Porto v Arsenal ratings

[-vapour-]

Definately terrible refereeing. I'm not making excuse for our players involved but the referee just gave them a goal. Literally handed it to them. As far as I'm concerned once the referee has the ball in his hands the ball is dead. No1 should be able to take a free kick until the whistle is blown from that point. For Christ sake the ref wasn't even looking at the ball it was behind him. No way should it have ever stood in a million years. The referee cheated us more blatently than he cheated Ireland. Lucky for us we have another 90 minutes to rescue ourselves unlike Ireland who only had a few minutes. I don't blame fab for giving the ball to the ref because he's not to know the ref would cheat us. However I will blame fab for a lot of other things.

One day we might have the second coming of Seaman but currently that looks a long way off.

 

[lagos]

Please!

 

[-vapour-]

Less of that. At least I actually give support to my teams players. Rather than completely ripping into Sol. He was our best player. Who accidently (as far as I could make out) kicked the ball back to the keeper. I'll give you he should have been more alert but otherwise you just ripping into a player for the sake of it.

 

[Captain]

I think most people would agree that Sol was our best player on the night or at least close to being. He's been good in his three games back.

 

[lagos]

who says I'm ripping into Sol? Ii'm just pointing out what the romantics are choosing to ignore amd nowhere did I even suggest he had a bad game otherwise. The fact that some just refuse to acknowledge errors of some of their favourites and the good things done by those they don't like just shows how clouded some judgements are. Yes it was good to see Sol back, yes he scored a good goal but he played a big part in the **** up for the second goal...fact! and whether or not you chosse to bury your head in the sand doesn't remove from that fact. Also people should quit blaming the refree, we did it to teams all the time and nobody here moaned. Correct me if I am wrong but unless the refree specifically says wait for the whistle, you are free to take a freekick.

 

[ultradoc]

When did referees hand over the ball to us taking it away from opposition players? And how can the ref be so close and be blocking our player and let the fk stand? The referee definitely has a part in the blame, same as sol and fabs for switching off there.

 

[Captain]

There is usually some sort of signal if not the whistle, not just grabbing it from the keeper, rolling it on the floor and then walking away into the oppositions defender without facing play.

The Ref had the sharpest attacking wits on the pitch.

Like I said elsewhere, I have never seen a ref do that in all of my years playing and watching football; was the latest in a long line of strange things I have seen recently (on a football pitch before some smart ass gets in there ) .

 

[lagos]

Ok even if the refree was inept (I can't really argue that point as I am not familiart with the rules) It doesn't excuse the switching off by Sol and the naivety by Fabianski. If those 2 had had not behaved like schoolboys and instead acted like professional footballers at the highest level of the game, the opportunity to take the freekick would never have presented itself, irrespective of refree.

 

[ultradoc]

Noone really argued the mistake by fabs and sol either. But you can't absolve the ref of complete blame.

I wonder why sol was so distraught like he was. Did he think it was a penalty or red card or something? at least he reacted like that.

 

[Captain]

I have decided that it was just a pool of extremely unusual occurences that went against us. That Portuguese witchcraft is pretty strong.

 

[lagos]

I wonder why sol was so distraught like he was. Did he think it was a penalty or red card or something? at least he reacted like that.

Personally I think it was because he felt he shouldn't have made the backpass

 

[ultradoc]

That's kinda stupid considering his experience. He should've been more in control there. We all praised him when he was the first toget to the rebound from lehmann against riquelme, yesterday was just unfortunate and sad.

 

[Del Boy]

Campbell should take little blame in the goal. It wasn't his fault the keeper actually picked it up.

And the referee also blocked him when the free kick was being taken.

 

[Arsenal in Aus]

I was pleased with Campbell's performance overall. He made several important and clever interceptions, particularly in the first half. Didn't look as sluggish as I had expected either. It was a bad mixup for the goal but his overall game wasn't bad at all. And that's two goals from his last two Champion's League appearences in a row!

 

[tactica442]

Serious guys. Don't tell me you never see Sol being distraught with his hands on his head in action. I've seen him doing that before the re0signing. That's part of his expressions.

Indeed the ref should've done better but Sol was completely clean here. You really think a professional top player like Cesc cannot tell what a neat goalkeep should look like? Cesc mentioned no Sol according to the snippet of Cesc's quote on arseblog. Cesc saw Lehmen and his Spanish International keepers in action. He knows very well what's a competent goalkeeping.

Please stop giving that Sol should've known better and FAb didn't know Sol's sole touched the ball that sort of BS.

 

[AliBabaBrewer]

Right, this 'Sol is blameless' s**t is right pissing me off.

Yes, Campbell's the current golden boy, and yes, I actually reckon that apart from this debacle, he was our man of the match, but f**k me, the Fabianski F**k Up bandwagon's protecting him here for some.

Why, when it was clearly going back to the keeper, would you EVER touch it. AT ALL.

Yes, Fabianski shouldn't've touched it, and as a goalkeeper, should've had the reactions to realise Campbell had passed it, but how does that absolve Sol from all blame?

As soon as Fabianski see's it coming to him, he's thinking 'Right, I'm going to scoop this up'. He has NO REASON, at that time, to believe Campbell will touch it, so with the speed of the moment, and the faintness of the touch, I don't think it fully computes in the keepers head (Which it probably should) what has happened here.

I just can't understand what goes through the centre half's head when he thinks 'The ball's rolling at quite a pace, and it's 4 yards from the safety of the box, and the nearest player's another 6 yards behind me. I'd best give this the tinyest little touch you've ever seen so as to help the goalkeeper.'

It's like driving drunk, hitting a tree, and then blaming all your injuries on the airbags not going off. Yeah, they should've gone off, but you shouldn't've driven home drunk in the first place.

 

[Arsenal in Aus]

I really didn't think Sol's touch for the "backpass" was intentional - am I the only one? It seemed to me he just misjudged the position/pace of the ball a little and made slight contact (which is bad enough in itself). Surely he's not dopey enough to have done that deliberately?? After the touch Fabianski should have just booted it out over the sideline - not an ideal outcome, but it would have removed the immediate threat without any possible case for a card or freekick.

 

[Clrnc]

I really didn't think Sol's touch for the "backpass" was intentional - am I the only one? It seemed to me he just misjudged the position/pace of the ball a little and made slight contact (which is bad enough in itself). Surely he's not dopey enough to have done that deliberately?? After the touch Fabianski should have just booted it out over the sideline - not an ideal outcome, but it would have removed the immediate threat without any possible case for a card or freekick.

Thats what I have been saying all along. That touch was accidental. The ball was rolling to Fabianski, and he positioned himself to grab the ball. Then all of a sudden the ball bounced off Campbell's toe and Fabianski didn't know, so he caught it. I believe from him angle facing Sol's leg, it would be hard to spot the touch.

 

[-vapour-]

I really didn't think Sol's touch for the "backpass" was intentional - am I the only one? It seemed to me he just misjudged the position/pace of the ball a little and made slight contact (which is bad enough in itself). Surely he's not dopey enough to have done that deliberately?? After the touch Fabianski should have just booted it out over the sideline - not an ideal outcome, but it would have removed the immediate threat without any possible case for a card or freekick.

Thats what I have been saying all along. That touch was accidental. The ball was rolling to Fabianski, and he positioned himself to grab the ball. Then all of a sudden the ball bounced off Campbell's toe and Fabianski didn't know, so he caught it. I believe from him angle facing Sol's leg, it would be hard to spot the touch.

I concur with both of these statements. End of the day had the indirect freekick been played 'fairly' then half of these arguments wouldn't even be cropping up. I don't understand how anyone who doesn't think Sol touched the ball by accident suddenly believes that he's our golden boy. That's a tabloidesque conclusion to make tbh.

I'm sticking with the blame on the ref. It perhaps shouldn't have got that far, but it did, and the referee just handed them a goal.