Monday 4 October 2010

Dutch show FA what balls are

The Dutch coach Dick Van Mirwijk has sensationally dropped Nigel De Jong from their latest squad as a result of his shocking tackle which broke Ben Arfa's leg on Sunday. The strong and forthright Ducthman called the tackle "wild and unnecessary" and added:

"It is unfortunate, especially since he does not need to do it. The funny thing is that the referee did not even show a yellow card for it. I have a problem with the way Nigel needlessly looks to push the limit. I am going to speak to him."

MOTD seemed to ignore the incident completely last night, just as the completely incompetent Martin Atkinson had done earlier even when it had broken a leg right in front of his very eyes. We should remember poor Ben Arfa in all this, this is a potentially career ending injury, get well soon Hatem.

If Dick knew English football better he would not find it funny that no card was shown, the lack of understanding of overly aggressive and dangerous tackling in this country means that these kind of leg breakers are routinely missed by incompetent referees. The FA also have their head so deep in the sand that they refuse to act retrospectively even though they have the power to do so.

The Spanish authorities have recently given a player a two match ban for a tackle on Lionel Messi, a tackle that was seen and punished by the referee at the time. In fact retrospective bans for violent incidents that were seen by referees are happening rather routinely on the continent, is is just a terrible shame that the FA do not even recognise there is a problem and continue to refuse to act.

The same old tired defences of the player who committed the appalling tackle come out, he's 'not that type of player', it wasn't 'malicious', 'it's a man's game'. None of these cut the mustard, reckless violent tackling with an excessive amount of force has no place in our game, it is indefensible, these kind of tackles are malicious by their very definition. Tackling is perfectly possible in a very safe manner without endangering the safety of one's opponent, people who cannot understand this are nothing but fools. Tackling like this was never part of football, it seems to me that the art of proper tackling is being lost, and defending the indefensible is no way to bring proper tackling back.

10 comments:

Uncle Mike said...

I'm not so sure "tackling like this has never been part of the game." According to an interview with Dave Mackay in FourFourTwo a couple of years ago (Spurs Scum, I know, but he has a point here), and the film version of "The Damned United," Billy Bremner of Leeds was a dirty little troll. (And a racist one, if Simon Kuper's "Football Against the Enemy" is to be believed.) Apparently, the Revie Leeds sides were fully of "Dirty Northern Bastards."

Even just a few years ago, there was a bunch of them, led (if you want to call it that) by Roy Keane, before he began his interest in the love lives of dogs.

And as for the suspension for tackling Messi, let's see the Spanish version of the FA do it for a player other than Barcelona or Real Madrid, and we'll see if they "get it right."

Martin said...

I tend to agree with Uncle Mike. However this heavy tackling needs to be addressed for the safety of players.

But why would they start now when they've never done anything about it before?

Lexi_penitas said...

Remember the FA as******s punishing Eduardo for an offense that broke nobody's bones? What happened to their sensibility?

Lady Arsenal said...

There seems to be this consensus that so long as you win the ball, it is a good tackle. The ref didn't even blow for a foul. It's the same tackle as Henry's on Zamora - win the ball with one leg before scissoring the player. Both players knew exactly what they were doing, yet neither were even given as fouls, let alone red cards.

Lucky the Dutch FA are on a PR campaign after the shame of the World Cup final.

1979gooner said...

Agree mike. Certainly it is not part of the.modern game.

This consensus is just plain ignorant. One can win the ball but still commit a horrendous leg breaking assault. The ball is virtually irrelevant to the safety of a tackle.

jack said...

i'm afraid it's going to take a horrendous, leg breaking tackle by a foreigner on rooney/lampard/terry/gerrard and rule them out of the euros (or football completely) for the f.a to act.

the sad thing with getting rid of these tackles is that until cunts like the sun back it with some sort of campaign, it will never go away.

this has been slowly creeping into the game for the last couple of seasons. back in lets say 94/95, games were much more physical, yet there was only maybe one let break a season (david buust, luc nillis ec.....which were both freak accidents and not from bad tackles i might add). already this season, zamora, ben arfa and valencia have all broken legs. diaby is ridiculously lucky he hasn't broken his, as too are moussa dembele and the wigan player on saturday.

why it's happening...i'm not too sure. but of the 5 incidents i just mentioned, only one of those guilty of reckless challenges has a foreign manager (de jong/mancini). in league with this many foreign managers, is it a coincidence that 90% of these leg breakers involve a british manager? i think not. ramsey - (tony pulis), diaby v sunderland (mccarthey), eduardo (either mcleash or bruce...cant remember).

again, it's the cliched "get amongst them" bollocks that pricks like mccarthey spew. and when they do break a leg, the culprate "isn't that kinda player", because all they were doing was "getting amongst them".

this needs to end, and end fast, because i'll tell you this now....the way he's being targeted, someone will break wilshere's leg within the next 2 years. only then will these cunts care.

Arsenal Articles said...

I think its clear to see that the media has a big impact on how the FA act in this country.

And the media is made up in large chunks by know-nothing xenophobic half-wits.

It will sadly take, as the previous poster said, an injury by a foreigner on an english player for the media or MOTD to take notice. And then the FA will act.

But I am not holding my breath and do not expect the media to be on Arsene's side any time soon.

http://arsenalarticles.webs.com

Anonymous said...

Let the keep queit. but its only a matter of time before one of teh Emgland stars gets their limbs shuttered by thugs lkiek De Jong, Shawcross, Karl henry , Robinson etect. The words "he is not that kind of player" will take a different meaning then. maybe then , teh FA will take action. Mark my words

Anonymous said...

the problem is this mentallity is employed not only at the pro level of the english game but at grass roots as well. It is a big problem for the england team Instead of scouting and developing gifted footballers like xavi, inesta, messi or even wilshere (thank Good hes English) the typical british scout has these five points on his list to look out for:

1. Hes Big
2. Plays a nice long ball
3. Hard in the Tackle
4. Powerful shoot
5. not bad feet for a big guy

i believe this is what scouts look for, i mean look at the current english team which players would get into the current spanish squad cole and ferdinand maybe those are the only 2 players who fit the mould good heads hard workers good short and long game and good feet simple as.

look at gerrard lampard or xavi inesta who would you rather, sergio ramos or glen johnson ,sergio busqutes or barry, rooney and crouch or villa and torres

british clubs need to start developing footballers not clouters the and only then will british teams have a chance at major european and worl honours

Mark said...

As a Dutchman I think the Holland coach (who's name is Bert van Marwijk instead of Dick van Mirwijk actually) has done the right thing. Nigel de Jong is a very good player, but he needs some serious training in controlling himself in challenges. I don't believe he makes these ridiculous challenges with intent, but he needs to change his style of play. He has also broke an American player's leg in a friendly last year, and I think everyone can remember the shocking karate kick he dealt to Xabi Alonso in the World Cup final. He needs to get control of himself, seriously.