| A
quieter weekend in the league this time with the top four card wavers all
resting, and there were only 48 yellows and four reds. Some referees just love
giving penalties and others won't even if a player is hacked down with a
woodman's axe. For example, Andradas Asurmendi sent off Villarreal's Gracia and
awarded a penalty for hands when the player had caught the ball on his chest in
their match at Oviedo. On the other hand Ansuategui Roca just didn't want to
give a penalty against Bilbao in the lions' den, despite claims by Real
Madrid's Roberto Carlos, Guti and Morientes, although to be fair he didn't give
one either to Julen Guerrero later on. An outbreak of Alzheimers hit the men in
black this week, with Carmona Méndez having to be reminded by the fourth
official to send off Schurrer after giving him a second yellow card, and
Iturralde forgetting the minute's silence in Saturday's game in Vallecas.
Iturralde was one of two referee's who had to officiate twice in four days (a
case for sacking the computer programmer there), and he drew the short straw of
the bad tempered cup match between Mallorca and Celta. Still he handled it
well, and although as usual he tended to be a bit of a dictator (is that a
moustache he is growing?), he had to be tough to keep the game under control,
sending off two of the home team players without hesitation in a hostile
atmosphere. So although he produced no less than fifteen yellows and three reds
over the two matches, we are reluctant to give him this week's white stick,
that honour falling by default to the other referee who appeared twice this
week, Pérez Burrull. Although his performance at the weekend in La
Coruña went by without comment (as all good refereeing performances
should), he made a bit of a dogs breakfast of the cup tie between Barcelona and
Espanyol on Wednesday night. Last week it was Carmona who's errors cancelled
each other out, and this time Pérez Burrull did the same, although maybe
favouring Espanyol in the end (not that it made any difference to the result).
He ruled out a perfectly good goal by Kluivert for a non-existent offside and
then later booked the Dutch striker for diving when he had a good claim for a
penalty. At the other end he let Guardiola off a second yellow card after he
clearly handled the ball. Barcelona's claim for a foul on Reina before
Espanyol's goal was probably not valid, but after he rather harshly sent off
Cocu the game degenerated into a brawl, with handbags at ten paces from the two
managers. All in all he produced fifteen yellows and a red this week, taking
him joint fourth in our chart. (12.02.01) |
