You can’t write anything about this game without discussing the hugely controversial decision in the first few minutes of the game. Song Ui-Young goes in to close down Kodai Tanaka at the touchline and puts in a late tackle that grazes the knee of the BG Pathum player. Kodai goes down, and bounces up almost immediately, and the foul is given. Jansen Foo brandishes the yellow card. They give each other a pat, and then go back to take up their respective positions for a freekick. It is important to note that at this point, no one on Earth, Jansen Foo included, felt that it was worthy of a red card.
While Jansen Foo took most of the heat, it was actually Andrea Verolino who made the bizarre call to send him to the screen. We don’t know what was said, but the fact that this was even considered a red card-worthy incident is baffling — something only a non-footballing mind would entertain. I will elaborate on why I feel so in this piece, so let’s dive right in.
Singapore’s Very Own Myles Lewis-Skelley Incident
Fans of Arsenal or the English Premier League will likely remember this one. Earlier this season, Arsenal made the trip to Wolves, and Michael Oliver gave a red card to Arsenal player Myles Lewis-Skelly (MLS). It was a similarly baffling incident, where everyone in the world except the referee felt it was a red card.
Michael Oliver gave the red card for serious foul play, which is presumably what Jansen and the VAR team thought of Song’s tackle as well. The similarity lies in that both tackles contacted areas of the leg which are usually considered bad tackles. In MLS’s case, it was above the ankle, while for Song’s case, it was on the knee.
Also in both cases, the contact was minimal and definitely unintentional. It was part of a natural motion to make an admittedly illegal challenge. For MLS, he went in to trip the advancing Wolves player, so the intended action was a tripping action by just sticking out the foot to let the player fall. In Song’s case, he’s gone in to try to intercept the pass but was late. His momentum takes his whole body into Kodai, but the majority of the contact is an excessive body impact on the upper body of Kodai, not the incidental studs near the knee. You have to really slow the replay down to even see any contact with the knee.
In the aftermath of the MLS incident against Wolves, there was widespread condemnation of the horrendous decision from pundits and experts all over the world. In the end, Howard Webb, the referees’ chief, was forced to come out and admit that it was an error, and Michael Oliver should have given a yellow card instead.
What is important to note is the reason for it. In Webb’s own words –
“The referee sees a raised foot make high contact and the opponent went down … But we know that for serious foul play, we need excessive force or brutality and what we see here is that high contact [just] glancing and coming off the leg quite quickly … So for that reason, everybody pretty much in the game has formed the same conclusion that this is falling short of serious foul play – because of that glancing contact … because the studs don’t really go right into the leg, they glance in…”
Man – that word for word describes what Song did. And the worst part about this is, you don’t even need a referees’ chief to tell you this. That’s why there was so much anger against Michael Oliver, and so much anger against Jansen Foo at the weekend.
Anyone who’s played football knows that minimal contact outside the foot doesn’t automatically warrant a red. If it did, we’d see sendings-off every week. Context and intent matter, and neither suggested a red here. For a referee and a VAR team not to apply common sense and view the tackle in its proper context, is very disappointing. Kodai’s reaction to the tackle is very telling, by the way.
He goes down, but immediately shrugs it off and exchanges pats with Song. No one on the BG team is baying for a red card. Everyone knows – this isn’t a red card. Well, everyone except Jansen, and the VAR.
Accountability
When players make mistakes, they get dropped from the team. When coaches make mistakes, they get sacked. When SPL referees make mistakes, there is seldom an explanation given, and the referee continues refereeing instead of being demoted to SFL or a lower level. There is a sense that the referees are untouchable.
The abuse Jansen received from the stands, and online, wasn’t the result of one bad performance, however bad it was. It was the accumulation of frustration from years of bad performances. See my article on this from 2023.
Even if the referees department feels that they didn’t make a mistake in this situation, there needs to be an explanation so that all parties can learn from it. Players and coaches need to know what is acceptable and unacceptable conduct so that they can play or plan accordingly. However, there is unlikely to be one.
The PGMOL in England has their flaws as well, but what I like about them is that the audio between the VAR and the referee is released. I think it helps to build trust in our referees, and has the added benefit of allowing the fans to learn more about what is currently a very opaque process.
At the end of the day, this mistake by Jansen and the VAR team didn’t affect our Sailors because we still qualified top of the group, and I suspect because of that, the refereeing department won’t see a need to address this, but they really, really should, for the good of our game.
Does Song Need to Tone it Down?
I have given this question much thought, and honestly I don’t have an answer.
On the one hand, it seems foolish to go in so hard early on, as Song could not have complained if he had been given a yellow card. He did go in quite hard with his body, and his momentum knocked Kodai off his feet. Kodai was already on the touchline, and his backpass was unlikely to cause much trouble for us. Sometimes teams will go in to intimidate their opponents, especially if it’s their best player. You only need to look at how players like Neymar and Vinicius Jr. are treated. Kodai Tanaka though, is an industrious player but not one worth any sort of special attention. Besides being involved in the sending-off incident, his performance was what I’d call a treadmill performance – a lot of running but going nowhere.
I had this to say about Song’s red card earlier this season against Muangthong though.
The problem of course is that referees are human beings as well, and I think perhaps Song’s reputation preceded him here, and subconsciously the referees made this decision because they know Song is a combative, physical player. Do you lose too much of Song as a player if he tones it down though? I don’t know.
A related point is that we always look at players in the SPL doing well, but then on the international stage, sometimes they don’t receive the same protection they do in the league. A good example is Faris Ramli, who for years has looked like one of the best players in our league, especially at winning freekicks. But these freekicks just don’t happen for him when it comes to the Singapore team – international referees are just that bit more tolerant of physical play.
The Rest of the Game
While the refereeing controversy will likely be the biggest talking point from the match, it shouldn’t overshadow the resilience our Sailors showed on the pitch. Despite being a man down for nearly the entire game, the team displayed incredible discipline and even managed to take the lead. Now, let’s turn our focus to the football itself.
Amazingly enough, having been down a man for the whole game, our Sailors did not look troubled until the last 10 minutes of the game. We even took the lead after some stellar work from Abdul Rasaq. Shout-out to the man, he used his body well to leave N’Diaye on the floor, and then without a second thought, he steadied himself and launched a rocket of a shot from far out into the bottom corner. Great goal, and I am just so happy for him after he’s come in for some criticism for his performances both in a Sailors and Singapore shirt.
When we spoke to Nathan Mao after the game, Nathan mentioned that Rasaq often does extra finishing drills after training, so we’re pleased to see it paying off in such fashion.
At the end of the game, BG Pathum perhaps got an equaliser they deserved for their persistent pressure, and they enjoyed it so much they celebrated it like a winning goal. Nothing wrong with celebrating, but I think they forgot that they needed a win to top the table, and they could well have achieved that against 10 men.
Result-wise, a draw suits us fine so I can’t really complain. I thought the team did amazingly, especially considering we fielded a rotated side, and at many points in the game, it even looked like BG Pathum were the team playing with 10 men.
Conclusion
The result sets up a two-legged tie against DPMM, and we will fancy our chances of making it to the final. It’s an exciting month and a half ahead of us and we’re entering the business end of the season. Semi-finals of the Singapore Cup, semi-finals of the ACL2, and entering the final straight for our SPL campaign. There may be twists and turns from here on out, but our Sailors have thus far given us much to shout about this campaign, so let’s give our boys the best support we can, and push for a fruitful end of the season together.
COME ON YOU BOYS IN BLUE!
Written by Eddy Hirono
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