You know what you missed when you turned off the Celtic-Arsenal match? Highlights from the other matches of the day! Yeah, I missed them too. One can only bask in the glow of a win for so long until the stuttering guy who reads the highlights starts to get on your nerves. Or, like me, you could be at work and have to get back to it.
That’s where modern technology comes in. I fired up the ol’ DVR when I got home and watched the dead time after the final whistle. The best part is when they get to the highlights of the other games. Since all of the matches run at the same time, it’s not really possible for the analysts to get into the nitty gritty details of what they are showing you. Sometimes, you just have to fill in those blanks yourself.
For example, in today’s Sporting-Fiorentina match up, they dutifully showed all of the goals in a taut 2-2 game. They even showed the moment where Simon Vukčević received his second yellow of the match and subsequent red card. What they could not put together in time in the script for the highlights package was how one begat the other.
Ealry on in the match, Fiorentina picked up a pretty vital away goal. Barely 15 minutes into the match, Vukčević earned his first yellow. The game remained 1-0 to the visitors through half time. Thirteen minutes into the second half, Vukčević scored the equalizer for Sporting. Then things got, well, stupid.
As you can see in the above video, Vukčević decided to celebrate with the dumbest celebration in football–the shirt removal. The reason being that, for almost a decade now, shirt removal has been punishable by an immediate and unyielding yellow card. Vukčević, in his haste to celebrate a pretty scrappy goal, put his team at a man disadvantage for the last half hour.
Luckily for Sporting, the man disadvantage did not hurt as much as it could have. They scored one more goal to go up 2-1 seven minutes later, only to let Fiorentina even things back up in the 83rd minute. Giving up two away goals is not the best start to a two-legged tie, but at least (thanks to an automatic suspension), Vukčević won’t be on the pitch to screw things up for them next week.
Such a stupid ass rule. Good to see FIFA is going after the right things these days.
Or whatever body is making these rules, UEFA I guess.
Pretty sure it’s a FIFA rule. And one that has been in place for all of Vukčević’s professional career.
It isn’t one which is enforced all the time though, and he clearly did it spontaneously. What does this rule further? It’s still cool for Tevez to bust out a pacifier, but this guy ripping off his shirt with no premeditation is against the rules. Stupid.
Not even sure what language that is, but I’m pretty sure they say ‘dumbass’ at least twice.
As I understand it, the rule was enacted when many shirt companies started putting out two piece shirts. Players removing their shirts would then have to take excessive time to get them back on. In an effort to curb this lost time, FIFA said that such celebrations will get a yellow, hoping to end the inane practice. It did not work, and now you see stupid s**t like this.
It’s a stupid celebration. It’s the post-goal scoring equivalent of Paul Scholes in the Super Cup last year trying to spike the ball in the net while already on a yellow. He knows the rule, everyone does.
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My favorite part of the video is the announcers laughing after the red card.
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Georger, I’ve never seen a case where someone took their jersey off and it DIDN’T result in a yellow. To me, I think they enforce it with extreme prejudice.
Might be a stupid rule, but Vukčević should have known he was on a yellow and would definitely be booked if he took his jersey off. But he cared more about calling attention to himself than worrying about his team.
On the contrary to all of you, I think this is brilliant. It shows a commitment to the cause that goes beyond intelligence, rational thought and the rather antiquated notion of being a good teammate.
No, good sirs. F**k all of that. Simon just scored a goal and he wants the whole world to know, SO HELP HIM GOD
Vukcevic has received two reds for me this season of FM. Apparently his digital self is just as irrational as his actual self.
And I love the coy “arrivederci” from the Eye-tie announcers.
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