Admittedly I wasn’t happy about the timing of today’s Merseyside derby. Halloween is now an excuse for people — read: me — to do stupid things in public. Thankfully, I kept a recorded note on my phone that reminded me I could not miss this game. I owe you one Samsung.
It was an electric match. Leighton Baines opened the scoring — own goal — for the Reds. Luis Suarez, the protagonist. Seamus Coleman over committed, allowing Jose Enrique to put a dangerous ball into the box that couldn’t be handled. Suarez’s ensuing dive in front of David Moyes will provide endless fodder for Footy scribes round the world. I liked it.
Six minutes later Suarez headed home a goal of his own. Phil Jagielka adorned the goat horns on this one — the defending from both sides was terrible in the first half.
Everton’s resolve is worth noting. Leon Osman began the comeback two minutes after all was seemingly lost, slotting home his first derby goal in 18 matches. Steven Naismith’s equalizer was the product of horrific defending from Liverpool, Enrique, Agger and Skrtel caught ball watching.
Unfortunately this game will be defined by a Suarez winner that should’ve counted. He doesn’t make it easy, but the diminutive striker was clearly the man of the match and deserved to celebrate a huge goal for his club. Andre Marriner’s assistant’s ruled the goal offside, replays indicate otherwise — can we use hawk-eye for this crap as well?
There is something to be said about the human aspect of officiating. However, there is too much on the line to continue allowing human error to play a part in the biggest games — or any game for that matter. It’s a battle that will not be won and I’m sure the purists out there disagree with me. One day.
It’s not conspiracy to claim Suarez’s reputation has affected on field decisions. It’s happening
Suarez’s dive was classic….David Moyes deserves it for calling out a specific player like that, correctly or not. A few years back, Rafa did the same thing to Didier Drogba ahead of a CL game, Drogba responded with a power-slide in his face after scoring a goal. Shockingly, there was very little uproar in the English press.
I didn’t realize Suarez also had a reputation for being offside? The officiating is turning into a disgrace. I would hope the Premier League would come out and either acknowledge there’s a bias against Suarez, or that their officials (who are not the best in the world) are consistently getting decisions wrong.
Not offside, but foul by Coates on Jagielka from the initial header. Surprised that they weren’t any red cards from a Liverpool player.
Are you sure? The press is reporting the call was offside…I know when it happened, everyone was speculating it must have been for a foul because it was so clear that it wasn’t offside.
I guess that the press didn’t see it then. That’s not what the match commentators saw.
The play was called offside. They briefly panned to the linesman and he had his flag up calling for offside.
That’s what I thought, thanks
Yes, it was called offside, even though it wasn’t. But nonetheless, there were quite a few bad decisions, fouls and lack of deserved cards.
This is a much better treatment of the game than your previous offering. I congratulate you on your bucking of the trend toward yellow journalism.
Not sure what you’re referring to, Fritz, but thanks.
It’s also not conspiracy to say that his reputation is deserved.
Not necessarily, but It is when you miss clear fouls,or clear offsides…or it’s just incompetence
I can understand why at times linesmen (ok, assistant referees) get some off side calls wrong, but I didn’t think that was a difficult one to get right.
It seemed very odd watching the replays, as he seemed to have a good think about it before he put his flag up. Sometimes when they get these decisions wrong it’s because they act instinctively and the flag just shoots up, but not in this case.
Don’t know if I would characterize Luis Suarez as diminutive, the man is a shade shy of 6 feet tall and doesn’t exactly play small… just my opinion.