Tag: manchester united

soccer

Editing the Laws of the Game

Posted on by Beau Dure

The loud caterwauling you heard around the world this afternoon related to a questionable red card given to Manchester United’s Nani. Real Madrid scored two quick goals, Manchester United was bounced out of the Champions League, and civilization collapsed.

A furious, if somewhat one-sided, debate raged on Twitter over the call. NBC’s Pro Soccer Talk posted dueling posts from Richard “Red Card” Farley and Steve “No It Isn’t” Davis.

Fox Soccer’s analysts raged about “intent,” a word that does not appear in the Laws of the Game and its attached interpretations. (“Intentionally” appears four times, but never in the context of judging yellow or red cards.)

Coincidentally, the keepers of the Laws made a minor tweak this weekend, supposedly reducing confusion with a change in the offside rule.

Those keepers, known as IFAB, are reluctant to make changes. As they should be.

But the Nani debate highlights one of several passages that could use some editing.

Farley, in his rebuttal to the rebuttal, highlights English referee Graham Poll as an example of a divide between English refs and European refs. And quite often, there is. There’s certainly a divide between European refs and English-bred commentators, who still think a studs-up shot to the knee is a friendly greeting.

But here, at last, is the point. Poll says the Nani incident could easily be a yellow card. And many people agree.

And yet … Law 12, Fouls and Misconduct, does not specify anything about yellow cards for fouls that don’t quite deserve red cards. Go ahead – read page 38. The closest you’ll find is “unsporting behaviour.” Red card infractions include “serious foul play” and “violent conduct.”

Now if you read on to the interpretations, you find some common-sense talk on page 113. IFAB defines “careless,” “reckless,” and “using excessive force.” Careless? No foul. Reckless? Yellow card. Excessive force? Red card.

So if you stuck with the Laws, you’d be stuck trying to shoehorn a reckless foul into “unsporting behaviour.” The interpretations, on the other hand, clearly state what referees do anyway — give yellow cards for infractions that aren’t quite worthy of a red card.

Seems like the word “reckless,” at the very least, should be included in the actual text of Law 12. Right?

(But don’t add “intent.” The pundits were just bringing it up to make fun of it.)

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soccer

Panic at the All-Star Game: Why MLS fans should chill

Posted on by Beau Dure

Final score: Manchester United 5, MLS All-Stars 2.

What does tell us? Nothing, without the following bits on context that will explain why this game was different than the typical MLS summer friendly and why last night’s Twitter panic was a tad overblown:

– Man U were motivated, both on a team level and individual level. On a team level, they had just lost to the Kansas City Wizards, and the combination of a legendary club’s pride and some media pressure surely had them a bit more revved up than the typical EPL team on holiday. On an individual level, these guys are fighting for jobs — not just playing time, but jobs, given the new EPL roster limits.

– The Man U kids fighting for those jobs are pretty good. The third and fourth goals in last night’s game were sublime. You could lined up the all-time Serie A All-Stars against Man U, and they might have stopped the fourth with a hard foul. Not the third.

– The All-Stars had more nerves than usual, with an inexperienced side playing Man U in front of 70,000 people. That’s why you get a mistake like Kevin Alston’s poorly weighted pass to a flat-footed Jamison Olave in the first minute, leading directly to Goal #1.

– The experienced players would could’ve settled the side, like Landon Donovan and Dwayne De Rosario, played little because they’re busy with CONCACAF play.

And still, the All-Stars more than held their own in midfield, with Shalrie Joseph looking particularly strong. MLS outshot Man U 19-12, with 11 shots on target to Man U’s 9. But United keeper Edwin van der Sar played like someone who has as much interest in handing over his job as Brett Favre.

The final score was a matter of the defensive breakdowns that are bound to happen when you throw a team together for one game. The first goal was an MLS blunder. No. 2 was a case of one team being used to working together on set pieces and one not so fortunate. No. 5 was either offside or a player failing to push up with his linemates.

Chelsea, Everton, West Ham et al weren’t quite as efficient at capitalizing on those mistakes. That’s a combination of not being quite as motivated and perhaps not quite as confident. It’s also a case of this year’s All-Star team being weakened by various circumstances such as CONCACAF play.

All that said … it’s a friendly. You never know what you’re going to get or how seriously some people are going to take it. Sebastien Le Toux in particular seemed to be out for a leisurely stroll.

You can discern a few good things out of a friendly. The people rushing to buy Wizards tickets after Kansas City’s win hopefully saw a few signs of talent, even if the opponents weren’t up for it on that day. Anyone who saw last night’s game has to think United has some young players with flashes of brilliance.

But hanging Alston, Le Toux or coach Bruce Arena out to dry for the result overlooks the basic point. To restate:

It’s a friendly.

Resume panicking over CONCACAF games, though frankly, MLS didn’t win over any indifferent fans by winning that trophy twice and has every reason to take league games more seriously. Maybe Toronto or Seattle can eke out an away draw and calm people down. Though, frankly, both of those teams have plenty to worry about in the league games.

Back to business on Saturday.

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