Says Soccernet: Van Nistelrooy stars in Real Madrid victory

No he didn’t. He was mostly useless, looking out of touch with his teammates and generally lost in the shuffle. He’s a great player and he’s trying to find his groove with a new team, so I’m not dogging him. But last night he didn’t do anything I couldn’t have done. He hit a penalty (well struck, despite the fact that the keeper was diving the wrong way) and that was about it.

But the Soccernet header says he starred. It also says that:

The match turned ugly after 58 minutes when Atiba Harris was sent-off for a reckless lunge at Spain international Sergio Ramos.

A melee involving several players ensued and when the dust had settled Harris was shown a red card.

Well, it was a nasty tackle, well worthy of the straight red. But there was no “melee.” There was a little pushing and shoving involving two or three players, but I’ve seen worse dust-ups on AARP Night at the Golden Corral.

So this means one of two things. Either the person writing the story didn’t see the match or he/she has very little clue about the game of futbol. Erroneous sports wraps may be quite common – I’d have to read all the stories and see all the games to know for sure. And it’s hardly as tragic as bad reporting on international affairs, science and social research, or education.

But hell. The game was on national TV, and if I can’t count on you to get the easy stuff right, what can I trust you with?

:xpost: