The untold referee index : Partizan – Arsenal « Untold Arsenal: Arsenal News, supporting the club, the players and the manager
By Walter Broeckx, the untold ref
For our CL game against Belgrade we got the company of ref Stark from Germany. Did he have a “stark” (strong in English) performance?
A first point of attention is the fact that I cannot remember a game that was televised in such a bad way. Sometimes you got no replays from some decisions or the wrong replays from the wrong angles and this made my match report more difficult.
So if pictures prove me wrong (later on) on some of my points just let me know because I had to do with a not that good stream on the internet and even when they gave the entire match on TV later that night I still couldn’t see some of the incidents properly.
Sorry for sounding like Wenger [careful Walter – ed] but I then did what a ref should do: stay with your first opinion. And why on earth was there no cameras on the line of the penalty area????
PENALTY: Partizan player goes down but the ref gives nothing. As this was one of the worst televised games ever with no replay I can only confirm what the ref has seen: nothing. So I give him this decision. 1/1
PENALTY : Wilshere crosses against a Partizan defender. The ball hits his arm but from close range and his arm was in front of his body. So no penalty for me and thus a correct decisions from the ref. 1/1
GOAL: 1-0 ARSENAL nothing to report apart from some very nice footwork from Wilshere all within the rules. 1/1
OTHER/CARD : chance for Arshavin and foul on Wilshere. Great from the ref to give the advantage but when the chance is missed and then he stops play in midfield. He should have given a yellow card then. It was a dangerous tackle on Wilshere and deserved a yellow card. 1/1 and 0/1
PENALTY: On arsenal.com this line came on the site: “Denilson handles in the area after a cross from the left and the penalty is given! That looked harsh.” And at first sight it looked harsh. But when I saw the replay (some 15 minutes later) I could see that Denilson had his arm not next to his body. And as the cross travelled some 15 meters in the air before getting to Denilson he had the time to get his arm out of the way. So yes a penalty. 1/1
OTHER/CARD: Tackle from behind on Wilshere. The ref gives no foul and no card. He points that the ball has been played. Sorry ref, he came in with two feet from behind and hits the player and then gets the ball. Always foul and should have been a yellow card. Losing points here. 0/1 and 0/1
PENALTY/CARD: And thanks to who ever invented all those high tech things so one can freeze images on his TV. Chamakh goes on goal with the defender in his back and goes down. Ref gives a penalty and a red card. From the moment he gives the foul he has to send him off. And then the major talking point: was he fouled? Well on the replay it showed that the defender hit Chamakh on his calf (got it freeze framed on my big TV screen) and then Chamakh fell over. The defender did touch him in an illegal way so it was a foul. But was it a penalty? No it wasn’t. Because when I freeze the picture on the moment that the defender hits Chamakh both players their feet were outside the penalty area. So the bottom line: it was a red card foul on a player going on goal as the last defender. But the foul was just outside the penalty area so the penalty decision was wrong. O/1 for the penalty and 1/1 for the card. So Arshavin missing the penalty saves the ref because it would have been a not correct goal.
CARD: Booking for a cynical tackle from behind on Chamakh. Correct decision. 1/1
GOAL : Chamakh makes our second goal and all well within the rules. 1/1
GOAL: Squillaci scores his first for Arsenal and nothing to report about this goal. 1/1
PENALTY: Gibbs brings a Partizan player down on the edge of the penalty area. Again when I freeze the image the foul is outside the area. It was a foul but again like with Chamakh it was outside the penalty area. 0/1
PENALTY: 3/5
GOAL: 4/4
CARD: 2/4
OTHER:1/2
TOTAL: 10/15 (67%)
I must say that the ref had a bit of bad luck with some of his decisions in the penalty area or not in and this of course reflects in his total points. You hardly get this “on the line decisions” once in a game but to have it twice in a game is a bit of bad luck for the ref.
In fact he was a bit lucky that both the penalties were missed. He could have felt let down by his assistants on both occasions. It is normally up to them to decide if it was in or out the penalty area. But like I said it is a matter of team work.
I also had the feeling that he was a bit soft in punishing some tackles like the tackle from behind on Wilshere I mentioned. I had on another few occasions the same feeling that he wasn’t strong enough to get rid of those tackles. And there were other examples where he missed some dangerous tackles.
This is something that he has in his own hands. So I must admit that I’m not totally satisfied with his performance on the night.
So not the best game of his life I think or hope for him. But also not the worst performance I have ever seen.
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