So, old Clatts is doing his usual high-profile derby game with Manchester United v. City, and makes one of his usual high profile calls. The basics: Vincent Kompany comes flying in with what appears to be a high foot and appears to take out the United player. Seems a straightforward red card if you don’t know what you’re doing. But
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There is no doubt that a single call or a single moment can often change the momentum of the game. But let’s be clear when talking about Manchester United’s 5-3 shock defeat to Leicester: That is not what happened here. To be very clear, United came out of halftime with a 2-1 lead. At 56, Manchester United scored again. They
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Ashley Young is the new Gareth Bale. And I don’t mean that in a good way. You see, the last year Gaz played for Tottenham, he was yellow carded for diving so many times it became a joke between my friends and I (all Spurs fans). Every time one of us – usually me – would trip on the sidewalk
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It’s the attack of the middle-aged bald(ing) referees for Champions League on Wednesday, April 9. Jonas Eriksson of Sweden will referee Bayern Munich v. Manchester United, and Howard Webb of England will officiate Atletico Madrid v. Barcelona. The last time Jonas Eriksson officiated a Manchester team in the Champions League, he had a really hard time of it (see above).
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Yes, it was a dive. Wayne Rooney took advantage of a poorly-thought out challenge from Bastian Schweinsteiger, who was already on a yellow. Rooney tripped over him and literally threw himself into the air, arms splayed, head thrown back, like the worst ballerina ever. The dive worked, though; Rooney conned referee Carlos Velasco Carballo into a second yellow card and a sending off
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We’re in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, which means shit gets real for both the teams and the referees. From this point on, I’d be surprised to see an “outlier” amongst the Champions League referees. I think you’ll see the best of the best: The men who are not only at the top of their UEFA form, but are
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The Champions League referees for Wednesday, March 19 have been announced. UEFA have clearly moved away from using non-Elite referees in these matches, because these guys are about as Elite as they come. Arguably the world’s top ref, Bjorn Kuipers (above), will referee Manchester United’s tie against Olympiakos. Moyes and company shouldn’t have much to complain about there; Kuipers is
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Mark Clattenburg must keep a fifth of scotch in the boot of his car for just such a day. Not that I think Clattenburg did anything wrong in Manchester United v. Liverpool. He did the very best he could in a game that was just absolute madness. He got a few calls wrong, missed a few he could have given,
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Here are your Champions League referees for Tuesday, February 25. So, we have two “non-World Cup” referees in William Collum of Scotland and Gianluca Rocchi of Italy. Both men have about equal experience in Champions League, which means not much past the group stages. I don’t have a lot of information on the kind of year that Collum’s having, but Rocchi has
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Mark Clattenburg is the Man to Watch this upcoming week. But then, when isn’t he? He’s got Everton (5th) at Spurs (6th) on Sunday, then takes a break and does Arsenal (1st) v. Man United (7th) on Wednesday. A single bad call from him this week could impact next year’s Champions League spots, and maybe even the title race. No
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 