One of the few certainties in soccer is players (and coaches) will not get along with referees. There will always be contentious calls and subjective decisions that could go either way. This isn’t exclusive to soccer, but there is one sport that avoids this aspect completely: ultimate Frisbee, which does not have referees. Could the beautiful game ever follow suit and institute self-officiated soccer?
Ligue 1 referee Tony Chapron has been suspended by the French Football Federation (FFF) “until further notice” following his insanely villanous actions at the end of Paris Saint-Germain’s 1-0 victory over Nantes on Sunday.
Oh Diego, how we missed you. Diego Costa made his long-awaited return to La Liga on Saturday as Atletico Madrid hosted Getafe at the Wanda Metropolitano. After the mercurial striker scored five minutes into his return with Atletico on Wednesday in the Copa del Rey, Costa had six more minutes of madness that perfectly encapsulate the best and worst he has to offer.
Ever wondered how defenders in the 60s and 70s coped with Pelé, perhaps the greatest player of all time? Defending Pelé was really quite simple: They kicked the sh*t out of him. And pushed him around. And threw him to the ground. And kicked him a few dozen more times.
Pelé scored 767 goals over his storied career but he would have had more were it not for the physical play of defenders who quickly realized the only hope they had to stop Pelé was to foul him.
Dani Carvajal's fantastic reflexes prove he is a better goalkeeper than Liverpool’s Simon Mignolet, and Twitter knows it. He gave proof in the latest edition of El Clásico as he epically saved a header by Barça’s Paulinho.
The only problem is, Carvajal is not a goalkeeper. So the referee blew the whistle, sentenced a penalty kick and sent Carvajal off via a direct red card.
Tottenham faced a league-leading Manchester City side on Saturday and tried to neutralize them with physical play. It did not go well. It especially did not go well when Dele Alli stomped on the ankle of Kevin De Bruyne. Like a midfield incarnation of Maximus Decimus Meridius, Kevin De Bruyne had his vengeance and it was oh so sweet.
Anderlecht's Lukasz Teodorczyk was sent off on the weekend, and he was NOT happy about it. Teodorczyk was so not happy that he attacked an inanimate object — in this case a simple, innocent door — with his noggin. That's about as not happy as it gets when it comes to sports. Hitting things with one's head tends to hurt, after all.
So maybe VAR doesn’t get every single little call right. Nor does it turn referees into infallible robots. But we think every soccer fan can get on board with the VAR decision during the Roma-Genoa match on Sunday. The VAR spotted this pathetic Daniele De Rossi slap on Gianluca Lapadula, which resulted in both players rolling around on the ground like they had just been shot.
After a review, the referee brandished red for De Rossi. Lapadula miraculously recovered from his injuries and scored the ensuing penalty to equalize and the match ended in a 1-1 draw.