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ricardo

Ricardo's report v Spurs

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After many years of use I put aside my lucky City scarf today as the magic seems to have drained out of it. Mrs R bought me one of those new scarves that have the smart very thin stripes a few months ago, but I've been reluctant to give up on the old favourite until now.  I thought I would give it an outing tonight just to see if the luck would change.

I assume the four changes were due to resting certain players but it was nice to see Vrancic get a start and although Byrom has played well, Lewis has done little wrong before the injury. Steipermann and Hernandez completed the line up.

Once again we were treated to a cagey five minutes with both sides playing sideways rather than forward.. City were the first to show some intent when Hernandez broke down the left before Lewis had a speculative crack from twenty five yards that fizzed a yard wide of the visitors left post. Then on eight minutes, Gazzinga, in the Spurs net had to make a smart save to his right as Steipermann evaded a couple of tackles in the box and toe poked the ball towards the far corner. We were still rueing this opportunity when Spurs had an even better one at the other end. Zimmerman hit a pass straight at an opponent and the ball bounced kindly for Kane to bear down on goal. Hanley forced him wide but the pass set up Deli, for what from our end look like a tap in. Somehow he side footed it over the bar.

City were starting to dominate now and were playing some nice stuff with Buendia at the heart of everything. Just past the quarter hour the little Argentine won a midfield duel and the ball broke kindly for Vrancic who surged forward down the middle. He had good options to both left and right but the Spurs defence seemed to part like the Red Sea and he let fly from the edge of the area with a shot that Gazzinga got half a hand to, but could not prevent City deservedly going one up.

Spurs upped the pace and there was a hairy moment when Kane looked to be through from a long ball but somehow Krul was off his line quick enough to deflect the ball for a corner. Then minutes later a combination of Hanley and Zimmerman deflected another goal bound shot. City were still giving as good as they got in what was a good open game.

With Tetty and Buendia snapping into tackles in midfield City were seeing plenty of the ball and Spurs had to defend strongly at times. Just after the half hour it looked like City had doubled their lead when Vrancic, hooked a superb ball for Pukki to chase down the middle. The City talisman chested the ball down and made a few yards before driving the ball past Gazzinga, into the net. The crowd went into raptures and the players were already lining up for the restart when there was a VAR check signalled. There had been no flag and no appeal from the Spurs defenders and again it took more than a couple of minutes for someone three hundred miles away to decide that Pukki was half an inch offside. This is killing the game that we know and love and even if it means mistakes will occur, I feel we need to go back to the old system. It's becoming almost impossible to celebrate a goal spontaneously anymore.

At the half I felt we were fairly comfortable and worth our lead but in the light of recent home games there was little room for complacency. Spurs brought on Lucas Mora, at the start of the second period and immediately looked a better side. Krul, had to go full length to his right to keep out a shot but the City defense appeared to be keeping Spurs at arms length. With ten minutes gone Kane clearly fouled Lewis on the edge of our box as he leapt to clear. In the act of tumbling his arm brushed the ball and to the amazement of all around me, Mr. Friend gave the visitors a free kick. Such are the small margins, and if someone would have laid me evens I would have bet that Eriksen would score from it, which he duly did.

It was very disheartening and Spurs might have had another only for Deli to be pulled up for offside. Just after the hour mark City finally had a stroke of luck of their own. Pukki found himself in space in the area and as defenders moved to close him down the ball seemed to change direction and leave the keeper stranded, going past his left hand as he was falling to the right. All was right with the world again but City were now pushed right back as Spurs upped the pressure.

Vrancic had taken a couple of knocks and Steipermann appeared to be running on empty so it was no surprise when they were swapped for McLean and Trybull. As time ticked down there were a series of desperate blocks as City held on and even Pukki was drawn back to bolster the barricades. One of those blocks from Zimmerman was truly memorable but he took some punishment in the process. I was just beginning to think we would hang on when City broke away down the left only for Trybull to lose possession on the halfway line. A quick ball was played to Kane cutting into the area from the right and this time Zimmerman got it all wrong and went right through him for a nailed on penalty. Krul did his usual but Kane's shot into the corner was unstoppable, even had timmy gone the right way.

Cantwell came on for the tiring Tetty but City could not force another chance but at the very least they continued to hold Spurs at arms length and I thought that in the end they were well worth the hard earned point. The annoying thing is that we have looked so good at times this season without getting much reward. Surely at some stage we will win a game playing poorly. Other teams seem to manage it on a fairly regular basis.

I am in two minds about the new scarf because the luck was a bit mixed tonight but I shall wear it again on Wednesday and hope it has warmed up a bit.

Buendia again superb, Mario, great vision and a fine goal.

 

Edited by ricardo
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It's gonna turn.... Believe! 

Really happy Farke made changes tonight. We needed freshening up, and we earnt a decent point because of it. 

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Thanks Ricardo. One of those where you'd have taken a point before the game but after that performance I felt we deserved more. Don't know what more needs to be said about VAR but I'd rather go back to grumbling about inconsistent refereeing and getting outraged watching replays later than this nonsense where you don't know where you stand during the game.

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4 minutes ago, Peanuts said:

Thanks Ricardo. One of those where you'd have taken a point before the game but after that performance I felt we deserved more. Don't know what more needs to be said about VAR but I'd rather go back to grumbling about inconsistent refereeing and getting outraged watching replays later than this nonsense where you don't know where you stand during the game.

Yes, I had hoped it would take controversy out of the game but it seems to be making it worse. At the start of the season they were going with the decision on the field even when some looked a bit subjective. Now we seem to be ref'd by somone who isn't even at the game. It can't be allowed to go on like this else it will kill the game.

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Ricardo has hit the nail on the head- supporters of all teams can no longer spontaneously celebrate any goal.

That will kill the game of any enjoyment.

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Was so much worse celebrating like mad, then having the VAR taking it off. Really is no point celebrating. Nobody in the ground tonight thought it was offside. The spurs fans to our right couldn't believe it either. 

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It was a beautiful goal, watching Pukki run onside because he could see the pass was going to be made, Vrancic's vision to see the pass, the execution of the pass, the run of Pukki, the first touch which set him up and the cool finish. To see all that happening and then to celebrate in a way that was special - even at home in my armchair - was brilliant.  To have it snuffed out by an inadequate, innacurate piece of technology combined with blatant incompetent by someone who was sitting in a remote room somewhere miles away was simply scandalous.  2--0 up and we were flying, Spurs could not cope with us in that first half and we might have got more.

It is worse than a scandal, it is almost criminal to ruin the game in this way......years ago they gave the benefit of doubt to the striker to get more goals to be scored....whatever happened to that prinicple?

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I don’t think you can blame the scarf for VAR Ricardo, I’d definitely give it another go on Wednesday. As I said in the match thread, at times it was like watching last season’s games, lovely skills.

 

Two things struck me reading your, as ever, excellent report. I don’t think Kane touched Lewis before the handball, whereas you saw it as a clear foul. Indeed, the commentary on MOTD said Lewis’ yellow card was in part for a pull by Jamal, which you can see never happened with the benefit of a TV replay. And I think the penalty was far more debatable than it appeared to you. Watching in slow motion, there’s a good case to be made that Zimmerman slid in with a legal tackle and Kane just fell over him. All goes to show these things are subjective dependent on your viewpoint, physically and metaphorically. Lucky we have a neutral watching on a TV hundreds of miles away to take the subjectivity and emotion out of it eh?  🙄

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Thanks Ricardo.

I'm not sure about switching lucky scarf mid season. The old scarf is in serious luck debt - which the law of averages suggests should be repaid?

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3 minutes ago, Badger said:

Thanks Ricardo.

I'm not sure about switching lucky scarf mid season. The old scarf is in serious luck debt - which the law of averages suggests should be repaid?

Things wear out. I site my lucky underpants as an example😀

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6 minutes ago, ricardo said:

Things wear out. I site my lucky underpants as an example😀

You need to think of the impact of the throw away world on the environment my boy, lucky pants can always continue a useful life as a handkerchief, personal hygiene products need to be multifarious. 

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Interestingly none of the sky highlights online include any of the controversial parts of their goals.

I've seen a lot of people say Kane was offside ahead of their free kick for 1-1 being awarded, and furthermore Ricardo + others have said it was a clear push on Jamal. What I would question is, regardless of a push, why our defenders seem to be developing a habit of throwing their hands up in the air around our own box (Zimbo v Arsenal).

I was also all but certain we had a player fouled before their late counter for the penalty, but none of this seems available on highlights. And unpopular as it is, Kane has bought that penalty but it's a penalty all the same; that's the inexperience of poor CZ, last 5 minutes diving into a challenge against a savvy international striker and well-known diver.

So in some ways we did bring these things on ourselves, but you can't help but ask what an even playing field in terms of officiating might bring.

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Zimmerman never went 'through' Kane and in fact made no contact with him.  Watch the block from behind and you will see that Kane ran into him and dived.

Yet more bias from VAR as they obviously never even checked whether a penalty was justified.

Edited by paul moy

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Anyway, bring on relegation and proper fair football free from bias towards the top 6.  I've had enough !!!

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2 minutes ago, paul moy said:

Zimmerman never went 'through' Kane and in fact made no contact with him.  Watch the block from behind and you will see that Kane ran into him and dived.

Yet more bias from VAR as they obviously never even checked whether a penalty was justified.

From my position above it in the River End stand, I was in no doubt that it was a penalty. Kane was clever but Zimbo was rash. Had it been the other end and not given there would have been a riot.

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13 minutes ago, ricardo said:

From my position above it in the River End stand, I was in no doubt that it was a penalty. Kane was clever but Zimbo was rash. Had it been the other end and not given there would have been a riot.

He was rash but no contact means that it was not a penalty and the video from behind proved this so it is pretty obvious that VAR did not even check. Clear bias yet again.

Edited by paul moy

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Good report as usual from Ricardo.

I do think some people are starting to ‘see’ things, though: use of var was clearly wrong for Pukki’s ‘goal’ but they did check for the penalty and it was always going to be given, everyone in the ground knew it was; you can’t really blame CZ as it’s the sort of thing Pukki does all the time to defenders.

Re: Kane being offside for the f/k, technically he wasn’t unless/until he got the ball - Lewis’s handball stopped that happening.  Had he not handled, Kane would have probably been flagged but the first offence was the handball (unless Lewis was, as I 100% thought at the time, pushed).

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8 minutes ago, paul moy said:

He was rash but no contact means that it was not a penalty and the video from behind proved this so it is pretty obvious that VAR did not even check. Clear bias yet again.

There was no contact made but it was a penalty. Kane knew what he was doing so got his legs out of the way. I suppose you could say it was a form of extreme obstruction to deny Kane a goalscoring chance.

The way VAR is being used though is a stain on humanity.

 

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16 hours ago, ricardo said:

With ten minutes gone Kane clearly fouled Lewis on the edge of our box as he leapt to clear. In the act of tumbling his arm brushed the ball and to the amazement of all around me, Mr. Friend gave the visitors a free kick.

Good, interesting read as always Ricardo, although I did think you rather understated the hand of Lewis's involvement with the ball. It looked to me as though Lewis had forgotten that he was playing football and effortlessly switched to volleyball and gave it a good wallop !

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4 hours ago, ron obvious said:

There was no contact made but it was a penalty. Kane knew what he was doing so got his legs out of the way. I suppose you could say it was a form of extreme obstruction to deny Kane a goalscoring chance.

The way VAR is being used though is a stain on humanity.

 

Zimmerman dived in to block an anticipated shot that did not happen but no contact was made, only in that Kane then turned into him and dived. No penalty should have been awarded.

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14 hours ago, Branston Pickle said:

Re: Kane being offside for the f/k, technically he wasn’t unless/until he got the ball - Lewis’s handball stopped that happening.  Had he not handled, Kane would have probably been flagged but the first offence was the handball (unless Lewis was, as I 100% thought at the time, pushed).

Q: Do you have to actually receive the ball to be offside, or just be closer to the goal line than the second defender when the ball is passed towards you? 

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