The Untold ref review: Barcelona – Arsenal « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade
The Untold ref review: Barcelona – Arsenal
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By Walter Broeckx, the untold ref
When someone on this site said it was Busacca as the ref I felt bad. I remembered him from our game in Shakhtar and felt he was a home ref in that game. So how was his game? Just take a look.
| Min | Type | Text | C/NC | pts | weight | on |
| 1 | OTHER | Foul from Clichy | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 3 | OTHER | Little push from Nasri on Alves | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 5 | OTHER | Foul on Clichy | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | OTHER | Push in the back from nasri not given. Arsenal lose the ball | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 7 | OTHER | Foul on Cesc from Alves | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | OTHER | Offside against Van Persie | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 10 | OTHER | Offside against Barcelona | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | OTHER | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 11 | OTHER | Foul from Diaby | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 12 | OTHER | Foul on Nasri not given another push in the back | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 12 | OTHER | Foul on Cesc given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 13 | OTHER | Clear foul on Cesc not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 15 | OTHER | Foul from Koscielny | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 15 | CARD | Ref gives a yellow card for this. This is soft. A big handicap for Arsenal and Koscielny from now on. | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 25 | OTHER | Tackle from behind on Nasri. Alves playes the ball but he also makes a scissor and clamps the legs of Nasri. The ref gives no foul. This is wrong. Playing the ball when you tackle from behind is very nice but if you go in to the man doing this it is a foul and a bad one. If you see the tackle again you can see that Alves closes his leg and kicks at Nasri. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 25 | CARD | This should have been a yellow card | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 26 | OTHER | Foul from Van Persie | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 28 | OTHER | Foul on Diaby not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 29 | OTHER | Foul on Van Persie push in the back and he loses the ball from this | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 29 | OTHER | Rosicky then thinks that pushes in the back are allowed and also does it but he is called back. Ref should punish the first push. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 29 | CARD | The ref then gives a yellow card against Sagna for giving the ball not immediatly to a Barcelona player. A bit childish from the ref to act like that. And another yellow card for an Arsenal defender for almost nothing. | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 30 | OTHER | Offside against Barcelona | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | OTHER | Obstruction on Nasri not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 32 | OTHER | Offside against Barcelona | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 32 | OTHER | Djourou is being pulled to the ground. Barcelona can take possession and this almost leads to a penalty | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 33 | PENALTY | Diaby brings Messi down just inside the penalty area. The ref gives nothing. For me this was a penalty. | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 33 | OTHER | Push in the back from nasri not given. I start noticing some frustration by some players. | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 34 | OTHER | Foul on wilshere not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 34 | OTHER | Foul from Arsenal not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 36 | OTHER | Foul from Wilshere; Strange thin is the ref only gives the foul after the Barcelona players complain to him | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 36 | CARD | The Barcelona players ask for a card and the ref gives it to them. Can be given. | C | 1 | 2 | 2 |
| 38 | OTHER | Foul on Alves from Clichy. But the way Alves is making it look as his leg has been kicked to pieces is ridiculous. Wanted another yellow card against Arsenal. Clichy hardly touched him. | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 41 | OTHER | Rosicky and Abidal challenge for the ball with high feet no foul given. Rosicky played the ball. Abidal pretende to being hit by a rocket. | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 43 | OTHER | Corner given for Arsenal. Not correct | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 44 | OTHER | Strong challenge on Wilshere but no foul imo | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 44 | CARD | Abidal takes Van Persie by his troath and not one of the 6 officials has seen this. Abidal should have walked with a red card | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 45 | CARD | Van Persie is furious and pushes Alves on the face. Alves goes down as if Tyson as hit him on the face. Van Persie gets a yellow card. Should have been a red card. But this is all down the the ref not doing his job. | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 45 | GOAL | Nothing against the rules with that goal | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 45 | OTHER | Offside against Barcelona | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 45 | OTHER | Foul on Wilshere given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 46 | OTHER | Foul from Wilshere given | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 47 | OTHER | Push in the back from Messi against Koscielny not given. Arsenal lose the ball and Barcelona get chance and a corner | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 51 | OTHER | Nasri is pulled back nothing given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 53 | GOAL | It is not against the rules to score from on own goal | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 55 | OTHER | Offside against Van Persie | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 55 | CARD | Well you could have expected it from the ref. A very hard decision and an important one. If you want to follow the rules very strict in a game, whic he didn’t you could give it. But then you have to punish each kick against the ball after the whistle with a yellow card. He never did so this decision was completely out of line with the rest of his game. So I really think he had a score to settle with Van Persie. To take such a decision in such a game shows that the ref lacked some common sense. | NC | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 55 | CARD | As this was the second card he had to go | NC | 0 | 0 | 3 |
| 62 | OTHER | Offside against Barcelona | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 64 | OTHER | Foul from Rosicky not given | NC | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 66 | OTHER | Foul from Nasri | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 66 | OTHER | Foul from Rosicky | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 67 | OTHER | Foul given against Messi | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 68 | GOAL | Nothing against the rules with that goal. A strange thin was that both Diaby and Djourou slipped during the build up which made the gap open up. Also notice that Sagna touched the ball and so it made a jump over the hand of Almunia who had it covered I think. | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 70 | PENALTY | I dont think we can have much argument. Koscielny stuck out his leg and touched Pedro. Nothing else the ref could do. | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 71 | GOAL | If I want to be very strict like Busacca was with the sending off I must look at the fact that 3 Barcelona players are in the penalty area when Messi shoots. No Arsenal players. So according to the laws of the game the penalty should have been retaken and the goal cancelled. Also before the penalty was taken the ref made it clear to the Arsenal player sthat they should keep out of the penalty area. So when you specificaly point at this you should be consistent and also punish the Barcelona players. But yeah right…. | C | 1 | 3 | 3 |
| 74 | OTHER | Foul on Koscielny | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 76 | OTHER | Foul from Nasri advantage give | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 77 | OTHER | Foul on Sagna | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 77 | OTHER | Offside against Arsenal | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 79 | OTHER | Foul from Clichy | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 80 | OTHER | Offside against Barcelona | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 81 | OTHER | Offside against Barcelona | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 84 | OTHER | Offside not given from Alves | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 84 | OTHER | Foul from Clichy | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 87 | OTHER | Foul on Arshavin not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 87 | OTHER | Hands from Arshavin after him losing the ball. Should have given the first foul ref | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 88 | OTHER | Foul on Wilsher not give | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 89 | OTHER | Foul on Arshavin not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 92 | OTHER | Foul from clichy not given | NC | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 93 | OTHER | Foul on Koscielny | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| 94 | OTHER | Foul from Wilshere | C | 1 | 1 | 1 |
| TOTAL | 42 | 53 | 94 | |||
| % | 59,15% | 56,38% | ||||
| CARDS | 3 | 8 | 37,50% | |||
| PENALTY | 1 | 2 | 50,00% | |||
| GOAL | 4 | 4 | 100,00% | |||
| OTHER | 3 | 6 | 50,00% | |||
| TOTAL | 11 | 20 | 55,00% |
For being one of the former top refs in Europe this is a low score.
Additional numbers: Fouls not given for Barcelona 5 and not given for Arsenal 15.
When they teach us how to ref they sometimes speak about the unwritten rule. The rule of the common sense. Busacca has never ever heard of that – as for example when he sent Van Persie in the dressing room. I really had the impression that this was some kind of personal vendetta between the ref and Van Persie. I had the feeling that the ref was waiting for this to do.
But this wasn’t the only key moment in the game where he completely missed it. No the fact that Abidal could stay on the field after grabbing Van Persie is very bad. No player stays on my field when I see them doing it. And there comes another big failure of this ref: he didn’t see it because he was doing the wrong things at the time. He was too busy minding the treatment that Wilshere was getting and telling them to get off the field. And while he was doing that complete anarchy ruled behind his back.
I have seen him doing this a few times (the turning his back to possible dangerous situations) so this is something that a ref of his calibre should not let happening. But on the other hand why did no one of the 5 other officials around the field didn’t see it? If Abidal would have been sent off like he should have been it was 10 vs 11 but with Arsenal with 11 on the pitch and then Van Persie would not have felt the need to take matters in his own hands like he did.
This is a typical situation where from missing a vital thing as a ref you start sliding down the slope and you go from bad to worse. On the other hand if Van Persie would have stayed calm after the Abidal incident the ref couldn’t have booked him twice. So not very clever to do. Don’t give the ref the chance to get you.
About the scored penalty goal it should have been cancelled. Not that the players were very far in the penalty area but the ref pointed at the Arsenal players before the penalty that they should stay out of the penalty area. They did this very well. But then as a ref when you have pointed this out to one team you should handle the same rules to the other team. Which he didn’t. As I didn’t wanted to look too much like someone who has been on the sour grapes I still gave him the points for the goal. But let us say that, not for the first time, he was rather inconsistent.
A few remark from my part about the card waving by Barcelona players. Still forbidden by the instructions but some refs don’t know about it I think. And finally the way the Barcelona players went down after some fouls as if their legs had been kicked to pieces. Alves is the specialist in this and as I have heard that Man City is after him it will be fun next year to see him rolling around the field after meeting up with some teams. But then I wonder how much time is lost with this rolling around pretending you are dead and the seconds that went lost when Van Persie had his fatal shot at goal. Gives you something to think about as I don’t think the time that Van Persie wasted was that much if you compare it to other moments when time was lost.