The Untold ref review: FA Cup time Arsenal – Leeds « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
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By Walter Broeckx
The first FA cup game and leading the teams out was ref Phil Dowd. How was his game ?
OTHER: A Leeds defender comes in with a frontal tackle and blocks the ball with one foot but goes in with the other foot and hits Chamakh on his ankle. A typical case of a ref not looking for the second leg or foot coming in. Playing the ball does not mean you don’t make a foul. As I have told you a few times before frontal tackles are always dangerous and the ref should take care of them and certainly when there is contact with the other foot. So 0/1 for not seeing the foul.
OTHER/CARD: Eboue is starting a run on the flank and is being brought down a bit cynically. No chance for the Leeds player to play the ball there. 1/1 and 1/1
OTHER: An Arsenal attempt is going goal bound and the keeper is beaten. A defender comes to the rescue and clears the ball right on the line. Good decision from the assistant not to give a goal. 1/1
OTHER: Eboue makes a dive in his own penalty area. Dowd doesn’t want to know anything about it. Correct from the ref. 1/1
OTHER/CARD: Rosicky is trying to shield the ball out but Sanchez Watt (the Arsenal player playing for Leeds) is a bit quicker. As the ball runs out Rosicky gives a small push. Dowd gives a foul but to give a yellow card for that looks a bit harsh. The ball was running out of play and there was not a dangerous attack (with the ball going out there was no attack at all). It was a foul, but this card looks a bit silly in my opinion. If you want to give a card for every push we will end up with not enough players on the pitch. 1/1 and 0/1
Half time in a real cup game.
PENALTY/CARD/GOAL: Denilson goes in and brings the Leeds player down in the penalty area. Penalty, no doubt about it. Dowd gives no card as there was not a goal scoring chance and it was a foul that you can see a few in a game. Just a bit clumsy. So no card has to be given. Snodgrass shoots the ball in goal. Nothing wrong with that. So this leaves us in total for this: 1/1, 1/1 and 1/1.
PENALTY: Was there a foul on Bendtner? O’Brien came in from behind but from the angles I could see it he clearly nicked he ball away from Bendtner. For me there was no foul. He stuck out his foot between the legs of Bendtner without touching Bendtner. So a correct decision from the ref. 1/1
OTHER/CARD: Howson from Leeds comes in late and from behind on Cesc. Foul and a yellow card. Correct decision. 1/1 and 1/1
OTHER/CARD: Rosicky with a tackle on a Leeds player. No chance of playing the ball. Should have been a yellow card and this would have been his second. I think Dowd by then realized how silly the first booking was and compensated on this occasion. I think he admitted it to Rosicky before the second half as they were having a chat just before kickoff. This is why you don’t give stupid yellow cards. So you don’t have to be inconsistent later on in the game. 1/1 and 0/1
OTHER/CARD: Denilson with a strong challenge on Johnson and he gets a yellow for this. Correct decision. 1/1 and 1/1
PENALTY/OTHER/CARD: Walcott goes down after he played the ball to Bendtner who was in an offside position when the ball was played to him. A lot of confusion going. Did Dowd blow for the penalty? Did he give anything? Well at the end of the day he gave a free kick for the offside position. So a lot to analyze in this situation. The most important question: was it a foul? I have seen the incident a few times and it wasn’t clear if Walcott was touched or not. But after the game there was a courageous statement from Walcott who apologised and said that it was a dive. So the decision from Dowd was the correct one. And one has to applaud him for not giving the penalty. And as there was no foul it was offside from Bendtner so this also was a correct decision. 1/1 and 1/1. The only little thing is that if he thought it was a dive he should have given a yellow card to Walcott. But I think that Dowd will have had his doubts on the incident at the time itself and so let the card in his pocket. But when he didn’t give a penalty he should have given a yellow and he didn’t. 0/1
OTHER/PENALTY/CARD/GOAL: Walcott is being played in and when he passes the last defender he gets a pull from the defender. Walcott is clearly outbalanced but attempts to play the ball but he can only put in a soft attempt. The ref waits a long time and when he sees that the attempt from Walcott is blocked he decides to give a penalty.
This was an example of good refereeing. There was a clear pull which brought Walcott out of balance. He could have blown his whistle immediately but as there was chance of Walcott scoring right away the ref waited to see what would happen. As it was clear that Walcott couldn’t shoot as he would have been able to do without the foul he came back to the first foul and gave the penalty. A correct decision and a decision from a ref with some experience in football. So for both decisions (waiting the advantage and the penalty) he gets the full marks. 1/1 and 1/1. But one thing was overlooked by the ref: as it was a goal scoring chance for Walcott he should also have given a red card. But I think in the heat of the moment he forgot about this. But over here sitting in my comfortable seat I don’t so I have to take a point away for this. 0/1. Cesc scores the penalty in the last minute and nothing wrong with that. 1/1
Even after that Arsenal still had 3 chances to win the game but after that the game ended at 1-1.
So let us take a look at the final score from the ref.
CARDS: 5/8
PENALTY: 4/4
GOAL: 2/2
OTHER: 9/10
Total score: 20/24 (83 %)
In the former games from Dowd we had this season I have been critical at times on the performance and some decisions he made. As I felt that he deserved it at the time. But when he does good I will give him credit for this and I think he deserves credit today.
So today he had a good game. On a (for Arsenal) more lucky day with another ref, he could have given us 3 penalties (not that many refs do give 3 penalties a lot to the same team in one game) but he didn’t got fooled and got the decisions right at the end of the day. He ignored the shouts from the players and the crowd and did it his way.
And like I said in the review itself the way he handled the decisive penalty decision was good refereeing. And believe me this isn’t always easy to make. I can testify from my own experience that many players and supporters have difficulties in accepting such a waiting if there can be an advantage or not. But he did it and this was a fine piece of refereeing. Something to show in courses for young referees. Something to show in courses at the start of a new season to show how to act when you want to give advantage in the penalty area and when the advantage does get lost as a result of trying to give the advantage at first.
But as we do stay critical after the game (as this is my job) I do would like to ask him not to give a silly yellow card like the first one against Rosicky too much. But I think he knew it already during the half time that this was a bit soft. But later in the game it could have meant that he had to sent Rosicky off with a second and deserved yellow card this time.
But we can forgive him this as he had an excellent game in my eyes and like I said before: no ref can get a 100% score in a football game.