good god dunphy is talking about the game being marred by ronaldo getting capdevilla sent off. and is complaining about this being the culmination of ronaldo's disgraceful behaviour.
It was a straight leg, studs up tackle to the knee. and even if he hadn't made enough contact to leave a bruise, you should probably be sent off for attempting something like that.
yeah, that really wasn't a very convincing dive. however, diving to try and win a penalty I can understand. Diving near your own corner flag, now that is weird.
Certainly looks like Bendtner brought it down with his outstretched arm. ITV have missed it and are concentrating on how Cesc was ok because it was a drop ball, not a free kick.
ah, apparently it was a harsh red card, ronaldo should just have gotten up, rather than drawing the refs attention to the foul, even though you can count the individual studmarks above his kneecap. now dunphy is going through a series of clips of ronaldo being fouled from behind and talking about ronaldo exaggerating contact.
now ronaldo is a cancer on the game. Good man eamon.
Certainly looks like Bendtner brought it down with his outstretched arm. ITV have missed it and are concentrating on how Cesc was ok because it was a drop ball, not a free kick.
Rooney was diving because he was almost entirely alone for the whole of the game and that is more or less the last option available to him. The lack of a targetman is going to bite united this season.
The red card for Capdevilla was correct. It was a nasty challenge, disguised as a standard 'leg across leg' trip. He led with the studs high enough off the ground to make contact with Ronaldo's knee. It was serious foul play. For Dunphy and the RTE crew to suggest that Ronaldo got the player sent off with his theatrics is embarrassing for a group of people who pride themselves on providing 'real' punditry that differs from the bland shite served up on Sky, BBC & ITV. I'm seeing similarities with a certain winking gesture from a couple of years back, when pundits judged an incident on the basis of the personalities involved rather that what actually occurred.
dunphy's comments on tonight's match were a fucking joke. i usually enjoy watching him but he badly needs to change the record.
as usual their pre-match build-up was all about what a cunt ronaldo was. i wondered if ferguson was thinking "jesus, i hope ronaldo's tendency to go down too easily doesn't fuck it up for us again tonight..." probably not, because he doesn't live in Opposite Land. RTE are taking a couple of flaws in ronaldo's ... not even ronaldo's game, but his persona, and harping on them to such an extent that any casual viewer would imagine he was the team's biggest problem rather than its biggest asset. it's the biggest load of shit i have ever heard and makes a mockery of the rte panel's self-trumpeted, self-congratulatory bollocks about being better than the bbc or sky alternatives.
anyway, after they slate ronaldo, he gives a typical man of the match display marred only by the lack of a goal. a villareal player is sent off for hacking him down as he launches another exciting dribble forward. ED's response is to call him a cancer on the game? that's why many people i know have concluded he wants to fuck ronaldo and we are witnessing a hideous case of reaction formation. either way, there's fuck all analysis of man united matches going on on rte.
Is is just Man Utd and Ronaldo, or is it a more general decision to be "edgy" and defy Anglophone conventional wisdom. For example, what has Dunphy been saying lately about Gerrard and/or Terry?
FWIW, there was absolutely no doubt in the Italian commentators' minds that a red was completely justified, with a number praising the ref for taking decisive action.
regarding gerrard, he scores important goals, but doesn't do the things you'd expect of a midfielder of his repute. giles compares gerrard and lampard rather unfavourably to fabregas and scholes. Regarding terry they think he's a good brave player who spends too much time intimidating referees and may be a bit slow.
I think to be honest that its mostly about ronaldo, and it's nearly entirely dunphy's fault. They don't like the showy element of his personality, that he remonstrates when he doesn't get a free kick or sometimes complains to teammates, that he doesn't track back all the time. For some reason Dunphy always starts going on about how "he's supposed to be the best player in the world, and if he's the best player in the world god help us."
Every mistake gets poured over by the dunph, who uses it as scorn to compare ronaldo to kaka, who dunphy only ever sees on highlights from the champions league, except for this season, because kaka isn't in the champions league.
Dunphy also thinks that the kaka who took advantage of two calamitous errors at old trafford is the kaka you get 365 days a year. Dunphy also believes that serie A is moribund yet rates kaka's hypothetical performances for milan (hypothetical because he doesn't see them) higher than ronaldo, who lest we forget is the european golden boot, and the top scorer in last seasons champions league.
I think dunphy has been watching too many highlight clips on youtube. Maradona didn't score an amazing goal in every game he played. Pele had quiet games where he did very little. If kaka is so amazing why has ronaldo outscored him by 35 club goals over the last two and a half seasons?
But mostly I start to lose focus when dunphy starts comparing ronaldo's behaviour unfavorably to george best. now there was a player who was all about the football.
If Dunphy watched Serie A he would know that Kaka has been a shadow of his Balon d'Or form for most of the last year (though he's been better recently) and that his most recent "headline" move was a quality dive to get a match-winning penalty against Chievo.
In the past few seasons they would point out flaws in the game of Gerrard. The last few months though they've being lauding him. I can't really see what he is doing different to make them not notice the flaws in his game.
They can't understand how Ferguson praises Ronaldo so much. Giles hates players who don't work for the team and he perceives some of Ronaldo's histionics as that. Dunphy just likes to be controversial so will take an opposing view of some sort at all times. For the past 18 months this view has been about Ronaldo. When Giles doesn't rein him in he goes on to say some really stupid things.
As for knowledge of things outside the Big 4 in England RTE is very poor. When Mati Fernandes was brought on last night the commentators were bemoaning the fact that the coach wouldn't bring on a creative threatening player. In previews, the panel routinely admits to not knowing much about teams other than Real Madrid and Barcelona. This despite the fact that RTE must have shown hundreds of Champions League games and highlights since the competition moved to the current format.
SR, I should have put in a completely after Europe to make my point crystal clear.
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