New Year Spirit Not Enough To Overcome Macarthur

[JustWandering]

The most frustrating thing for me was the failure of our midfield to reset into a defensive shape when we lost possession. Throughout the match Macarthur were allowed to surge into the final third without any pressure on the ball. In contrast, we had to work very hard with the ball  to find openings just to get out of our defensive half. I don't know whether it is fair to pin all the blame for our defensive woes on the backline. They are often exposed due to a lack of defensive contribution from the rest of the team.

[GunnerWanderer]

@Hughesy you must be taking over from @mack one eyes bias now Mack has decided after a decade it’s time to be impartial 😛

clear red on weekend 

good part is a quick turnaround for once 😍

[Davo]

Not saying it wasn't a red (it was) but the fact that Piol is quick shouldn't be a factor.

Quote

A player, substitute or substituted player who commits any of the following offences is sent off:

• denying a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity to an opponent whose overall movement is towards the offender’s goal by an offence punishable by a free kick

The following must be considered:

• distance between the offence and the goal
• general direction of the play
• likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball
• location and number of defenders

Doesn't require the referee to consider whether the attacker can run faster or is a good finisher. In theory they should be able to apply the goal-scoring opportunity to any combination of players on the pitch and come to the same decision.

In this case it was a fair way out but given that it was a ball in behind the defence it was close enough, was directly towards goal, Piol got around Pelekanos when the foul happened so he was the more likely of the two to get the ball, and no other defenders were close enough.

[Hughesy]

Haha Ironically enough, I wasn’t that mad about the red cause we seemed to play better. There was a period there where I forgot it even happened. Maybe that’s our trick with the defence, just play with one less? Lol

[mack]

1 hour ago, Davo said:

Doesn't require the referee to consider whether the attacker can run faster

Likelihood of keeping or gaining control is where speed of the players involved can come into it.

Generally speaking though the refs will assume that any player who has got behind the defence and is on the ball or would be on the ball before any cover defence can get in front of him, would have created an obvious scoring opportunity without the foul. Even if they were slow.