Stoke V Liverpool

[Stephen_G]

It'll be interesting to hear what Stoke manager Tomy Pulis makes of the decision to award a penalty in the first minute.

Ryan Shawcross DID have a handful of Luis Suarez's shirt (Just underneath Suarez's left arm), but I think the initial offence was outside the box. Referee Howard Webb allowed play to continue and then Suarez throws himself to the floor inside the box and the spot-kick was awarded, with Webb gesturing to Shawcross that it was for a pulled shirt.

[Buenchico]

That reminds me of the match that I refereed where a forward was dribbling the ball, at great pace, down the wing from well - in his own half towards his opponents' goal.

An opponent ran alongside him and clearly elbowed him in the stomach but the attacker was still making great headway and there were no other defenders anywhere around, so I applied the advantage rule and called 'Play on'.
The defender was still running alongside the forward and elbowed him again but, once again, I applied the advantage rule.

Then it happened a third time, and a fourth, and a fifth . . .

I'd called 'play on' around a dozen times before the attacker reached the edge of his opponents' penalty area, still hounded by the defender, with only the goalkeeper to beat. As he ran into the area the defender elbowed him yet again and I immediately awarded a penalty (as it would be easier to beat the keeper 'from the spot' than from where he was, so 'advantage' no longer applied).

Howard Webb (who has run a line for me in his early days!) obviously applied a similar principle. He could see no point in awarding a free-kick outside the box (because it would give the defence time to organise) but as soon as the offence continued into the box he was happy (and correct) to award a penalty.

Chris

[Buenchico]

(I've no idea how that hyphen got into the first sentence!)

[Stephen_G]

But wouldn't there being an argument for blowing the whistle as soon as Shawcross grabbed Suarez's shirt, rather than letting him get inside the penalty area? Suarez's body wasn't at an angle that meant Shawcross was actually holding him up, so when he let go Gravity would do the rest (Just thinking if a player was fouled outside the penalty area but fell into the box, the Ref would only give a free-kick).


The initial contact was outside the penalty area.

[Buenchico]

If HW believed that stopping play would give the defence an advantage, then the Laws of the Game obliged him to let play continue at that point.

Similarly, if an offence occurs (or continues to occur) when their is no advantage (e.g. when a penalty can be awarded) then the Laws of the Game oblige him to stop play.

It makes sense to me!

[Stephen_G]

No, it does make sense, Chris. I just thought that Tony Pulis might have been unhappy that the shirt grabbing started outside the penalty area, but Suarez "Fell" inside the box. The fact that he stayed on his feet and used his strength
earned his team the spot-kick.

I guess we may never hear what TP had to think about the incident - he didn't present himself for the Sky cameras...

[ELVIS68]

I'd like to know how having your shirt pulled can catapult you forward like that.

Glad they lost in the end, call it justice

[Svejk]

Don't Liverpool look terrible.
Anybody see them being relegated.

[Mattk]

No.