Just Saying, did anyone see him smash the ball at a fan yesterday. discusting...Just thought i'd let you know
disgusting*, just thought I'd let you know. At what range did he smash ball the at the fan? Was this fan sitting down in his seat or up on his feet giving him probably some horrible unjustified abuse?
Take a look at the fl show, it's on there. He got booked for it as well. The ball was rolling out of play when he just pile drived it into the front rows of the Northam.
I seem to remember Messi smashing the ball at opposition supporters last season. Completely out of order but, considering the ferocity of the game, you can see why he did it, not that it is acceptable!
Thought he might have got booked for 'slapping' Lallana afterwards? Anyone got a copy of the ref's report?
Yes, having seen it on the FL show, my instinct was that the yellow card was for the Lallana slap immediately afterwards, rather than kicking the ball at the fan. I remember at the time wondering what the assistant had called the referee over for, and subsequently what Rocha had done to receive a yellow card. Having now seen it though, I'm surprised he didn't go. Either through two seperate yellows for each incident there, or simply a straight red for raising his hand to Lallana. Yes it wasn't the hardest slap in the world, but he still raised his hand and then connected with Lallana's face.
I might get slated for this, but while I definitely think booting a ball at a fan is totally out of order, you don't know what (if anything) that fan said. It could have been something extremely offensive which pissed off Rocha. Not that that would justify kicking the ball at them, but it would explain the motivation behind it perhaps. Plus as Ant said he may have intended to rebound it off the advertising board as players sometimes do, and over hit it.
How could Rocha hear through all that noise from about 10 yards away. One fan is hardly going to stand out.
He certainly could have walked for it. Maybe saved by the fact that Lallana came up to him first, and that the assistant was miles away from the incident. Don't raise your hands, it's not that hard... I don't think he would have faced further action for kicking the ball at the crowd and to be honest I don't think he really meant it either. He did make some attempt to apologise to the Northam (probably a mistake).
Following the racist comments made a few weeks ago to the youngster (whose name I've forgotten) there have been some very interesting articles in the Guardian over the last few weeks on this very subject - The Secret Footballer and David James have both covered it as well as comments from supporters in the stands - amazing just what the players hear, and how they can pick out the individual who makes the comments. Definitely one fan does stand out.
To be honest, it didn't look like Rocha was responding to something from the crowd, he was just booting the ball out in frustration/eagerness to clear it. I don't think he deliberately hit a fan, he just wasn't thinking. And that slap on Lallana was never a red card offence, it was barely a tap. He didn't even go down!
Yep my thoughts exactly. I don't know the exact rules but he slapped Lallana in the face, it looked like the weakest slap possible but I doubt the rule book states how hard a slap has to be. Should have been a red imo, not that it matters now. It also looked to me as if the Varney/Morgan challenge could/should have been a red. It may very well have been that Varney was trying to jump over Morgan, but it wasn't a very big jump if he was! Looked like a stamp to me and judging by Adkins reactions on TFLS he thought the same. But anyway, I just sound like a whinging sore-looser now Good game with plenty of passion, a couple of wonder goals and two late late goals and a good crowd made for a brilliant derby. If it's to be the last one for a while then it will be one to remember. Good luck to Pompey for the rest of the season.
But even when players do go down in that situation, they rarely need to go down. They're just falling down in a heap like a pathetic baby. The way that El-Abd went down after being slapped by Lambert was a complete disgrace, but I didn't take away from the fact that Lambert had crossed the line and was correctly sent-off. On another day, Rocha could have gone for that - with or without Lallana making a complete meal out of it.
