Morning all, Anyone else see the Villarreal-Odense game last night? Firstly, that Celtic Submarinas flag that Villarreal have behind their goal is fabulous But mainly I wanted to praise Scotland's only representatives in the qualifying rounds last night - the officials in the above-mentioned game. I only really saw the second half but.... Craig Thompson was the ref and I thought he handled the game really well - both of the sendings off were totally justified and he kept a lid on the game when it threatened to boil over - he also stuck to UEFA's liking for cards being dished out fairly frequently but I found myself agreeing with every decision he made. Fair do's - the refs get plenty of criticism so I don't mind praising them when they do well. Also, did anyone see the Genk-Maccabi Haifa penalty shoot-out? That goalie was a cock - I was hoping Maccabi came back in the end just to make that tube's premature lap of honour look really really stupid. Wish we were there <sick>
Malmo improved greatly on beating the Scottish minnows by narrowly losing to Dinamo Zagreb over the two legs
So the Huns got gubbed by a team that was gubbed in the next round. And now they might be booted out of the Europa League due to a secretary not filing the paperwork correctly.
I've seen Craig Thompson referee a couple of 'European' games now and thought he did very well - that's why I couldn't fathom how he justified letting Dundee Utd off with the dangerously late tackles which proved so costly to us in putting Gary Hooper out of action.
Whether or not you agree with his latest bookings, I just wish he had booked a lot more of the Dundee Utd players - we were fortunate not to see more players than Gary Hooper injured!
Tam, I thought he was alright - a Spanish ref (for example) would've let that game get out of hand, I reckon and ended up booking the wrong guys.
I think that's an amazing generalization - there are good and bad referees in every country. I believe also that we are all too inclined to 'blame' the referee in games where 'our' team loses, whereas if we win handsomely, the referees mistakes are overlooked!
All of this is true and it was a generalisation - I was going on a half-remembered quote by a player saying that "the refs in Spain wish to be the stars of the show instead of the players"
Fair enough CKF - I'd be interested to know the name of the 'player' who said this - could it be that he was on the losing team too often for his liking? It is true that there are considered to be some 'whistle-happy' referees in Spain and who like the 'limelight', though I would think that applies everywhere. There are also a few who are considered to be overly 'fussy' but there are also some excellent ones. In any case I prefer to see a referee who tries to protect players from bad injuries by cracking down on bad/late tackles and in the end that can only be good for football and the way it is played.
