drunken_master
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24.298 and counting.......Thats 24 red cards and 297 yellow cards
Another match, another red card, another refereeing controversy.
It's becoming a trend at the World Cup. The record stream of red and yellow cards mounted yesterday, hours after the sport's top official gave his own caution to a referee for being overzealous and inconsistent.
Italy was reduced to 10 men in the 51st minute of the second-round match against Australia when Marco Materazzi was sent off for bringing down Marco Bresciano just outside the penalty area.
That raised the number of red cards to 24 from 53 matches.
The previous mark was 22 from 64 matches in 1998 at France.
The Italians persevered, and in the last seconds of injury time, left back Fabio Grosso beat one defender and went down under a challenge by Lucas Neill almost within touching distance of the goal.
Spanish referee Luis Medina immediately pointed to the penalty spot, under desperate protests from the Australians who claimed that Grosso dived.
The decision, certain to be heavily dissected and debated, stood. Unfazed, Francesco Totti drove a penalty kick past goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer and the Italians won 1-0 to advance to the quarter-finals.
Medina issued the direct red card and six cautions, raising the total of yellow cards to 297 for the tournament, surpassing any previous World Cup.
That was a lot fewer than Valentin Ivanov's record-tying 16 yellow cards and unprecedented four reds handed out in Portugal's 1-0 win over Netherlands the previous night.
FIFA president Sepp Blatter criticized Ivanov's handling in a frank assessment to a Portuguese TV station.
"I think there could have been a yellow card for the referee," Blatter said.
Portugal captain Luis Figo was lucky to escape ejection, getting a yellow card for a skirmish with Mark van Bommel when TV replays clearly showed him head-butting the Dutch player in the 58th minute -- a red card offence.
FIFA communications director Markus Siegler said yesterday that the disciplinary committee would not review the incident because Ivanov had taken action, on the field, on advice from his linesman.
"(Figo) was sanctioned immediately by the referee," he said.
"The referee's report came in (Sunday night) and is being analyzed by the relevant people.
"But it is very unlikely anything will happen as he has been sanctioned already on the spot."
Siegler refused to expand on Blatter's stinging criticism of Ivanov's performance, saying - in German - "you might have seen the FIFA president made a comment. There is nothing more to add."
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