Here’s a New Year video nasty: Southampton youngster Matt Paterson lunges at Nemanja Vidić in Sunday’s FA Cup tie against Manchester United.
Even today, having seen replays of the tackle, Saints manager Jan Poortvliet insists that Paterson didn’t deserve a red card. Who’s he kidding?! It was a terrible challenge. Both feet off the ground, studs showing… A potential leg-breaker.
Sticking by your players is one thing, but there comes a point when defending the indefensible just makes you look stupid. Referee Mile Riley was quite right to send the teenager off.
Man United went through to the next round with a 3-0 win.
Robinho’s chipped shot dominated the headlines when Manchester City beat Arsenal 3-0 last month. But under different circumstances - had the Gunners still been in the game as full-time approached - the pressmen would have been talking about this incident. Watch the video and make up your own mind. Goal or no goal?
Referee Alan Wiley said “no goal” after Robin van Persie pinched the ball from City keeper Joe Hart. Robbing the goalie mid-kick was deemed to be unsporting conduct.
It’s a goal for me. Hart didn’t deserve the ref’s protection. The ball was clearly out of his hands and there to be taken. Van Persie was sharp, Hart was careless.
Ex-Real Madrid midfielder Pablo Gabriel García racked up an alarming 17 bookings in the ‘04-’05 La Liga season. His nickname - El Canario, “The Canary” - has nothing to do with his fondness for seeing yellow, but his birthplace in Uruguay’s Canelones department.
Nonetheless, trouble follows wherever García goes. Now playing for PAOK in Greece, he has already seen two yellow and two red cards in just seven games. And there was a three-game suspension - which ends today - for meting out rough justice in a top-of-the-table clash with Olympiakos.
The off-the-ball scuffle at the start of the video is between Diogo Luis Santo and García. It’s alleged that the Brazilian striker caught García in the face with his elbow. There’s no close-up footage of that incident, but García’s revenge - punching Diogo in the guts - was captured on camera, hence the lengthy ban.
André Luís snatched a yellow card from a referee earlier this month, but that’s tame compared to his previous form.
The Botafogo defender was sent off during a Campeonato Brasileiro match against Náutico in June. By the time Luís actually left the pitch, he had been arrested, the opposition fans insulted, and his team-mates pepper-sprayed in a scrap with the police.
Luís’s one-digit salute to the Náutico supporters sparked the fighting. The police arrested him for disobeying authority, claiming that he also kicked a plastic bottle into the crowd.
With a one-man advantage for more than 50 minutes, Náutico cruised to an easy 3-0 win.