When the cards start flying

Barry writes
 
This Thursday is heading towards a sell out which is the good news. The not so good news is that the flurry of cards on Saturday will mean we're missing a few key men. If you're yet to see them, check them out.


Some of them were fair enough, as with the poor timing for Alex's first, Lee's and Ono's. Jong a Pin took one for the team when they'd broken through, but To Yoshida's yellow was as soft as you like. A shoulder barge, which was never enough to cause Ota to lift both feet off the ground at once and flop over, but then he used to dive when he played for us, so no surprises. The second yellow for Franca was another clumsy ass decision. I can only presume the lino has never jumped for a header in his life.

But in applying the absolute letter of the law as when Jymmy kicked the ball after play was stopped, or giving a second yellow to Brosque for swinging a leg at a free kick (which, let's be honest, the Tokyo player chose to take with the S-Pulse man standing right next to him) you then have to be consistent. So what happened when Lucas was shouting, long, hard and angrily at the linesman when a decision went against him? Nothing. Nothing at all.

So that's us without Brosque and Jymmy on Saturday against a resurgent Kashima who just destroyed Gamba Osaka 5-0. Just to make us an extra little bit nervous, we have Imamura officiating, the same man who took charge of our last meeting with Kashima and presided over this absolute howler.

Taka scores a goal

Was this officiating horror show looked at in any detail to help, in even the smallest way, from it happening again? No, of course it wasn't. Well, enough about that, here's to us rallying and putting in a performance on Thursday.