Red Card or Not: Velasco and England v. Uruguay
The most controversial moment of the 2-1 Uruguayan victory over England came at around 30 minutes.
Daniel Sturridge was sprinting down the sideline toward goal, pursued by Uruguay captain Diego Godin.
In what appeared to be a cynical attempt to stop the run of play, Godin reached out and slapped Sturridge in the throat, elbow first. The professional foul worked, and Sturridge got the foul call.
Yellow card, you say?
No. Godin was already on a yellow, and the Spanish referee – Carlos Velasco – inexplicably chose not to give that second yellow. It appeared to me (hampered though I am by ESPN’s angles) that Velasco ever-so-briefly reached for his pocket; someone with better coverage might be able to opine on that.
If Uruguay had played with 10 men for 60 minutes, the outcome might have been very different and England might not be the team going home.
Note: I do not like to make decisions like this on photographic evidence like the above alone. But I’m having trouble sourcing a video right now. As soon as I get one, I’ll update this post.
In the meantime, what do you think? Red card or not? Tell us why below.
Featured photo: Daily Mail
PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 
I was really angry about this decision, especially since the ref was so fussy otherwise. He basically let some of the Urugay players get away with way too much since he didn’t want to pull the red, but was stricter to the ones who were still card free. It should be the other way around imho.
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I’d really be interested to see if he really did make a move toward his pocket. If he was just letting things slide, that’s one thing. But if he knew it was a yellow and decided not to give it…
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I was also very angry about this. I am a ref and this clearly should have been second yellow. He hit Sturridge in the chin with his arm on that tackle it was pretty obvious. But he didnt want to give red card early in the game. If he had England would have won for sure. Generally I thought he called too many fouls against England . The ref got duped by Suarez especially pretending to get fouled
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It is obviously a straight red! Carlos should’ve gone to specsavers!
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Old joke is old…
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