision. Mark Lawrenson called it a “stone cold penalty” to add to the media claming the ref did a shit job. Even if he didnt see the penalty, giving Ronaldo a yellow card for diving just shows what his plan was all along – even if Ronaldo HAD gone down without contact he was in full stretch (after which the laws of physics often forces you to the ground) so giving him a yellow for falling over was a disgrace. Reputation or not – I still see Drogba and spanish/italian players getting freekicks all the time, but everytime Ronaldo goes down the media makes a huge deal of it and even when he’s clearly fouled theres always a bunch of idiots in the media claiming he went down too easy. If a ref cant see past a players reputation and give an obvious pen like that he shouldnt be a ref in the best football league in the world – let alone being in a final.
Bob – Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Carrick, Park Ji-Sung, Gary Neville, Wes Brown, Rafael da Silva, Owen Hargreaves…
Darren Fletcher…
I think it might actually work in Ronaldo’s favour a bit regarding refereeing decisions. It was clearly the wrong decision yesterday (it happens, refs get things wrong, they’re human, no big deal), so maybe a ref might think twice the next time Ronaldo goes down and is in two minds about it. Saying all that, and I know Ronnie gets a lot of tough tackling through games, but I really hate that diving element to his game (I know others do it, Drogba, Gerrard and the rest, but that doesnt mean we want to see our players do it too).
On a side issue, It was great to see the togetherness of the squad after the game yesterday. They really seem to be enjoying themselves these days, which is key to remaining at the top. It was great for the likes of Foster, OShea, Nani, Evans and Tevez (as well as Welbeck and Gibson) to be involved in the winning of a cup final, being bit part squad players.
It keeps the momentum going too. We could of done without the extra time though.
Scott don’t forget Van der Sar didn’t play as well as the fact that Vidic started on the bench. I know Foster is quality but if people are gonna start going on about how many first team players were missing……
Tottenham were more full strength than United,Whoever says diffirently is blind.O’Shea should have been sent off and Ronaldo should have won a penalty.He has no one to blame than himself.I am not talking about his past reputation.I am talking about that moment.He dives before there is contact and thus becomes his own culprit.Look at it like this.There were two violations within hundreds of seconds.Ronaldo dives before King catches him.Foy chose to see only the first one.From now one Cristino in these circymstances should do what he did in the final minute of normal time.Shoot.
Bias ref? I don’t think so. It took 20 minutes for Spurs to be awarded a free kick in yesterday’s game, a period in which Utd had been awarded every soft free kick that brushed up against them.
The Ronaldo incident – whilst there was contact, it was minimal, certainly not enough to bring Ronaldo down in such dramatic fashion. So did he dive? Yes, because as soon as he saw King stick his foot out he went for it in typical fashion. The only thing more impressive than his fall was his foot-stamping temper tantrum thereafter. As others have said, crying that refs are unfair to Ronaldo is not going to win much sympathy. He has his reputation for a reason – he is known to be a consitent cheat, a great stain on his status as one of the worlds best players.
O Sh** should definitely have seen red, if not for the 2nd bookable offence then the 3rd. Tellingly, he was subbed off soon after that one, perhaps Fergie knew he was riding his luck somewhat.
Finally, well done for winning. Few would say Utd deserved it. But there you go. Why not enjoy it, instead of moaning about this. It’s incredible really. Ask any opposing fan which in the PL is most likely to be awarded the decisions and they will say Utd, and here you are crying that the player perhaps most responsible for gaining unfair penalties, free kicks, yellow cards, POINTS, etc, has been hard done by.
Scott the Red – MU chose their own team, most of those you list are not injured or ineligible. Spurs had no choice.
Few would say United deserved to win? Are you serious? lol.
Funny how the ABUs all turn up here and slate Ronaldo for a stone cold penalty. They always say Ronaldo dives so much, but is it true? Someone do a count and tell me with facts rather than your imagination that Ronaldo dived. How bout we do a comparision how many decisions referees got wrong for Ronaldo as opposed real dives by Ronaldo?
Bob so instead of thanking us for putting the game on a level playing field you are complaining?
Is he any worse than Zakora or Spurs legend Ginola?
We all have divers and players who go to ground easily, that was a penatly simple.
Why are opposition fans when they wander in here (I got directed here by newsnow.com, I had no choice but to come in and comment and stay for the whole fucking days blah blah blah) act so surprised when certain views, comments and blogs are written from a United viewpoint, sometimes biased, sometimes with a tongue in cheek humour? Its a United blog, for United fans, if ye dont like what ye read here, just leave.
The reason the Ronaldo incident is being so highlighted on here is cause when its the other way around, it gets unwarranted media attention and the lad gets slated (some of it justified), while others like Gerrard get away with it.
United overall deserved to win yesterday IN MY OPINION, but Spurs could of easily nicked it, they had a couple of clear chances.
BOB, no matter how Uniteds team was selected, be it due to injuries, suspensions, or Fergie resting players, the fact is that a weakened team played the game, and arguably deserved to win. Yeah, Spurs were hampered, but thats not our concern, we dont care about anyone else, we care about all things United.
Opposition fans think we get all the decisions? No way?! Well theres a shock. And again, we dont fucking care.
Bob – I have a feeling you may be a little bitter? You say we couldnt beat you but who’s going home with the trophy? We only had 3 first teamers starting yesterday, Rio Evra and Ronaldo, whilst you had your stongest available 11 out. I think you should pipe down on that front really.
On Foy – I didnt think he was too bad in the first half, until he missed corlukas handball (on the byeline when evra kept the ball in, he fell over and corluka nicked it with his hand claimng the ball had gone.) That was shocking officiating all round. Then Zokora commmitted about 10 fouls throughout the game which went unpunished. Then there was the bloody penalty…
Ronaldo should have had a straight red for a petulant off-the-ball kick on Dawson (I think it was) a few weeks ago when the two sides clashed, and got away without so much as a yellow, which is disgusting.
We’ve seen it several times this season against several teams, and each time he gets away with it.
That’s not even taking into account his constant diving, match in match out.
And this time he gets a rare decision that actually doesn’t go his way for once and you’re bleating about it?
Pathetic.
“Had Ronaldo dived, it still would have been the wrong decision to stop play to hand out a yellow card, which was detrimental to United as we were in possession just outside the area.”
How do you work that out? If he dived then you stop play and book him. It’s his fault if he wastes possession.
An obvious penalty in a Cup final on a United blog?
I think we are entitled to discuss issues which relate to our club, why don’t you go off to a Spurs site and discuss your relagation fight.
7Seagulls – Yes I forgot about Corluka’s blatant handball to drag the ball away from Nani’s feet and a potential cross.
For all the Spurs fans who say we were lucky, as I said on a blog yesterday, United never even got out of first gear and broke sweat. Did you see the state of Lennon aged 21 fucked with cramp. Contrast with Scholesey who is nearly 35 years old. Yout team need a new fitness coach me thinks.
As for Ronaldo I agree with Marq . Instead of the ABU’s coming on here saying “well he dives all the time” please come back with examples of his blatant diving.
1 – Take the match as a whole and see the number of times ronnie fell down like a delicate flower in a breeze and could ahve been done for diving
2 – TV showed King got the ball before touching Ronaldo – Who was already on his way down – not sure it was a dive though
3 – O’Shea with 3 bad tackles on Modric, Evreux with 2 bad tackles on Lennon
Before you start I support Northampton town and was watching the game as a neutral, But I hate article such as the above which take a single incident from a game and imply this was the story of the whole match
Geoff – Imagining the penalties never took place, I’d prefer a penalty ten minutes from time and JoS being sent off towards the end, then I would him staying on the field and us not being given a penalty.
As it worked out, we won in a shoot out anyway, but an opportunity to score a late goal is far more important than keeping eleven men on the park for the entire 90 minutes (particularly when it’s only JoS).
I imagine most Spurs fans would have rather see JoS remain on the field for the entire game, than United be awarded a pen with ten mins to go.
Players dive and they always will. It’s cheating. If he dives he should be booked for it. If he doesnt he should be awarded the foul. No one from the red half of manchester is doubting that. He dived last week, and get booked, no complaints. He didnt dive yesterday, but still got booked, therefore complaints. Scott has made a perfectly reasonable argument, yet so many fans of other clubs (why are you here agian?) really want to argue it. And you say we’re blinkered.
Of course there was contact and he dived at the same time, any natural fall and certain pen, he dives so often it is no wonder referees get confused
As for players missing from both sides lets also remember this years 1 – 1 with all players available
If you are into defensive skills then this was a great game and the MOM probably Ferdinand with Dawson or Modric/Lennon close for second
oh and e14spurs, if no foul has taken place then there is no need to stop the game. Play should have continued and, if the ref wants to book him, then book him the next time the ball is out of play. Scott is spot on with that comment and it’s very right. Is diving a foul? No. Then if the ref thought there was no foul play should have continued.
guardian got it spot on about Ledley King, disgrace!!!! i myself just though Ronny had lunged for the ball and knocked it on to Anderson, was confused when the ref stopped play and booked Ronny, stupid decision, good job we won anyway!!
Benefit of the doubt goes against ronny. Simple as that
why are all these ABU’s on here? are you all so obsessed with Ronaldo? The point about this (and it goes back to what Mourinho moaned about after we played them off the park in the San siro) is the idea that the best players in the world won’t naturally get more free-kicks..We are the best team in the world (which often has 2/3 possession in a match) and we have Ronaldo who is currently holder of the ballon d’or and one of the top two or three players in the world… he is very fuckin quick, in terms of pace and with his feet, defenders go for balls that are no longer there with Ronaldo and some of our other quality players and so they naturally induce free-kicks from two-bit defenders with a bigger reputation than they deserve like Ledley King or Christian Chivu…i.e. like Modric does for Spurs…so Bob, DAVSPURS, (turn caps lock off you half-wit), Dougie and the rest of you should engage your tiny little minds in the vain hope of extracting something worth saying and maybe then come back onto another team’s blog to make a point…
Jake Said you are either joking or are a joke
Your man hits the floor from the slightest touch arms flailing and loud little girl screams no matter he has been touched or not
How can Referees be fair? they have to assume it is the drama queen at his act again
He is a very top player but less than a man in the way he performs the drama queen stuff
PS: MOM your man Ferdinand and the game was well worth the watching for the great defending shown by both teams
You are entitled to defend your cheating player, it only shows you are blinkered. Guess what? He doesn’t want to play for you lot anymore, hasn’t in a couple of years and he looked like he had a sulk on for most of yesterday’s game. Let’s see you defend him when he’s playing for another club in Europe and doing swan dives and roly-poly’s against you.
And yes. I am serious. Leaving the game yesterday I heard several Mancs saying they didn’t deserve it. Even Fergie concedes that Spurs had the clearer cut chances. You went through because Spurs bottled their penalties, no other reason.
pabird, in Ronaldo’s defence he gets kicked from pillor to post most weeks by every team under the sun, so sometimes you can’t blame him for taking the odd tumble, and lets be honest lots of players do as I said earlier Zakora goes down as did Ginola, who also went down like a girl.
Jealous are we mr divey?
Yeah, Stephan, jealous AND bitter it seems. Mr Divey, stop moaning on here, you sound like a scouser. Just cause a team has the best chance in a game doesnt mean they were the better team or deserved to win. We’re saying Spurs played well, and the game could of gone either way, but overall we had more of the play, applied more of the pressure, and even came closer to scoring (Ronaldos shot), so just cause you heard some Manc at the game being gracious in victory saying Spurs should of won, that doesn’t make it fact.
And pabird, Jake is the posters name, not Jake Said…
Stephen.
As a Spurs fan, I can happily concede that Ronaldo did not deserve to be booked for diving after that particular incident (though, because of previous, he only has himself to blame if referees suspect the worst of him). However, it is also true to say that the ref was quite right not to award a penalty. It depends which camera angle you view. From two angles, it does indeed look as though Ledley fouled Ronaldo. But from a third angle, Ledley clearly got a toe to the ball.
Overall, I’d say that Spurs fans have every bit as much to complain about as Utd fans – without even debating whether or not O’Shea should have been sent off. The vast majority of small decisions seemed to go Utd’s way. They got a very soft free kick in a great position early on. A couple of minutes later, Lennon was scythed down in a similar position at the other end and nothing was given. On quite a few occasions, after fouls on Spurs players, the ref played advantage when it was quite clear that no advantage was forthcoming. Conversely, he blew for fouls on quite a few occasions when there was a clear advantage for Spurs. Very frustrating.
Finally, I doubt that even the most blinkered of Utd fans could deny that, over the years, Spurs have been on the end of some pretty shocking decisions against Utd and that even if the ref had denied Utd five clear penalties yesterday, the balance would still not have been restored.
Nevertheless, no excuses for yesterday. A tight game, with Utd having the lion’s share of possession and Spurs having the better chances. Could have gone either way and it was tough that either team had to lose on the lottery of penalties.
JimB, I agree with some of what you say, but what are these ‘shocking decisions’ that you talk of? Mendes shot at OT a few years back that crossed the line comes to mind, and Andy Coles superb overhead kick at White Hart Lane that was disallowed for a high boot also comes to mind to counter that in my opinion. But what other incidents are you referring to?
pabird- I’m defending the yellow card and having a go at idiots that claim we always unjustly get more free-kicks etc..not saying he doesn’t go down easily but refs should try to judge incidents on their individual merit….and no I wasn’t joking but your grasp of English is a little bit wanting mate so I’ll let you off as you probably mis-understood my use of the indefinite article
Clearly, the game ended 0-0 after 2 hours. Clearly, Spurs had created, but not finished, the better chances. To say Utd were clear winners is a nonsense then, clearly. As I say, they won on penalties, fair and square. The rest of the game was quite even, with the better chances going Spurs way, as your manager has said. There was no significant save to be made by Gomes, but the post was struck. All I said was that few would say Utd really deserved it. After 120 minutes they were perhaps the more fortunate of the 2 sides not to have conceeded. Thats all.
JimB also makes some good points, though I doubt anyone here will listen to them. In general, the ref gave Utd everything. 20 minutes before giving Spurs a decision tells it’s own story. The penalty incident, it was at best a borderline call, no clear foul, different angles show different ‘truths’. From the refs angle, he saw the ball follow the direction of Kings foot and saw Ronaldo leap and howl in trademark fashion. Yes, there was contact, you can see it on one of the replays. It was minimal and the decision went against Ronaldo, whose reputation precedes him. Get over it!
Jealous? Yes, definitely. It would have meant everything to have won that Cup, especially after all we’ve had to endure as supporters this season. I realise it doesn’t mean so much to Utd and thats fair enough, so the least I would hope for is some credit given for Spurs performance, which at the least matched Utds.
Spurs performance got credit off alot of United fans on here, in the media, on the tv, what more do you want, a replay? an inquiry? You think you were the slightly better team, some of us think we were the better, big deal, thats both of us being slightly biased.
But dont patronise and sneer at us and then expect to get 100% attention and respect… “JimB also makes some good points though I doubt anyone here will listen to them”,
“You are entitled to defend your cheating player, it only shows you are blinkered. Guess what? He doesn’t want to play for you lot anymore, hasn’t in a couple of years and he looked like he had a sulk on for most of yesterday’s game”
“It’s incredible really. Ask any opposing fan which in the PL is most likely to be awarded the decisions and they will say Utd”.
Theres enough in there to warrant you not getting any genuine civil comments back from United fans. You accuse us of being blinkered, but the words ‘pot’, ‘kettle’ and ‘black’ come to mind…
And the reason United got the majority, if not all the frees for the 1st 20 minutes is simple, we owned the ball and did all the attacking for the first 20 minutes, all Spurs could do was hoof it back to us. We did all the attacking, and drew the fouls. When in the 1st 20mins did Spurs not get a free kick that they should of got?
North stand – other “incidents” that immediately come to mind, in addition to that Mendes “goal” that never was (possibly the worst officiating mistake in the history of the game?):
Penalty given against Taricco after a foul committed a good yard and a half outside the box.
Spurs not being given the clearest of corners (the ball made a right angled change of direction after ricocheting off the Utd defender) and, with almost the entire Spurs defence making their way up to the Utd area for the corner, Utd took a goal kick, had a two man advantage and Cantona (I think) scored.
Jurgen Klinsmann being brought down by Schmeichel in the box and no pen given.
One of the two penalty claims during last season’s league game – Berbatov clearly brought down by Vidic (who made no attempt to get to the ball).
Ronaldo staying on the pitch after kicking out petulantly at Dawson earlier this season.
There are a few more that I can’t immediately recall (they’ve formed themselves into some kind of amorphous mass!) but that’s enough to be getting on with!
JimB, seriously, will you cop on. You didnt get a corner and thats one of your great ‘incidents’ you mention? Granted, maybe some of the decisions didnt go your way, but if I had the mind numbing patience to sit through old dvds of United v Spurs games, Im sure we could find ‘incidents’ like you mention. Jesus Christ man, this is football, we dont always get every decision that we should, thats the beauty of it all, it causes controversy.
Last year at WHL, didnt a Spurs player handle the ball on the ground in the box before Berbatov scored? These things even themselves out. Fair enough that Mendes incident was a joke, but we never defended that issue, it was clear to all that it was a goal. The outcry after that almost brought in goal line technology it was such an outrageous blooper. United dont get things their own way all the time, despite the media and opposition fans going on about us like we do. When a blatent decision goes our way, ‘its the same old story, one rule for United’, but when we get wronged, ‘its about time, they always get things their own way, this is payback’, so we cant win.
You can see in the replay he stretches to poke the ball away and this stretch means he loses his balance; he is already going to ground when contact is made. He shouldn’t have been booked but it would have been a poor penalty decision. If the penalty had been given and Ronaldo scored the entire match would have hinged on a poor decision and his reputation would have only (maybe unfairly in this case) grown as a diver and a simulator.
I wouldn’t deny that decisions do also go against Utd. But there is no doubt that, against Spurs at least, the vast majority of bad decisions have been in Utd’s favour. As to that corner, it wasn’t as small a mistake as you make out. Maybe you didn’t see that game but it was as clear a corner as you are ever likely to get. It couldn’t possibly, it seemed, have been missed by any the officials – let alone all of them. Yet Utd were awarded a goal kick, with both Spurs’ centre backs already on their way up for the corner. Consequently, Utd scored direct from the goal kick.
JimB, whether the referee himself kicked it out and then gave a goal kick, its still just a corner kick that wasnt given. What the Spurs center backs were doing wandering up the field oblivious to the refs decision baffles me. I play a bit of football, like alot of lads on here do / did, and something like that wouldnt be seen at schoolboys games. Or if it did happen and I got caught (I play alot at center back) I would be slated by the manager.
If Spurs defenders hadnt of tuned out and got caught, it wouldnt be an issue. But we scored (I dont remember it, cause to me its just another goal in another game, to you its a travesty that still cuts deep), so it registers to you as a cruel blow. If we’re gonna start listing ‘dodgey’ decisions that affected us through the years, I may go get the flask of tea and the bag of ham and cheese sandwiches, cause we’ll be here for the night…
JimB- losing all credibility by claiming some ridiculously specific conspiracy biased towards United and against just Spurs…Klinsmann and Schmeichel, are you a bit of a lunatic? Has this conspiracy really been in our favour for the last 12 years? Tottenham Hotspur haven’t even been important enough over the last 12 years to warrant some half-wit claiming a conspiracy against them…that is until you came along JimB…Go grab today’s Sun because I think they’ve worked out Diana was killed by MI6 and the CIA did bring down the world trade centre towers…and there was no moon landing (why was the flag moving? hmmmm)…what an idiot
We as United fans just have to accept it. Ronaldo is the most famous diver in the world of football BECAUSE HE IS THE BEST PLAYER IN THE WORLD. That is the only reason why his action gets more highlighted than Drogba, Gerrard, Lennon, even that blatant handball by Corluka. Who is Corluka anyway?
It’s weird to hear some Spurs fan complaining that their team is weakened when they actually lose to our third-choice GK with an iPod (third before the match).
North Stand, you’re right mate, United fans can’t win. So lets just laugh and sit back and watch the best team in the world. Of course JimB is upset, he has to wonder if Spurs will be playing Crystal Palace and Birmingham City and the like next year…
go for balls that are no longer there with Ronaldo and some of our other quality players and so they naturally induce free-kicks from two-bit defenders with a bigger reputation than they deserve like Ledley King
Jake said the above and that sidelines him forever as any sort of judge other than all mouth and no knowledge
yes pabird it really does…