Boulah is injured

On a different topic, I see that one of our “favorite” players, Cristiano Ronaldo, still has his diving skills perfected. I see that the referee, Styles, has now publically apologized for making a mistake this weekend and give the penalty. He should have given Ronaldo a yellow for diving instead.

What is up with the refereeing in the Prem this season? It has been absolutely horrible. I watch 2-3 games each week, and I am afraid I can’t recall a single game this season I would honestly say that the referee did a good job. Yet FIFA forces great refs (like Collina in Italy) to retire way too early. He could have continued for another 10 years and still been heads and shoulders above the incredibly incompetent lot that is on display at the moment.

The irony is that the English FA is running a campaign this year called “Respect” which is aimed at players showing greater respect for the referees and for example only allowing the captains on each team to speak to them. Torres for example got a well deserved yellow for running his mouth against Everton, and I am a ‘pool fan. I was brought up by my parents to believe that the best way to get respect at your job is to do the best job you can possibly do, and no one can ask any more of you. I guess either the English refs are either not very gifted by birth or they never knew you have to earn it to get it.

Nobody ever messed with Collina.

Arsenal vs. Hull City – bit of a shocker this one, but Hull city scored a couple of very nice goals and Arsenal wasted chance after chance. Typical criticism of Arsenal – they wanted to walk the ball into the net. After they went down 2-1 they really went for the equalizer, and came really close. Van Persie in particular almost scored a few spectacular goals trying to equalize, but they were always just a little off target.

Real Betis vs. Real Madrid – I stayed up late to watch this one and it was a pretty good match. Heinze scored with a header off a nice Van der Vaart free kick. Robben played well but still looking selfish and not passing enough; he did provide a nice pass for Ruud to score the winner in injury time though. Excellent finish by Ruud – he’s still the most dangerous striker around. After watching Van Persie wasting chances it was nice to see Ruud finish when it mattered for Madrid.

Van Persie
Robben Vaart Afellay
Sneijder
Gio – Van Bommel – Boulah – Heitinga
Stekelenburg

As for Feyenoord: the first defeat was partly due to De Guzman’s sending off after 30 minutes. It was 0-0 at that time.
Same against Groningen: Hofland off after 10 minutes.

Feyenoord had (has) quite a number of injuries (Makaay, Tomasson, De Guzman, Landzaat, Gio, Slory, Bruins, Lucius, Hofland, De Cler) in the last games and had to play a number of under-20s in their place.

I’m sure Verbeek will turn it around. Groningen is a pretty good side though. Marcus Berg is lethal.

A little bit suprised about Feyenoord’s lack of form though. 6 points already behind Groningen doesn’t sound right does it?