Unforgettable Soccer. Luciano Wernicke
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Englishman Darren Painter’s red card protest in November 1999 was a bit more disgusting. Defender for Buckland Athletic FC of the Berkshire League, Painter approached the ref who had shown him the red card, took off his shorts, and urinated him! Of course, the foul reaction did not go unnoticed: Painter was thrown out of the league—and his own club—for life, and also from his own club.
RED CARD SUBSTITUTIONS
On February 8, 2000, in Prenton Park, the host team, Tranmere Rovers FC (part of the Premier Division) defeated Sunderland AFC of the Premier League, 1-0, in the fourth round of the FA English Cup thanks to a goal by Wayne Allison in the 25th minute. A few minutes from the end, with Sunderland rallying against the Rovers in pursuit of the equalizer, defender Clint Hill committed a bad foul inches from the Tranmere penalty box. The referee Rob Harris called the foul and expelled Hill because of his violent play. Coincidentally, a few seconds earlier, coach John Aldridge had ordered Stephen Frail to substitute in for Hill. When the defender approached the middle line, fourth official David Unsworth, who had not noticed the ejection, allowed Frail to enter for his teammate. All the confusion overwhelmed Harris, who didn’t see the sub join the defenders. Tranmere continued with their eleven players for a few seconds until visiting coach Peter Reid alerted the referee. Seeing his mistake and that of his assistant, Harris sent Frail back to his place among the substitutes. Tranmere finally won, 1-0.
Two days later, the competition supervisory committee confirmed the result and absolved the winning team of any fault. Meanwhile, the committee suspended the referee for a match despite his having been assigned to officiate the cup clash between Gillingham FC and Bradford City AFC. The committee justified the mistake by saying that “the referee and his assistants were under a considerable level of pressure,” and told Sunderland that “their decisions are final, and for the good of the game, they must be accepted.” The red-and-white club not only accepted them, but, in an unusual gesture, Peter Reid told the press that “according to our point of view it is not the best decision, but we abide by it. I wish John [Aldridge] and his people good luck, and all the best against Fulham.” Tranmere continued their run and in the next round beat Fulham FC, also in the first division, 2 to 1. Unfortunately in the next match, they fell 3 to 2 against the powerful Newcastle United FC.
An almost identical situation had happened before, only it ended a bit differently. On January 10, 1937, during the Copa America held in Argentina, the host team defeated Peru 1-0 in the San Lorenzo de Almagro CA. During the game, despite the field goal by the Estudiantes CA de La Plata striker Alberto Zozaya, the team wasn’t doing very well. The visiting team attacked on all fronts in pursuit of the equalizer. At the 84th minute, the Uruguayan referee Aníbal Tejada ejected defender Antonio Sastre from the match. According to the media, this ejection was unjustified, but, despite the ruling, Argentina continued playing the game with eleven men.
Remember that until 1968, the yellow and red cards did not exist, and the referees reported their decisions “by word,” with a hand gesture that wasn’t always easy to notice from a distance. As Sastre approached the sideline, the Argentine coach Manuel Seoane, in a quick and skillful maneuver, made Hector Blotto enter as a “sub” for the expelled teammate. Tejada did not see the stratagem, and his assistant referees and the Peruvian bench naively assumed that it was a conventional replacement (at that time, substitutions in league championships were not allowed, but the regulation of the South American Football Confederation did authorize them for this tournament) and didn’t report the incident to the referee. All things being equal, the Argentina squad resisted the Peruvian attack and ended the encounter victorious. This result was key for the hosts, which ended the round robin play with Brazil in first place with eight points. If Peru had equalized, the trophy would have traveled directly to Rio de Janeiro in the hands of the men managed by Adhemar Pimenta. But, when the draw was registered, a playoff final was scheduled for February 1, again at the San Lorenzo stadium. And, there, Argentina beat Brazil 2-0 and lifted the Copa América for the fifth time.
IN WOMEN’S CLOTHING
Bolivian Club Deportivo Jorge Wilstermann fans were infuriated at Paraguayan club Olimpia’s 1-0 lead. The two teams were playing in a crowded Félix Capriles stadium in the city of Cochabamba that night, March 29, 1979, for the Copa Libertadores. Hugo Talavera’s goal at 15 minutes practically eliminated the “aviator” team, although only two matches had been disputed. At that time, only one team per zone advanced to the semifinals. In need of a draw and technically overcome by their rival, the Bolivians began to use force. The game became very violent, and soon the match resembled more a massive boxing melee than a soccer game.
At eleven minutes into the second half, with the score still 0-1, the Bolivians became embroiled in a pitched battle that could only be contained with police force. When peace returned, Brazilian referee José Roberto Wright took the red card out of his pocket to expel a single Olimpia player, forward Enrique Atanasio Villalba, and four Wilstermann men: the defenders Carlos Arias, Miguel Bengolea, and Raúl Navarro and the attacker Juan Sánchez. According to the report, one of the expelled players from Wilstermann had launched “a flying kick, looking for the body of the rival.” The unequal justice rendered by Wright for an “everyone against everyone” fight angered the spectators even more, but the real disaster occurred a few minutes later when, favored by the numerical inferiority of their opponent, Evaristo Isasi scored Olimpia’s second goal.
To avoid a blow out, the coach for the Bolivian team, Roberto Pavisic, ordered one of his men to “get injured,” leaving the team with only six players. Since there were no more substitutions for the decimated Wilstermann, Wright was forced to whistle the end of the match twenty minutes prior to time because the Bolivian club did not have a minimum of seven players required by regulation. The story, however, did not end there.
Hundreds of disgruntled fans invaded the field and ran after the Olimpia players and, mainly, the referee, to gratify their need for revenge for what they considered a tremendous injustice. The police could do little to contain the anger of so many people. Several of Olimpia’s players received unmitigated punching and kicking. Assisted by a handful of policemen, the Paraguayans managed to escape the mob and lock themselves in their dressing room. Wright and his assistants, meanwhile, had to remain in their dressing room for several hours because the stadium had been surrounded by hundreds of outraged spectators. As revealed by Wilstermann midfielder Johnny Villarroel many years later during an interview, the only way Wright would leave the stadium was disguised as a woman. The Brazilian and his collaborators were taken to the city of Oruro more than 125 miles from Cochabamba, because they were told that a crowd of fans was waiting for the referee at the Cochabamba airport.
Because of this incident, CONMEBOL suspended the Felix Capriles stadium for a long time and ejected the five players. Club Jorge Wilstermann played the two remaining games at home in Santa Cruz de la Sierra and La Paz. They lost them, too. Olimpia, meanwhile, went to the next round: they won the group, then the semifinal, and, in the final, lifted the Copa Libertadores after dethroning the Argentine champion, Boca Juniors. Wright, meanwhile, would experience another very dark night in this continental tournament two years later, but that story is still to come.
INOPPORTUNE
What kind of record can a goalkeeper of the Botswana national team have? A very unique one, as it turns out. Goalkeeper Modiri Marumo, who was also the captain of “the zebras,” was the only player ever to receive a red card during a penalty shootout. Crazy, yes, but real. During the Castle Cup played in South Africa in 2003, the Botswana versus Malawi match ended in a 1-1 draw. Referee Mateus Infante from Mozambique called for the game to be decided from the twelve yards. The singular incident occurred after Malawian Philip Nyasulu scored the third goal of the series for his team. Nyasulu approached the defeated Marumo and gave him a pat on the shoulder, which Marumo answered with a blow to Nyasulu’s face. Infante, of course, showed the red card to the goalkeeper for his improper reaction. “I reacted badly; I am committed to make sure this does not happen again. I behaved inappropriately which embarrasses