[/quote]
Saying it's "politics" is just a nicer way of saying the same thing. NZ was shafted by OFC for no logical reason other than resentment and now we have 10 players on yellow cards and facing a card-happy Hungarian referee in a hot house Azteca. You can bet there'll be two or three yellows for the AWs and they are out of the return leg in Wellington. These include Smith, Vicelich, Wood, McGlinchey, Bertos, Brockie and Fallon. The only option is to pull our tackles but legs and lungs are going to be stretched to the limit and timing will suffer.
Oceania have done us no favours as the most likely representative for a World Cup place, dress it up how you like.
Funny how people don't read an original post properly and then someone else's misinterpretation of a post gets taken as factual.
Several people have been posting that the ref for Thursday is "card-happy" ans it's become taken as factual...
My original post on the refereeing appointments points out that there are different refs for each leg:
(1) Relax!!! The Hungarian ref for Thursday, Viktor Kassai is not particularly card-happy and is the same ref we had in the away leg v Bahrain in 2009.
See his details: very experienced ref of 2011 UEFA Champions League Final, 2010 Spain v Germany World Cup 2010 semi etc.:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Viktor_Kassai
(2) The ref for the second leg in Wellington, German Felix Brych, has been a little card-happy in UEFA World Cup qualifiers recently
and has become known as the notorious "phantom goal referee" after he attracted worldwide attention after allowing the "goal that never was" in the Bundesliga a couple of weeks ago:
http://www.sandiegored.com/noticias/45526/Phantom-goal-referee-to-officiate-New-Zealand-vs-Mexico/
That "phantom goal" Brych allowed that clearly never was Leverkusen v Hoffenheim:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3CLrTOcDa0
As long as he allows us a dodgy goal or two, bring it on !!!!
He's dished out a few reds in recent World Cup qualifiers:
| WC Qualifiers Europe 2012/2013 - Appearances as Referee | |||||||
|
Spain |
- |
France |
1:1 |
Yellows= 3 | |||
| 06/09/2013 | Serbia | - | Croatia | 1:1 | Yellows = 6 | Reds = 1 | |
| 11/10/2013 | Armenia | - | Bulgaria | 2:1 | Yellows = 3 | Reds = 1 |
Brych refereed the uncontroversial first leg of the Ireland v France play-off for World cup 2010 on 14/11/09
(It was after the second leg Thierry Henry admitted to handling the ball into the net but Brych wasn't the ref for that game).