PLAY THE ADVANTAGE

Oh, vanishing spray…you so crazy!

You know, this stuff worked pretty well at the World Cup. Everyone seemed to like it, encroaching went down to basically nil, and no one got sprayed in the face (though I’m sure the referees would have liked to spray a few guys in the face).

Cue the Premier League referees.

Poor old vanishing spray had a rocky debut in the English league this past weekend, through no fault of its own, I’m sure.

First,  Mike Dean pissed Swansea’s Nathan Dyer off something fierce by getting it all over his new boots.

And then Jon Moss, struggling to get it out (see what I did there?) didn’t even seem to notice that he gave Santi Cazorla a blast in the face.

Sadly, the Arsenal man didn’t vanish.

Good on him for being a good sport about it, though.

As hilarious as all this is, and it is quite hilarious, I also have to wonder why this seems to be such trouble for the Englishmen, when not a single referee had a row with their spray can in Brazil. It’s not exactly rocket surgery, guys.

I did hear one announcer say that English fans didn’t “take to” vanishing spray, because it wasn’t “English football.”  Because it makes sense, I guess…