Are Ovrebo and Nebben WC worthy?

I would have liked to restart this blog talking about the Olympics that are on in Vancouver, about the wonderful bronze medal that youngster Pittin won (not as unexpectedly as almost all people think here in Italy) in the Nordic Combined or about Zoeggler's fifth medal in as many OG, or about Maddy Neuner first Olympic gold, but taoday football takes the spotlight.

For everyone who has watched the Bayern Munchen - Fiorentina game earlier tonight the referee and the linesman (mr. Nebben) have been - to summarize their behavior on the pitch in one word - awful. There is probably only one person in the stands that will not recognize this and he's Michel Platini.

The UEFA boss will say that everyone can make mistakes and that Ovrebo still deserves to be trusted despite all his current and past errors (ask any Chelsea fans on the subject and they'll find plenty of expletives on this matter. What I'm curious to read tomorrow on the papers is his reactions and eventual comments on the two big mistakes that sent the match down his eventual path, because both have come from decisions taken (and not taken) by one of the linesmen, Mr. Dag Roger Nebben, a 29-y-o who earlier today seemed overwhelmed by his role in the game and decided that while Bayern is a top team Fiorentina is not.

During the 73rd minute Robben threw himself against Gobbi near the sideline on the right and then went down with his hand over his throat. Was it a foul? No, Robben threw himself against the opposing player. So why did mr. Nebben tell the ref to show the red card to Gobbi for elbowing? But this was the lesser evil of the two.

89th minute: there is a shot from outside the area that Frey can only push away, a Bayern player heads it back towards the box where Klose is alone. Why is Klose alone there 7 meters from the goal? Easy; he was 3 meters, THREE METERS(!) offside when the ball was played towards him.

So what did Mr. Nebben do?

You got it! Nothing at all, his flag stayed down and the goal stood for the final 2-1 scoreline for Bayern in the first leg of the round of 16.

To add on this: Ovrebo, in the 78th minute only booked Klose for a terrible late tackle on Felipe that anywhere in the world, even in Scotland or England not only on the continent, would have been a clear red card (and at least a couples of games off). If you've watched the game you could clearly see that Klose immediately turned towards Ovrebo with a face that said: "ok, I did it...just send me off 'cause is deserved". But inexplicably he only saw a yellow card come out - much to his relief as seen on the images on tv.

So, after knowing that Martin Hansson will be one of the referees chosen for the coming World Cup in South Africa despite his unbelievable error to favor another top team in the paly-off last autumn, will football fans have to witness not only Mr. Ovrebo but also and in particularMr. Nebben being present on the pitch down south instead of refereeing and honing their skills during the summer in their own country's league?

I definitvely hope not.

But I fear that most football fans know all too well how the politics of Uefa work.

Writing Nonsense

Yesterday morning as I was browsing through the NY Times during a break at work I stumbled into this piece written by Rob Hughes in which he claimed that the Inter - Barcellona scoreless draw on Wednesday was far less entertaining than the S. Liege - Arsenal game.

He started saying that: "Goals, it’s true, do not by themselves denote quality. But they are the purpose of the game" making here a normal mistake for many american soccer wannabes. He then went on calling "Rubbish" Mourinho's explanations that the game had been a tactical war between him and Guardiola aknowledging the superiority - at this point - of the Barcelona team. For Hughes the S. Liege team "sent the fans home with the knowledge that they tried, they dared to take on superior foes, and they just ran out of stamina and luck in the end" while implicity saying that Inter and Barcelona fans, plus the billions of soccer/football fans worldwide should and/or would have gone home or turned off their TVs disappointed because of the scoreless draw and because the "inferior" team didn't fought to its death to score.

I can assure Mr. Hughes though that reality is a lot different from the representation he tried to give. While it can be comprehensible that the Belgian fans may have been in delight 5 minutes into the game, I can confirm to him (after hearing an acquaintance of mine who was at the stadium in Liege on Wednesday) that all of the S. Liege supporters would have given an arm to sneak home with a 1-0 nothing boring win than witnessing their team go down that way.

The same is true for the Inter - Barcelona game (that I witnessed as a neautral spectator being a fan of Udinese and Osasuna). On Thursday I spoke with a dozen people who were in San Siro and every one of them was thrilled for the game they saw; every one of them had no problems in admitting that the Barcelona side was superior to theirs as far as attacking was concerned, but they were on Cloud 9 for the adrenaline and the emotions that the match gave them on Wednesday night.

They could clearly recall their feelings at seeing Ibrahimovic wearing a different shirt, a friend of mine recalled cutting abruptly a call to his girlfriend because of a Messi drive towards Inter's goal, my friend sitting next to me at his house was cursing both assistant referees for another offside wrongly signalled.

The game may have been scoreless but I challenge Mr. Hughes to find a man who saw both games (in Liege and Milan) and that would choose Arsenal's win over Inter-Barcelona's hard fought draw, a battle on the pitch where in the end there were no winners and losers. Not a game for the ages but definitively one more worth remembering than a 2-3 game played in Belgium.