In which the Spurs keeper is invited to thank his lucky stars and pipe down …
There’s an awful lot of piffle from Brazil, and Heurelho Gomes is now beginning to get a bit irritating.
Comeonspurs.com quotes him as “blasting” Darren Bent with these words: “I didn’t think I would get sent off because I didn’t think it was a penalty. When I saw the ball was going out I pulled my arm back.
“It’s a difficult situation but it is his (Bent’s) job. The referee needs to know these things, that when a striker comes to the 18-yard box they try to dive for a penalty. They have to know.”
They also have to know, Mr Gomes, that goalkeepers are not always above a bit of foul play themselves.
If you haven’t seen it already, read what we’ve had to say about it today at this link.
Many Sunderland fans accept that we were very lucky to be awarded a penalty for the second-half incident (as well as being unlucky enough to have Darren in rare wasteful mood as he took the kick).
Perhaps Mr Gomes should accept that he was extremely fortunate to get away with the first half challenge on the same player.
My guess remains that Craig Gordon would have been dismissed in identical circumstances in either instance (wrongly, in my view, since the first warranted a yellow and the second as I have conceded, shouldn’t have been given). But as one Spurs-supporting pal has already put it: “Ah, you’re sounding like me when we lose.”
Colin Randall
* Image courtesy of A Love Supreme, where you can buy the T-shirt.
Bent very cleverly made sure there was contact (if any) but it was clear he went down well before any contact was made. Ngog’s was a dive, no denying of that here, but I fail to understand how Ngog can be lamblasted over this and not Bent. I guess its the hypocrisy that gets me.
As we’re going to go back a decade or two, I’ll throw this one into the mix : I vivdly also remember a certain Darren Williams helping to get Patrick Vieira sent off for an elbow the face. Williams went down like he’d been shot clutching his face, replays showed he’d barely been touched.
For the record, if I supported Spurs, I’d be annoyed more with Gomes for charging out of his area like that and leaving himself exposed with the trailing arms. Also, if it had been Carragher last night on the end of that injustice, and not Carsley, again, I would have been furious with him for lunging in like that in the area.
Amazing how the manager of the offending team almost always claims not to have seen the offence, but are 20/20 if it’s the other way around.
Red clouds over your eyes, Nathalie. Ngog’s dive was a pure dive; Carsley missed him completely and he sought to cheat the referee and his fellow professionals. Bent was caught by Gomes, therefore it was a penalty. No arguement, sorry.
Some of us remember the disgraceful dive by the equally wretched McAllister to gain a penalty for the Reds at the Stadium and the refusal of the referee to give us a pen at Anfield for a deliberate handball by Gerrard.
Nothing to do with foreigners either; it’s about cheats. Ngog is a cheat as was McAllister, as is Stephen Taylor.
Is there a barometer on dives anyway? A dive is a dive, no matter who does it. Ngog, Bent, and the rest. Ngog’s is certainly no worse than Bent’s.
Also you say the bent “debate” – sorry, what debate? The Bent dive has been hushed down (even on MOTD) in comparison to when someone foreign like Ngog does it. Its all the morning redio presenters were talking about this morning but I don’t remember the same treatment for Sunderland and Bent in the aftermath of that game – not to the same extent anyway.
Benitiez might pick Ngog for every game (hope not!) but I have a strong feeling Bruce will be picking Bent for your next game…
The Bent debate is made redundant by the most flagrant piece of cheating so far this season from David Ngog at Anfield last night. The referee should have known better, but for a player to go down like that is unacceptable and shows how far Liverpool have slipped in the football morality and dignity league table – somewhere between Newcastle United and MK Dons!!! Fine men like Shankley and Paisley would have dropped him for ever after that. A charlatan like Benitez will probably pick him for every game. It’s got to be bad when I start feeling sorry for Birmingham City.
I suppose a last defender who was somewhere near the corner flag could argue that a goal is unlikely to result even if he is beaten; he’d only be the “last man to beat” if the man beating him then had an open goal. You’d think refs would be trusted to make such calls.
But shouldn’t there be a difference between last defender and only one man to beat?
Tony: the answer’s a yes but! As I understand it, and on listening to Graham Poll this morning, the FIFA directive is that if the forward is judged to be heading away from goal, it is not a case of a goalscoring opportunity being denied. Leaving aside whether or not it was a foul, that would be why Kevin Friend didn’t show red. The problem, again disregarding the second-half Gomes/Bent example, is that a striker may well veer away from goal in the act of rounding the keeper. The first-half challenge, I think, would have been seen as borderline with Gomes getting the benefit of the doubt. But it should have been a penalty.
Is Gomes not classed as the last defender? Sorry if it’s a stupid question.