Untold Ref Review: Arsenal 3 – 0 AC Milan an ordinary CL night and about game scenarios… « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News. Supporting the Lord Wenger; coach of the decade

Today’s referee is Damir Skomina – A ref that comes from Slovenia and who speaks English and Italian. So his language knowledge is fine but what is the knowledge of the rules.

MATCH REVIEW DETAILS – Damir Skomina (2012-03-06)
Period 1
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
2	OTHER	?	Gervinho	NC	Push not given	1
3	OFFSIDE	Arsenal		C	correct call	1
5	OTHER	Van Bommel	Rosicky	C	Tackle from behind	1
5	YELLOW	Van Bommel		C	“No chance of playing the ball, stopping promising attack”	2
6	OTHER			C	refs sorts out some pushing before a corner	1
7	GOAL	Arsenal		C	correct goal	3
9	OFFSIDE	Milan		C	correct call	1
10	OTHER	Ibrahimovic	Koscielny	C	Trip	1
11	OTHER	Song	Ibra	NC	Song ran after a lose ball and crossed the Milan player who fell to the ground	1
13	OTHER	Sagna	Van Bommel	C	“Sagna comes in sliding and plays the ball, he pulls his legs under him but contact is made. Difference between Pl and CL”	1
13	YELLOW	Sagna		NC	Sagna did all he could to avoid the contact by pulling his legs under him but Van Bommel made the most of it	2
15	OTHER	Gibbs	El Shaarawi	C	Tripped him from behind	1
15	YELLOW	Gibbs		C	Stopped a promising attack	2
16	OFFSIDE	Milan		C	correct	1
16	OTHER	Sagna	Mesbah	C	Leaning on him	1
17	OTHER	RVP	Abiati	C	Sliding in towards the keeper	1
18	OFFSIDE	Milan		C	assumed correct	1
18	OTHER	Rosicky	Van Bommel	C	trip	1
18	OFFSIDE	Milan		C	assumed correct	1
25	OTHER	?	Walcott	NC	Caught him after he played the ball not given	1
25	OFFSIDE	Milan		C	assumed correct	1
26	GOAL	Arsenal		C	correct goal	3
27	OFFSIDE	Milan		C	assumed correct	1
37	OTHER	RVP	Abate	C	obstruction	1
37	YELLOW	Van Bommel		NC	“Van Bommel asking for a yellow card, should have been booked himself”	2
38	OTHER	Mesbah	Walcott	C	Push	1
40	OTHER	Mesbah	Walcott	NC	“Almost a repeat of the Sagna tackle, first the ball but then slid in to the player, not given this time.”	1
41	OTHER	Song	Emanuelson	C	Trip	1
42	PENALTY	Mesbah	The Ox	C	Brought him down with a double challenge. Why did the ref took what seemed ages to give the penalty?	3
43	YELLOW	Mesbah		NC	Was a promising run (see Gibbs foul) but nothing given	2
43	GOAL	Arsenal		C	correct goal	3
46	OTHER	Song	Van Bommel	NC	“Trip advantage given, was possession”	1
Period 2
Min	Type	Foul from	On	C/NC	Comment	Weight
46	OFFSIDE	Milan		C	correct	1
46	OFFSIDE	Arsenal		C	assumed correct	1
48	OTHER	Rosicky	Van Bommel	C	Blocked his run	1
49	OTHER	Song	Robinho	C	Trip	1
51	OTHER	Mesbah	Walcott	C	Push	1
52	OTHER	Van Bommel	Rosicky	NC	Push not given	1
57	OTHER	Song	Ibra	NC	Song nicks the ball away and Ibra kicks himself with his right foot against his left ankle because he missed the ball	1
57	YELLOW	Song		NC	“wrong decision, wrong car’d”	2
57	YELLOW	Robinho		NC	asking for a card should be punished with a yellow card ref	2
59	OTHER	Van Bommel	Rosicky	C	“tries to stop Rosicky, ref gives advantage. Van Bommel close to a 2nd, 3rd yellow card”	1
61	OTHER	Robinho	Gervinho	NC	push when he is defending near his own penalty area not given	1
65	OFFSIDE	Arsenal		C	Very close but looked correct	1
66	OTHER	Vermaelen	Ibra	NC	No contact a nice dive	1
67	OTHER	Rosciky	Mexes	C	push	1
68	OTHER	Mesbah	Walcott	NC	Push not given	1
69	OTHER	Mesbah	Rosicky	C	Push	1
70	OFFSIDE	Arsenal		C	ref plays advantage	1
70	OFFSIDE	Milan		C	assumed correct	1
71	OTHER	Mexes	Vermaelen	NC	Blocked his run	1
71	YELLOW	Mexes		NC	A deliberate block off the ball you could see him setting himself for the impact. Knew exactly what he was doing	2
74	OTHER	Walcott	Van Bommel	C	assumed correct but Theo Walcott pushing Van Bommel from the ball??	1
75	OTHER	Koscielny	Robinho	C	trip	1
77	OTHER	Rosicky	Emanyelson	C	Trip	1
79	OTHER	Abate	Chamakh	NC	leaning and shoving not given	1
79	OTHER	Rosicky	Aquilaini	C	High foot and came in frontal	1
80	OTHER	Abate		NC	He takes a throw in and lifts one foot of the ground??? Schollboy stuff ref	1
80	OTHER	Van Bommel	Walcott	NC	“Van Bommel kicks Walcott on his leg, nothing given”	1
81	OTHER	Ibra	Koscielny	C	Little pull on the defender	1
81	OTHER	Chamakh	Aquilaini	C	to eager and gave a little kick but compared to the Van Bommel action seconds earlier	1
83	OTHER	Ibrahimovic	Chamakh	NC	clear trip advantag give but 7 defenders back and only 2 strikers in front of the ball and the foul in the arsenal half?	1
83	YELLOW	Ibrahimovic		NC	“Came late and took the man, should have been booked”	2
85	OTHER	Vermaelen	Ibra	NC	Didn’t see any contact but he went down sticking oot his leg towards the defender. The mark of a dive?	1
86	OTHER			NC	Ball hits Sagna and goes out for a corner but the ref gives the ball to Arsenal	1
85	YELLOW	Nocerino		C	You may be right but arguing with the ref results only in yellow cards	2
85	YELLOW	Ibrahimovic		C	You may be right but arguing with the ref results only in yellow cards	2
89	OTHER	Ibra	Song	NC	Push in the back not given	1
90	OTHER	Abate		NC	Again Abate lift his foot with a throw	1
90	OTHER	Park	Abate	C	Trip	1
92	OTHER	Song	Robinho	C	Pull	1
92	OTHER	?	Vermaelen	C	Push	1
92	YELLOW	Abate		C	kicking the ball away	2
92	OFFSIDE	Arsenal		C	correct call	1

I will try to follow the flow of the game a bit and I though he had a good start. The booking of Van Bommel was as clear as one can get. Coming from behind, no chance of playing the ball.

Then Sagna got booked for something that no English ref would give a foul for. Sagna slid over the ground, connected with the ball and then he pulled his legs back to try and avoid contact with Van Bommel. I agreed with the call of the foul in fact but it was clear to see that Sagna did all he could to avoid contact so the yellow card was very harsh. No problem with the yellow card from Gibbs as this was a correct one as it stopped a promising attack.

All went rather well even though he could have booked Van Bommel for asking a card for an Arsenal player.

The moment I really was puzzled was the penalty for Arsenal. This was a crystal clear penalty that nobody will dispute. Never the less it took the ref what seemed ages in real time to blow the penalty. I had the impression he didn’t want to give it at all.  I think this wasn’t in his game scenario plan at all. But not giving it would have him shown of as a complete idiot so had no other choice and I think the ref behind the goal advised him strongly to not act like a complete fool and give it.

What then followed in the second half was a complete mystery to me.  But I come back to this when you have read the competency summary and please do look at the differences between the first and second half.

COMPETENCY SUMMARY – Damir Skomina (2012-03-06)
Period 1	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	3	3	100.00
OFFSIDE	7	7	100.00
OTHER	11	16	68.75
PENALTY	1	1	100.00
YELLOW	2	5	40.00
TOTAL	24	32	75.00
WEIGHTED	34	45	75.56
Period 2	Called	Total	Correct %
OFFSIDE	6	6	100.00
OTHER	15	29	51.72
YELLOW	3	7	42.86
TOTAL	24	42	57.14
WEIGHTED	27	49	55.10
Totals	Called	Total	Correct %
GOAL	3	3	100.00
OFFSIDE	13	13	100.00
OTHER	26	45	57.78
PENALTY	1	1	100.00
YELLOW	5	12	41.67
TOTAL	48	74	64.86
WEIGHTED	61	94	64.89

Okay if you are back with me you will see that from a still good enough 75% he went down to the basement of refereeing levels and only got a score or around 56% in the second half. What a difference a half makes one could say. I will come back to this later when I reach my final conclusions.

Players asking for cards for other players were not punished and this is so disappointing.  When a manager criticizes the ref in the tunnel after the game he can face a ban. When players do the same in the open in front of the camera (because waving with imaginary cards or asking for cards = criticizing the ref) the don’t get punished.

But he was consistent in a way. But not in a good way consistent as you can see if you look at the bias summary below.

BIAS SUMMARY – Damir Skomina (2012-03-06)
Period 1	Arsenal	%	AC Milan	%	Total
Correct For	15	62.50	9	37.50	24
Correct For Weighted	24	70.59	10	29.41	34
Incorrect Against	7	87.50	1	12.50	8
Incorrect Against Weighted	10	90.91	1	9.09	11
Fouls Commited	7	33.33	14	66.67	21
Fouls Penalised	6	85.71	10	71.43	16
Period 2	Arsenal	%	AC Milan	%	Total
Correct For	10	41.67	14	58.33	24
Correct For Weighted	13	48.15	14	51.85	27
Incorrect Against	17	94.44	1	5.56	18
Incorrect Against Weighted	21	95.45	1	4.55	22
Fouls Commited	13	41.94	18	58.06	31
Fouls Penalised	13	100.00	7	38.89	20
Totals	Arsenal	%	AC Milan	%	Total
Correct For	25	52.08	23	47.92	48
Correct For Weighted	37	60.66	24	39.34	61
Incorrect Against	24	92.31	2	7.69	26
Incorrect Against Weighted	31	93.94	2	6.06	33
Fouls Commited	20	38.46	32	61.54	52
Fouls Penalised	19	95.00	17	53.13	36

When Arsenal committed fouls he punished them. He even got a score of 100% in the second half. But the other way round he only punished half the fouls from Milan in this game.  And then once again you have to look at the difference between both halves.  In the first half he punished almost all the Arsenal fouls and he did punish them all in the second half. But in the first half he was more easy on Milan a bit but in the second half it was frighting to see that he didn’t give 40% of the fouls from Milan!

This of course leads to a lot of wrong calls. And they are divided over 90% of the wrong calls going against Arsenal. No wonder there was someone a bit furious after the game.

My last rant is about something that appeared in the newspaper. So I will be gladly to be proven wrong it this would be a lie. But if the ref really said this it is something to keep in mind because it is frightening.  So I quote from the media:

“In our preparations, we considered a lot of different game scenarios and one was exactly as it happened in the first half — that Arsenal would go for it ‘all or nothing’ by putting maximum pressure on Milan’s players and trying to disrupt their game. It almost worked.”

Now why would a ref consider “game scenarios”?  As a ref you can consider “incident scenarios”. That could be: when a player asks for a yellow card I will give it to him. That is something you can do and you can also say before the game.

But what is a game scenario for a ref? Managers will make up game scenarios and I can imagine that they will have said to the players how to act if you score quickly and what to do then. But why on earth will a ref discuss a game scenario?

And another important question is : who is WE?  Does the “WE” include someone from UEFA? The Uefa representant who is with the refs before, during and after the game?

But if we just look at the numbers again and take the “game scenario” in mind could it be that during half time the refs have taken out their “instructions” (and I don’t mean the laws of the game instructions) and made up a new “game scenario”?

Because if we look at the numbers we can only see that there is a very big gap between the first and the second half.  Could it be that it went horribly wrong when he had to make the penalty decision that took him ages but he had no choice. Could it be that they somehow thought that they (he/we) needed to change their approach and reach for a new and different “game scenario”?

In my opinion the only “game scenario” a ref has to keep in mind is to make sure that the laws of the game are followed. That is the only game scenario they should think of. And not the possibly outcome of the score line and what to do if this or that happens.  Game scenarios and refs….wtf?