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Hello! England spent Saturday and Sunday shrouded in red mist. What’s got into everybody?
On the way:
Mateta has 25 stitches after Roberts tackle
The first weekend of March, the first sniff of spring and sunshine, and all common sense seemed to be lost to a strange bout of recklessness.
Every round of games brings its share of red cards, but over the previous 48 hours, something was in the water. Saturday and Sunday comprised a haul of the season’s most inexcusable dismissals: the rash, the costly, the dangerous and the record-setting.
We’ll start at Crystal Palace, where Championship club Millwall made a short trip in the FA Cup’s fifth round. There’s no love lost between these clubs from south London and Millwall’s goalkeeper, Liam Roberts, consolidated the antipathy with a kick to the face of Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta.
Roberts wasn’t attempting to injure, but his rush of blood was ludicrous, a wild attempt to clear the ball on the edge of his box. Mateta was given oxygen and a neck brace on the pitch as a portion of Millwall’s fans chanted, ‘Let him die’. He was taken to hospital, where he received 25 stitches in an open wound. He has since been discharged.
Somehow, it took the VAR to rule that Roberts should be sent off. Palace’s chairman, Steve Parish, told the BBC it was “the most reckless challenge on a football pitch I’ve ever seen. Roberts needs to have a long hard look at himself because he’s endangering a fellow professional, maybe even his life, with a challenge like that”. And didn’t it set the tone.
Record-equalling red
A few hours later, as Saturday wore on, eyes were drawn to a League One match between Peterborough United and Shrewsbury Town. Shrewsbury kicked off. They went long to striker John Marquis, who elbowed a Peterborough defender in the face as the ball dropped.
Thirteen seconds and Marquis was off: the joint-fastest dismissal in the history of English professional football, according to the record books. A sending-off so quick should be physically impossible.
And that wasn’t the end of it either. Matheus Cunha lost his cool by aiming a punch, a kick and a headbutt at Bournemouth’s Milos Kerkez. With the Wolverhampton Wanderers forward in the doghouse, his side duly exited the FA Cup — although more concerning to them might be his needless suspension, especially when considering their weak position in the Premier League. Cunha’s beautiful goal against Bournemouth reiterated how he is their ace card.
And speaking of needless bans, Anthony Gordon will be repenting at leisure this morning. For no apparent reason, he struck Brighton’s Jan Paul van Hecke in the back of the head during Newcastle United’s cup defeat at St James’ Park yesterday. Unless Newcastle overturn his red card on appeal (the chances of that are slim to none), his suspension will stop him playing in the Carabao Cup final against Liverpool on March 16.
Gordon had spoken not long ago about how much he was savouring a first Wembley appearance. Not anymore. Newcastle have been without top-tier domestic silverware for 70 years, too. English football could do worse than take a breath, sit cross-legged and sing a few verses of Kumbaya.
News round-up
(Carl Recine/Getty Images)
San Diego shame: Homophobic chanting at first MLS home game
All the many years of groundwork, all the hard graft to get here, and the first MLS game hosted by new expansion franchise San Diego FC — a 0-0 draw with St Louis City SC — is marred by homophobic chanting.
It was so persistent that San Diego used their big screen to warn that the game would be abandoned if the chants failed to stop. The club’s coach, Mikey Vargas, said the slurs — common in Mexican football and something FIFA has been trying to eradicate — were “outside our value system” and “not a reflection of who we are”. They’ll want to nip this in the bud, pronto.
Meanwhile, an odd occurrence in Texas, where Lionel Messi failed to show for Inter Miami’s 4-1 win over Houston Dynamo. Dynamo not only issued an apologetic, pre-emptive message on X to warn of his absence, but also offered fans who paid to attend a complimentary ticket for a future game.
I’m all for positive customer service but, as huge as his reputation might be, MLS is under-selling itself by acting like it’s Messi or bust.
Where’s Chelsea £2.5bn? Sale cash earmarked for Ukraine war victims still frozen after three years
(Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
You’re unlikely to have gone anywhere over the past few days without hearing talk about Ukraine. The country’s war with Russia is front and centre of the political scene, more than ever since the Russian invasion itself.
In football circles, the conflict was responsible for ending Roman Abramovich’s long and highly successful reign as owner of Chelsea. The UK government forced him to relinquish control and put £2.5billion ($3bn) raised from the sale to Clearlake Capital and Todd Boehly in 2022 into a special bank account.
The intention was to use that cash to support humanitarian projects in Europe’s most war-torn region. Except three years later, the bank account is frozen as politicians and Abramovich wrangle over issues around it. Labour MP Emily Thornberry said it was “ridiculous that £2.5bn is being withheld while Abramovich bickers about what he has agreed to do”. Abramovich has not commented.
Around TAFC
- NFL players anonymously critiquing their franchise’s ownership groups — some of whom control Premier League teams — is fantastic. It wasn’t a surprise to see the Tampa Bay Buccaneers’ locker room raining down blows on the Glazer family.
- Tottenham Hotspur (trophyless since 2008) have succeeded in becoming the Premier League’s most followed team on TikTok. You’ll never sing that, etc…
- He’s somewhat maligned as a coach, but Frank Lampard has Coventry City rattling towards the Championship play-offs. They were nowhere near when he took the job in November. Oli Kay went to speak to him.
- I can’t recommend this highly enough: The Athletic’s Full Time podcast on the trial of former Spanish Football Federation president Luis Rubiales. It’s on Apple and Spotify and the detail is definitive.
- Most clicked in Friday’s TAFC: the worries over World Cup visas in the United States.
Quiz answer
Here’s the answer to Friday’s quiz, which asked for these FA Cup events from oldest to most recent:
E) the last time a team from outside the top flight won the competition (West Ham United, 1980), B) both semi-finals played at Wembley for the first time (1993), D) the last English manager to win the cup (Harry Redknapp, 2008), C) Ashley Cole’s final appearance (2019, for Derby County), and A) Arsenal’s most recent fifth-round appearance (2020, when they went on to lift the FA Cup).
Catch a match
(Kick-offs ET/UK time)
FA Cup: Nottingham Forest vs Ipswich Town, 2.30pm/7.30pm — ESPN+/ITV4.
Serie A: Juventus vs Verona, 2.45pm/7.45pm — CBS Sports, Paramount+/OneFootball.
La Liga: Villarreal vs Espanyol, 3pm/8pm — ESPN+, Fubo/Premier Sports.
And finally…
Rule one of refereeing: nothing you do will be good enough. Rule two of refereeing: it’s always your fault. Rule three of refereeing: nobody will be shy in laughing at your expense.
The third of those laws was invoked at Luton Town on Saturday, where poor Sam Allison took this pinpoint clearance to the face. Even after beating Portsmouth 1-0 in this game, Luton are toiling badly in the Championship. Their fans haven’t had much fun this season, but Allison’s misfortune raised a collective chuckle. There’s truly no escape.
(Top photo: Sebastian Frej/MB Media/Getty Images)
