Fulham v Wisla Krakow

[Clevelandmo]

Looks like Wisla's plan was to shoot from outside the 18 yard box and hope we dont pressure them enough. It's working

[Clevelandmo]

Bummer

[AggieMatt]

It's funny, I tend to romanticize the good old days of hanging in the FUSA chatroom while watching Fulham on dodgy internet streams. That must have been one heck of a chatroom, b/c suffering these streams is maddening. I don't think I saw more than a 5 minute stretch at any point in the match w/o the feed going to crap and having to refresh. And the popups...

It's a shame to drop the points against a side of Wisla's quality, but with the int'l break and fixture congestion, I can't fault Jol for playing a side largely made up of the 2nd team. And credit Wisla for coming out and attacking the way they did. They took the fight to us. Unfortunately, it was a fight we didn't look particularly up for. That was made worse midway through the 1st half when referee Martin Hansson sent Dembele off on a straight red following one of the worst dives I've seen in a while, by Wisla's Nunez. You may remember ol' Martin from his signature faux pas, the Henry handball to beat Ireland.

From there we played a very defensive match, often compacting to 8 men in the box and daring Wisla to shoot from 18 yds or more. They made Schwarzer work on a few of them, and ultimately converted in the 2nd half on a cracking strike by Biton. Wisla's Chavez spent the evening challenging Fulham players by running through them from behind. Hansson finally gave him his 2nd yellow to send him off, but could have done so much sooner in the match on any of a number of challenges. We made a desperate push late, but it came to naught.

My only real gripe with Jol in this one is how he handled the formation after Dembele's sending off. He moved AJ to the wing and played Sa alone up top. Given Sa's average (at best) speed and his clumsiness, I'd have preferred to see Frei or Kasami come on and put an in form AJ up top. He eventually did take Sa off in the 2nd half, but due to a hamstring injury, not tactics.

I thought the supporters from both sides were in good voice. Wisla's were loud and active despite a fairly empty stadium, and the Fulham faithful broke through the din a few times as well.

Again, while I hate to see us fail to get a result in this one, it was a fairly irrelevant match in terms of advancing. We likely won't win the group now, but we sit 2nd on pts in the table at the midway point and we get the 2 worst teams at the Cottage in the 2nd half.

[SoCalJoe]

Haven't seen the red card yet, but if it is as described than this is the crap that has to be eliminated from the game. My friends who don't watch soccer point to the flopping and rolling around as one of the reasons they don't.

Here is a simple solution; If the replays show that this was indeed a dive then rescind the red against Dembele and further ban the Wisla @ss for 3 matches. Of course this WILL never happen, but w/technology and cries to curtail this BS why not??

EDIT; Just read Ag's post and I can guess I shouldn't be surprised that the same idiot that was on the pitch the night of the Ireland-France fiasco was in Krakow.

[MisfitKid]

Take a look. Complete and utter horse&@**!!
If they don't over-turn the Red...

[jumpkutz]

Deserved or not, you HAVE to control your emotions better than that on the pitch (Zinedine Zidane, hello). Should be overturned and the p***y that dove should be suspended for several matches and fined. Solutions? Either add another referee and/or give asst. refs the ability to confer and advise ref on what they saw and STRONGLY SUGGEST the CORRECT COURSE OF ACTION, if any. Really, how can one guy keep up with 22 players on a surface that big whilst running end to end following the ball with his head on a swivel to see if anybody behind them misbehaving.

[VegasJustin]

There needs to be replay for red cards and goals. The assistant referee should be watching a monitor and quickly tell the referee what to do.

Divers should be given a straight red and banned 3 matches. We need to take a hard stand against this.

[Clevelandmo]

There needs to be replay for red cards and goals. The assistant referee should be watching a monitor and quickly tell the referee what to do.

Divers should be given a straight red and banned 3 matches. We need to take a hard stand against this.

I like it when Vegas gets opinionated.

[jimsig]

There needs to be replay for red cards and goals. The assistant referee should be watching a monitor and quickly tell the referee what to do.

Divers should be given a straight red and banned 3 matches. We need to take a hard stand against this.

I agree, though I think they need to make it a replay offical up in the booth who can use multiple angles if necessary.