As usual, Sir Alex had some nice things to say about the opposition and the officiating. He really only knows the high road.
Is he not aware he won the match 3-2?
Anyway the money quote that has everyone talking is this: “They got him sent off. Everyone sprinted towards the referee—typical Germans. You cannot dispute that, they are like that.”
First, as James T pointed out in our email threads there is only one German in that pic (Schweinsteiger… oh if you click the Guardian link above you can see said pic). The others three players are Dutch, French and Croat. So I’m not sure what the typical behavior of those three nationalities is. Or maybe just surrounding a ref makes you Deustch. If that’s the case, I wonder if Sir Alex is aware of how many Germans he’s managed over the years.
Scholes… German!
That Salute Needs a Little More Angle
Your Weapons Are Uselss (Die Match Was Den Over)
It's Not Like This is Anything New at Old Trafford
I feel like this is the second time we’ve done this in the last couple of days. Seems pretty constant across football that players surround refs to get other players carded. Nationality doesn’t have much to do with it.
Mmmmmmm, the sweet smell of bitterness
Was the second booking justified?
Also this is far worse than anything Drogba has said. He should be banned from the entire group stage next year.
@Georger, yeah, he pulled Ribery back (who then pushed him back), it was a pretty clear yellow (for both really)
I agree as well
Swearing < Racist comments
Though to SAF’s credit, this outburst gives me reason to bust out this again.
Anyone know what Robben’s celebration was about? I’d like to think he was mocking someone with it, but I didn’t really understand it.
@Georger: Did the ref. throw an elbow into Ballack’s midsection at the very beginning of that gif?
Well played, Precious Roy. Bastard.
That .gif is the only worthwhile thing Michael Ballack has ever done.
Some English may consider this a Portuguese thing, not a German one
And I have to give props to spectator for that Ribery picture and caption. I’ve been laughing at that s**t all night
As a German, I’m secure in the knowledge that the only ref we would ever surround and berate into giving us what we want would be a Czech.
/Munich’d
Fergie’s a dick for saying it the way he did, but I would like to see referees show some spine and start booking players when they surround him / motion for cards.
when they surround him / motion for cards.
I would love to see that, particularly the latter. Player waves his hand around, insisting that some foul by the opponent was a bookable offense. Ref whips out a card to the player waving his hand around.
Some ref did that a couple of weeks ago. I can’t remember who it was on either side, but the player waved for a card, and the ref carded him. EPL match, most likely.
@Orr: You’re very welcome! But Ribery did all the work though… He is one ugly motherf**ker (even without the scar).
Referees were instructed to give players cards if they ask for them. And then you’re told as a referee that you shouldn’t do this or you’ll end up costing a team a player possibly. It’s completely unfair when you keep handing Catch-22′s to referees.
Also Sir Alex should be banned from the CL next year for his obviously bigoted comments. That’s at least what would’ve happened if he said some team “played like Africans.”
PR, master of the STFU post.
@ Ryan: Agreed. It’s a shameful tactic, but it’s even more shameful that Fergie decided to ignore the fact that the booking was well-justified and was coming regardless of how the Munich squad reacted. Sure, their reaction was poor, but the actions of Fergie’s own player were even worse.
phil said it. i dream of, one day, a journalist actually calling a coach on this crap
@ü75 I believe it was Zabaleta that got a card for doing it a few weeks ago for City.
ebulliantfatalist – fantastic.
I love how UEFA says there will be no charges against him… what a crock of s**t… “DAMN AFRICANS!”
@ Dustin
Yeah I will often tell a player to stop asking for a card unless he wants it shown to him first.
camster-
I was thinking Zabaleta was it, but couldn’t remember. Probably the Chelsea game where he got carded in the same minute as EBJT.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/match?id=270045&cc=5901
Mike Dean FTW