| Turienzo Alvarez moved back to the top of our chart by one
card after making eight bookings at the match between Villarreal and
Alavés. It could have been more if he had seen a couple of clear
penalties on Martín Palermo in the second half. Maybe the foul by Ibon
Begoña was less clear, but Contra's tug on Palermo's shorts enabled the
world to see that the Argentinian star wears unattractive white underpants,
quite embarrassing for someone who obviously prides himself on his appearance.
Still, despite sliding tackles on a muddy pitch, no skid marks at least.
Mejía Dávila caused some controversy when he allowed Makaay to go
on and score an early goal despite the fact that the Racing defence had stopped
because of a yellow flag from the linesman. The referee was right as he had
received a long wild back pass from Mazzoni, but that was not much consolation
for the players. Deportivo went on to win 2-1. Elsewhere in the league Esquinas
Torres disallowed what would have been Luis Enrique's fourth goal against
Bilbao before half time, mainly because he was feeling sorry for them (no other
obvious reason). The round of midweek cup matches did though produce some fine
refereeing, with López Nieto giving one of those 'you must be joking
ref' penalties when Celta's Vagner did a swan lake over Finidi's legs after the
Mallorca player had very cleanly cleared the ball. The penalty turned the game
around, and Celta went on to win 3-1 in the end. The referee also provoked a
mini-riot at the end when he sent off Marcos for the visitors for a foul on
Karpin (see villains section). García-Aranda, the league's most
reasonable referee, has developed a mean streak recently, and he sent off
Zaragoza's Aragón in the second half of their match at Racing. He has
now shown 19 cards in two games, including two reds, after only producing 32 in
ten games previously. But the performance of the week, at least on a cumulative
basis, came from Carmona Méndez. He officiated twice in five days,
rounding off with a non-existent penalty for Rayo Vallecano against Zaragoza,
taking a leaf out of the book of Esquinas Torres (see above). That just edged
it for him over López Nieto after a controversial performance in the
derby match between Espanyol and Barcelona. Carmona got everything wrong, but
in the end it balanced out, so that's probably all right then. He upset the
home side sending off Rotchen for a rigorous second yellow card in the first
half and then for waving away strong appeals for penalties on Tamudo and then
Toledo. And the visitors were not so happy either when Tamudo intercepted
Abelardo's pass with his upper arm to race on and score Espanyol's goal. Maybe
a week to forget? (05.02.01) |
