Melbourne Victory See Red

The Melbourne Victory deserve the credit for holding Brisbane to a draw with 9 men after what can only be described as a first half of highlights and a second half of what looked like a training drill with only one team attacking with the ball.  Instead of talking about the game though I will talk about the hotttest issue from the game and that is the two red cards in the first half.

Match Highlights - Have a look then make your own opinion.

Were they warranted?  In my opinion the Melbourne Victory team and supporters have no reason to complain.  Watching the first offense by goalkeeper Ante Covic the referee had no choice after the keeper took down Bersart Berisha in the box. The keeper was clearly beaten and yet still chose to sweep his feet to take down Berisha, and was not even close to making contact with the ball.  All keepers know that if you take down a player in the box and are making no attempt to stop the ball it will be a red card.  Most agree this was a red card.


In the second case Matthew Foschini was given red after he came in with a crude tackle of Broich. Many say he should have only been given yellow but clearly on the replay he came in late, sliding and tags up.  He was not close to getting the ball and crunched into Broich's ankles.  A tackle like this can always result in an automatic red card and the player rather than the umpire should be receiving the fallout.  If the game was in the eightieth minute the talke would ahve been different, especially if it was the first red for the game.  What people have to realise is the ref sees the incident and ahs to make an immediate decision.  He does get get the benefit of a slow motion replay.  The ref is to also look at the incident on it's own.  If there has already been another red card that does not affect the decision. 

Maybe what Melbourne should be doing is looking at the paying style of their players.  It seems every year there is a game or three with the Victory and red cards are the talking point. Red cards are there for a reason.  They are to stop dangerous play and goal scoring opportunities.  Whenever a player gets carded for a crude tackle the referee should never be held to account.  If my eight year old son can understand why it is dangerous to slide in late then it should not be hard for the football community to figure it o