Jennifer- No, from what I can see, he isn’t that good anymore.That’s why I would rather have Diego.

Vlad- A cardboard scudetto is better than no scudetto at all.

Paolo- Terrific points all around.I especially agree with your “voluntary vs. involuntary” arguments. In the “heat” of the game, is the ref supposed to stop the game, run over to a replay booth, then tell if the player meant to hit it with his hand. This is the real football, 45 and 45. Nothing in-between.

Ehsan- Thank you for your compliment. I have thought about your “referees are human” point, but never posted on it. I completely agree, mistakes happen. They happen in every game, in every league, to every team. But why when it happens to Inter, the sky seems to be falling? I think it’s because we are one of, if not the, most successful club in Europe right now. So, people are looking for any reason to stick us in the mud.

I’ve been reading everything about the “controversy”, and I’ve been thinking about it as well…

How about this, and I haven’t seen this argument mentioned yet: Refs always make mistakes. In any game, in every game. In Serie A, if you go back and review every single game this season, you will find hundreds of mistakes and dozens of false penalties, in favor of any team.

So the question is, why is it a “controversy” only when Inter win? Easy, because they’ve always been the easy targets for the media, and they’re the team everyone loves to hate and hates to love.

Let’s just for a second assume that the penalty was “given unjustly”… well Roma have been “given” lots of things this season, and their opponents have been “robbed” as well… no controversy there? The Kaladze example above is perfect… it was a DERBY game, but nobody made a big deal out of it… not a single player said anything, and the fans were respectful.

Yes, please take the blinders off.

1. In the Parma Game if the ball had not hit Couto’s arm was it going wide? It was a piss poor clearing header on the ball. His arm barely stopped it from going in, but it did. And then explain when a defender has his arm so dangerously high, how any ref is supposed to distinguish Voluntary vs. Involuntary. You want to see a text book clear off the line? Watch how Cesar did it earlier in the half at the other end… Hands nowhere near the ball. If he were to screw up the 1st touch he would not have found himself in question of handling the ball. A poor play by Couto is no one’s fault but his own.

On the flip side, with the “non call” for Parma in the first half… Julio Cesar made terrible play. I do think he managed to recover & get to the ball first as the ball clearly headed toward a direction that made it seem so, which was out of the area. Also the striker lunged for it at the same time and then toppled over the keeper, another tell that there was no foul. The srtiker did not have possession, nor was he making a go at goal, he lunged at a 50/50 ball at the same time as the keeper. Either way the ref was not in a good postition to make any call, IMO.

2. In the Siena game, with reagrds to the penalty, can some one please point the exact instance where the defender made an attempt to play the ball. If you can find it, then maybe you can point out exactly when he WASN’T leading with one leg stretched out and all of his cleats showing during the challenge. Then maybe you could tell us there was no contact and Cruz went to ground on his own. Sorry, but that was a careless, ill timed challenge that had penalty written all over it.

Now The Derby: Yeah, you might have a case with the Kaka incident. In the same game though, Pirlo should never have had the chance to strike that Free Kick. You know, the one he scored on. It was a gorgeous strike, perfect actually, but Inzaghi DOVE when he realized he had no play on the ball. That DIVE won the chance in the perfect spot. No one seems to ever want to mention that. Why?

Also in the Derby, if you want to see a clear case of when this “Voluntary vs. Involuntary” arguement holds substance (which it doesn’t in Parma’s case)… Watch when Kaladze poorly plays a ball off his foot which sent it up and hit him sqaure in the hand while he was in the area. That’s where it applies. No one was near him and he was not very close to goal. Had that been awarded people might have a case as to why the numbers don’t add up.

Yes I am an Inter fan, but I think people are going too far with the story making. Take the blinders off.

Any Italian soccer news source (and mind you, many of these are based in Milan), is not talking about whether the goal was valid, but rather why refs are making so many mistakes (taking the one on Sunday as a shining example), and more specifically, why so many of these mistakes seem to favor Inter. 7 penalties per, 1 against.
Roma: 5 per, 5 against, and when you consider that a large portion of Roma’s play occurs in the area, these numbers just don’t add up.

The missed call for Kaka’ in the derby was bullshit, The Siena penalty was atrocious, Parma didn’t get a clear penalty in the first half, still found a way to beat your asses, but you Perdazzurri had to be saved by Moratti’s checkbook once again.

There was hand contact, but based on the fact that the ball was being headed away, any hand contact can be deemed involuntary. Rule 12 of the rulebook.

Enjoy your cardboard scudetto.

Spal is one of the most diplomatic guy and he only said that Roma needs to concentrate on our game and the guys were disappointed about the Parma result only because Inter were close to lose points that meant we would have caught up with you a bit. He also said that this given us new confidence because now it seems that Inter are indeed beatable… just one suggestion: do not use goal.com as a reliable source. It is good fun (sometimes) and most just annoying. I think you’ll soon see that for yourself.