Can i interrupt this with a simple and innocent question?3
How did Courtois do?
Gerd, Courtois was perfectly fine, though he wasn't as tested as Valdes. Barcelona chances were either out of target or in. In my oppinion, in the Messi goal it's Messi's genius, not Courtois fault. He couldn't know that Barcelona had not asked for a wall.
I rate Courtois very high. He's an excellent player already at his age and can see him turning into THE goalkeeper of one of the big clubs of Europe (he IS already in a big club like Atletico, but you get me).
I think if the Barcelona fans are saying Atletico should have had players sent off they are living in cloud cookoo land. In terms of the laws of the game, it's important to remember, it's not (yet) illegal to tackle Barcelona players.
You cannot say refs have punished Barca on the evidence of last night, the ref was mostly right with his decisions, indeed some of the marginal ones actually went for Barca
But that's exactly the point I was making, the ref was quite good and the dubious decisions very REALLY dubious. Watching the game live I never had the feeling that the ref had ignored or failed at something for any team. There were good and bad decisions for both teams and if anything, Barcelona was slightly benefited. But nothing out of the ordinary. Busquets hands were almost impossible to see live and that was the main mistake! In fact, the ref was great disallowing Messi's first goal, that was hard to see live! And I think it was a deserved yellow for Messi.
About the tackling, it's ok to tackle players, but also you have to take into consideration the type of tackling. In the Atletico match, in the first 30 minutes there are 4 tackles from Atletico players from behind, with no intention to play the ball at all, and stepping into the Barcleona player ankle, and it's probable that they were with the intention of harming the player. I've seen a lot of reds in the Premier for that. The rerf decided they were yellows, it's ok, but then Fabregas and Alves plays were yellow as well. So, strictly from a point of consistency, the ref was consistent during the whole match. Personally I don't agree with his criteria. I would have sent off the Atletico players as well as Fabregas, as I don't tolerate this kind of injury-risk tackles.
In La Liga, it's a problem of consistency. Barcelona players are hacked down very violently and there's hardly any red card. Watch the Classicos, Real Madrid players can get away with murder most of the time with barely consequences. It's hard to find a Classico where Real Madrid didn't deserve to end with only 8 or 9 players in the pitch, but the refs are too tolerant.
Beyond this, if anyone had watched all Barcelona matches, the referees have been quite bad for us in a lot of matches. Granted, in some others we have been slightly benefited, as I THINK WE WERE against Atletico. But that's only normal, refs sometimes take and sometimes give. As I said, that's not an excuse for the Liga table. Only that the mistakes against us were too blatant. It's absurd that no referee has awarded any penalty to Messi in a year. I just can't buy it.
My original point was the refs with Real Madrid have been scandalous for months compared to any other team in La Liga, week in week out. Players like Ramos and Pepe can get away with anything. There are no penalties against them even in the most blatant situations. It's only ridiculous that Pepe has had the same amount of yellows than Messi and both have to rest next week!
Offensive teams use to have more decisions in favor simply because they spend a lot of time attacking in dangerous positions. But the refering with Madrid this year has been truly beyond common sense, and that's even stated by some very Madrid-biased media. Despite this, MAdrid has been better than Barcelona overall and deserves the first position in the table.
Personally, I think that violence should be put out of the game. You can try to find a compilation of aggressive tackles or agressions by Barcelona players (or any other team in La Liga) and will find only a few. Then look for Madrid aggressions and violent tackles without punishment, and you'll be flooded.
In the Premiere League, a team like Madrid would end practically all matches with less than 11 players on the pitch. I see a lot of Premier matches, and while contact is allowed (and I like it a lot), there's a big effort to put violence of any kind out of the pitch, and I respect and admire the Premiere a lot for this.
Just as a quick example, Parker (and a lot of other players in matches I watched) was sent out at the Emirates for the exact same tackle that only costed yellows for 4 Atletico players in the first 30 minutes. And in the case of Madrid, Ramos elbowed a Rayo player very blatantly inside the area, with the ball meters away. The Rayo player is down with blood in his mouth. And the ref shows a yellow to the Rayo player! Then in the second half sends off a Rayo player when there wasn't even a foul. That's the kind of things that really smell fishy.
get away from punishment w/o naming names. Does this happen in La Liga. where Spanish players get away from punishment?
