| Harsh red card for Kaka. Referee got suckered. Kaka gets his second yellow card and is tossed from the game and a fight nearly erupts between Brazil and the Ivory Coast. The game got pretty testy on a few different occasions. Twice during the game there were studs up tackles with Elano getting an injury scare on one occasion. The referee lost control of the match in many ways and didn’t protect the Brazilian players.
The saintly Kaka, who I’d guess rarely even gets a yellow card, didn’t deserve the second yellow, as Ivory Coast player Kader Keita made a meal of a Kaka elbow, holding his face and falling down like he’d been shot. Keita ran into Kaka’s elbow and went down, suckering the referee into the second yellow card for Kaka. Kaka, who is known for his ‘Belong to Jesus’ t-shirt, is hardly one to try to hurt somebody. But it looks like there was a subtle little elbow by Kaka to Keita ‘s chest, nothing brutal though. He did put his elbow up but don’t think he tried to throw it back or into Keita. Rather, it look like Keita ran into it and then did an acting job to get Kaka the red. As someone said at the Brazilian restaurant where I watched the game, ‘The Brazilian’s should go after Drogba now, punch him in his arm.’ Fans were justifiably angry at the way the Ivory Coast was playing, with studs up tackles and faking like they got hurt. I thought it was good that Drogba got a goal, as he deserved it since he was playing with a broken arm/elbow. It’s sad though that no African country has really turned up to play at the 2010 World Cup. |