My impression, Almunia is going for the ball which bounced away from his hands. He did not deliberately bring down Rooney. Notice Rooney's trailing left leg, it is dragging deep on the pitch which suggests that he was already going down much before contact having already lost control of the ball. So it is he who should have been booked. Mike Dean got this wrong too.
Again, this shows why video technology is so important.
Hat tip to Harsh who sent this.
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This page contains a single entry by Shourin Roy published on August 30, 2009 5:57 AM.
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Harsh, all to the good.
USMNT: September 5th against El Salvador. It will be a huge game with all those results in the Concacaf last time around.
As for Arsenal, this loss will jolt them from complacency. I think Wenger was a bit premature in comparing Diaby to Viera. Lets wait for a full season.
Thanks for the credit but its not mine. I found it on an Arsenal forum and I should've properly given credit to that person.
Rooney knew what he was doing. Thankfully it was only the 3rd game of the season and we have plenty of time to recover. Time for some USMNT football!
First of all, I don't think he dived. I don't say this as a biased United fan, or because he's English (aka, the Steven Gerrard defense).
I think Rooney found himself in a situation where he knew he couldn't score, so he looked for the penalty. He kicked the ball away, and Almunia took his legs away. Even with the left leg trailing, the right leg was still upright and planted, and that was the first leg to be taken out. In my opinion, the reason the left leg was trailing on the ground was because Rooney had to stretch to reach the ball from Giggs and kick it out of Almunia's path.
Now, the real debate, if you ask me, is not whether or not Rooney dived. The debate should be over whether a penalty should be called once the ball is kicked away. When watching the full replay, Rooney kicks the ball out into the Stretford End, and then gets taken out by Almunia. This makes the debate, had Almunia missed Rooney completely (or Rooney jumped over him), wouldn't it just be a goal kick? Furthermore, why would Almunia get a yellow card when there was no real goalscoring opportunity?
Now, despite where the ball was kicked to, one should mention that if this same exact situation happens anywhere else on the pitch, it's a clear foul. If you take out a player without touching the ball, it's a foul. The only time it becomes a debate is when a penalty is involved.
I think FIFA need to look at a general way of reworking penalty kicks. They are always criticized and it leads to seemingly endless debates. Now, I love a good debate, but I often feel like I see the same debates over and over. Also, to be fair to a referee, it's almost impossible to spot what's going on in these situations.
I think there are three possible answers. We could get rid of penalty kicks altogether, but that probably isn't a realistic answer. We could try to stop referees from creating such a "gray area" for what constitutes a penalty. Start giving more penalties for fouls in the penalty area. Make them as common as free kicks that one sees in the center circle. Get rid of indirect free kicks, and make them all penalties. Instead of having a team retake a corner because of shoving in the penalty area, give the team a penalty. It will balance out as long as both teams get them.
The third answer is video replay technology, and I can't see FIFA ever accepting it into the game.