Game 7, 2018-19
I'm back at the club whose name translates as 'Friends of Sport', where in almost four years I've never yet had a sporting or a friendly experience. Where to begin? It was a boys U17 game, with around 30-40 spectators. I'm just going to translate a truncated version of my disciplinary report, seeing as it took me half of Saturday evening to write.
"The first half was played in a fair and peaceful atmosphere, but all this changed in the last 20 minutes of the game when both sides - with the score at 2-2 - sensed that they had a good chance to win. In this increasingly hectic and niggly phase of the game there were six yellow cards and a time penalty due to reckless fouls, unsportsmanlike conduct, and dissent.
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He's got something to say, and he's gonna say it... |
"The coaches remained quiet almost until the final whistle, and indeed from my point of view there had been no controversial decisions. Then, in the 79th. minute [of an 80-minute game], there was a reckless foul by the away team's number 23 against the home team's number 7 right in front of the away bench. The number 23 received a yellow card for the foul.
"Apparently out of nowhere the away team's trainer walked on to the pitch close to where I was supervising the free-kick and started screaming at me. I couldn't exactly work out why he was so aggravated, but I think he was complaining that I had shown a home team player the yellow card twice, without imposing the time penalty (he was wrong - I hadn't). I gave him a double warning - once for entering the field of play without permission, the second for