From: puerta@mcs-next-10.stanford.edu (Angel Puerta)
Subject: Re: Spain-Poland discussion
Reply-To: puerta@camis.stanford.edu
Organization: Stanford University, California, USA
Date: Sat, 15 Aug 1992 04:48:07 GMT

In article <16huu7INNrck@agate.berkeley.edu> 160955r@garnet.berkeley.edu ()  
writes:
> In article <1992Aug14.092411.1@zodiac.rutgers.edu>  
jaramillo@zodiac.rutgers.edu writes:
> >	To everybody writing about football in Spain:
> >	BUT: Please, do not say that the referee was favouring Spain, or that
> >everything was organized so Spain would win ANY WAY. As Spaniard, and lover  
of
> >football, I do not like to hear such things.
> 
> Well I did see the game. Spain deserved to win and it won in the last second
> with a great deal of luck, and with great refferee help...
> First, the Colombian ref awarded Spain an imaginary free kick that resulted 
> in the equalizing goal; even the American comentator qualified the decison
> as erroneous.

No, the English (not American) commentator questioned the call first and then  
saw the replay and said: "OK, there was an elbow there".


> A few minutes later Lopez clearly took down a Polish attacker in the Spanish
> penalty box; one may argue the Colombian did not SEE the infraction.
> Alas, the replay has him starring at Lopez from 10m away, enjoying what can  
be
> unequivocally defined as a perfectly unobstructed view..

The referee DID SEE the call all the way. The problem is that there was NO  
penalty. The Polish player did not have control of the ball. There is no way  
that anybody is going to get a penalty in that situation.

If the ref had been for Spain, he would have given them a Penalty when Luis  
Enrique went down in the area in the 88th minute. He had control, the Polish  
player went for the ball, but missed, and tackled Luis Enrique hard. A penalty  
90% of the time. The ref though, was obstructed and made a good no-call. You  
cannot decide such a game with something that "looks" like a penalty.

This was the one and only time that the cameras closed up on the ref and his  
name appeared on screen--a sure sign that he had made a controversial call  
against Spain (in this case a no-call).

And to top it all, the second Polish goal occurred because the ref did not call  
a clear takedown of a Spanish defender, and a Polish player was able to cross  
the ball right afterwards.

So you see, as far as Spain is concerned, the ref not only did not help, but  
made some calls that created a much closer game that it should have been.

> 
> A true anecdote; sonetime in the 60's Real Madrid played Dinamo in Bucharest
> in the Champions' Cup; as expected, they won 3-1 , Di Stefano leading them
> magnificently. Although the fate of the game had never been in balance, the
> ref made calls which clearly and consistently favored Real.Anytime Dinamoi
> crossed midfield carrying the ball
> he'd invent something and award Real an indirect kick. My father, at that
> time encharged with protocol matters at the Romanian Football Association
> untangled the mistery: before each game, teams were allowed to make small
> symbolic presents to the ref such as key-chains, pens, insignias, with their
> team logo.
> Real Madrid was giving away solid gold watches to all three refferees!

Sure, there are many unverifiable myths and legends about referees and Real  
Madrid. The supply of cities/teams/nations that cannot accept that they were  
beaten by a better team is infinite.


--
Angel Puerta
puerta@camis.stanford.edu