Roar Robbed

The Brisbane Roar were robbed by referee Ben Williams in their game against Adelaide United.

In a game that Brisbane really should have won rather than tie with the amount of chances they missed, it was yet another game that was decided by a very poor decision.  Brisbane's captain, Matt Smith,  was clearly tripped from behind which led to him falling into Adelaide's Sergio van Dijk.  How both the referee and the sideline offical missed this is, hard to believe, but then again the Referee and sideline official also failed to see what was a  blatant free kick to Brisbane in the first half when Visconte was tackled from behind in the box.

Yet again though the media is failing to make much mention of these instances rather talking up the game and touching lightly on the free kick decision.  If the A-League wants to be taken as a serious competition it not only needs the teams in it doing well and having players in it's competition targeted by overseas clubs, it also needs it officials to be of a high standard that would be welcome in overseas competitions.

And then their is the media.  Why can they all write negative articles about teams, players and coaches but the referees very rarely get much media speculation.  I am not saying that a complete article needs to be written on an official but when an official makes a howler of a decision which directly impacts on the result then they should expect the criticism that results.  Would Ben Williams be getting different treatment if this was a game involving Melbourne Victory and it was harry Kewell that was penalised and gave away the free kick?  Maybe this is what is wrong with Australian media, our media is so centralised in Sydney and Melbourne that a journalist only reacts in the media if it happens to a club from those two cities.

It will be interesting to see how this plays out over the week and I will be watching with interest to see how The World Game panel evaluate this game Monday on SBS.