It was a frantic Saturday of action around the English Premier League, but nowhere more chaotic than Fratton Park. New Pompey manager Avram Grant must have been having nightmares after his side fell 4-1 at home to Manchester United. In an evening with a stunning 6 penalties all-told around the league, Grant and Sir Alex Ferguson (serving a touchline ban) will have thought the game was a replay of the 2008 Champions League final shootout. The two bosses saw 3 of the 6 spot kicks awarded in their match by presiding referee Mike Dean. It was the way they happened, however, that left nearly everyone scratching their heads.
Pompey made a roaring start to the match, forcing Tomasz Kuszczak to keep United in it early with 2 sensational saves. It seemed all for nothing though, as on Rooney’s first foray into the Portsmouth area he was clipped on the toe by Michael Brown for the 1st penalty of the afternoon. Close perhaps, but replays did show that the contact was there. Only 8 minutes later came the first of two bizarre moments. Nemanja Vidic was spotted grabbing the shirt of Frederic Piquionne, with Boateng dispatching the subsequent penalty to level the match at 1-1. Shortly, Manchester United had a shout for the match’s 3rd spot kick denied after a rather blatant Hreidarsson handball. The appeals were quickly denied by Dean and play continued into the break.
Any hope Pompey had at claiming points quickly disappeared after the restart as Ryan Giggs sent Rooney through for his second goal of the match — no controversy this time. But the match official was in the limelight again on 54 minutes as Piquionne took Giggs down in the area, leaving Rooney to dispatch another penalty to complete his hat trick. Setup man Giggs also claimed his reward on a late free kick that saw him reach a century of Premier League goals for his illustrious career, hours shy of his 36th birthday.
It would seem that fate is doing all it can to challenge Fergie this season — the departure of Ronaldo and Tevez, early season injuries, figuring out his true best XI. Given his outspokenness, however, would the masses expect anyone else but the long-time United boss to be mired in such controversy? How interesting would Sir Alex’s post-match comments been were he not already serving a touchline ban and a suspended sentence from the FA? While I’m sure the insight would have been tempered somewhat by the 4-1 victory, it can only been speculated what choice thoughts he would have had for the Premier League officials following another weekend of chaos.
Michael DiAmore is currently a play-by-play and color commentator for the Athletics Dept. of Stevens Institute of Technology, where he is a Computer Engineering major and freelance sportswriter. He can be contacted via e-mail at MichaelJDiAmore@gmail.com.
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