UEFA Cup quarters/semis & final [R]

[Massive Attack]

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

Does it not seem suspicious that a team which sits half of their starters for a UEFA Cup semi-final then tries to win the tie on a disqualification especially after they had seen other disqualifications earlier in the year?

This is the stupidest thing I've ever heard. Pretty sad coming from a poster who I respect so much. What they hell do you expect Parma to do? Don't you think they still would have made the complaint if they played their best players? Also, what the hell do you know about the player's injury. You weren't there? You saw it on video, so what. Firecrackers/flares can often be louder then expected.

Plus, this same Parma A- team defeated the 3rd place German Bundesliga team, Stuttgart.

[amacpher]

quote:Originally posted by Grizzly

I don't know if you have seen the video but my personal feeling is that Bucci was faking it. I just don't see a flare coming near enough to him to cause any damage. I have had flares come much nearer to me than he did in this situation and while it is scary they rarely cause serious injury even if they hit you.

That's because it was a smoke-bomb that did the damage to Bucci, not a flare.

[Grizzly]

As I was following the tie before the first game was even played I read a lot of what Parma's coach and management said before the match. They did not seem to go into the tie with the commitment to winning it that most teams would take in a UEFA Cup semi-final. They said beforehand that they would rest several players for their league relegation battle which was what they in fact did. After a 10 minute offensive assault with no counterattack that their defence couldn't handle they went down 1-0. So at a point where a victory in the tie seemed unlikely their keeper goes down although he was not hit by a flare. As we all know players faking injury to win a penalty or red card is unfortunately a regular occurence in soccer. Watching the video of the incident it is hard to see how he got hurt. Now there may occasionally be incidences where what looks like a dive is a legitimate injury and maybe this is the case but given the circumstances I don't think it is strange to be suspicious. It does seem hard to understand how he is claiming to be more seriously injured than Milan's keeper who was actually hit by the flare. Flares also are designed to burn not explode and although I guess it is possible for an explosion to occur I have never seen this. I have seen countless numbers of players be hit by flares and continue playing. Despite the UEFA final being not their first priority, there is no doubt that being in the final would bring Parma a great deal of prestige and money. However, if they wanted to be in the final they should have played their A-team not try to win by disqualification. They got blown out in Moscow plain and simple and the cause of this was not replacing their backup keeper with their starting keeper. I don't mind them complaining about the flares on the field but trying to overturn the result due to this is a bit much. If they were only asking for a monetary penalty instead of demanding a 3-0 victory maybe I would be a bit less suspicious. No team has had a victory annuled this year because of fan behaviour. No team has been eliminated from a competition this year for fan behaviour. CSKA should not be penalized more harshly than any of the other teams this year particularly as a first time offender. If there is going to be a rule for fan interference it has to apply to all teams equally and whether or not a player is hit or injured by the flare or thrown object. A rule such as this would indeed have changed the outcome of a great number of Cup/CL games where more flares were thrown than at the CSKA match but noone claimed to be injured by one.

[Grizzly]

Explain to me how a smoke bomb can cause serious injury.

[Massive Attack]

Grizzly, were you wearing a tin-foil hat while you typed that?