All about cards - who gives ‘em, who gets ‘em
Now that they have succeeded in confusing our understanding of what a handball and an offside is, we can safely confess that we’ve never known what was a booking and what wasn’t. I know that this will be of no consolation to Luis García, the latest to be hit with an untimely sending off, punishment for a sarcastic comment that the fourth official was quick to pass on to the first referee. The latter took the opportunity to once again brandish the red card that he had recently sheathed after having already shown it to Iza for a challenge on Dani Rodriguez, who was en route, alone, towards goal. It felt like we understood this card but it all ended up in limbo, and with Mateu Lahoz in the middle.
Lahoz: ruling even as VAR
Mateu Lahoz, you see, was the VAR. He doesn't usually like to refer to VAR when he is on the pitch because he is considered the chieftain (I don't know why!) but on this occasion he did interfere from the room and recommended that Pizarro Gómez, the match referee, reviewed an earlier tackle by Baba on Espino. He duly did, saw a foul and annulled everything that then followed, thus saving Iza and in exchange showed a yellow card to Baba. Of course, as the red card was still warm in his pocket, when the match was over he showed it to Luis García. When a huge mess has been made, there is nothing like punishing someone innocent to tarnish everything that has gone before. Mateu and Pizarro deliver their gifts by hand.
Atlético's tight leash
On account of the cards, a question has been posed about Atlético Madrid. Up until this point in the season, they have been the team with both the fewest number of fouls committed and the one that has seen the most cards. A difficult combination to reconcile. It would clearly be necessary to look at each of the fouls and cards one by one, as well as the fouls suffered and the non-cards, to see if it all fits. But that is difficult. The best thing is to consider it a bit of a lottery, just as we saw in Cádiz. If not, it would be more unpleasant to admit the thing I sometimes hear: that among referees there is talk that Simeone puts them under a lot of pressure and he encourages his players to do the same. And the use of cards is a useful way to keep a tight leash on them.