Matchweek Moments: Third Time’s The Charm
By Ian Katan
Newly-promoted Fulham visited West Ham’s London Stadium this past Sunday, and the two played to a 3-1 victory for West Ham in a game many might have skipped over.
Manager Marco Silva had the Cottagers sitting comfortably in ninth place, four points ahead of their opponents. The Hammers aren’t enjoying their strongest start to the season after losing their opening three games but have since climbed back up to midtable thanks to Declan Rice, Jarod Bowen, new striker Gianluca Scamacca and other key players finding their footing. Despite Fulham’s capable start, David Moyes and West Ham would expect not to be troubled too greatly.
After Andreas Pereira opened the scoring with a great finish into the roof of the net off a counterattack led by Neeskens Kebano, Fulham must have felt they were on their way to another victory over an established Premier League club.
Twenty minutes later, Pereira was at the heart of the action again. As Jarod Bowen lined up a corner kick for West Ham, referee Chris Kavanagh stopped play to separate Pereira and Craig Dawson. Pereira’s open arms claimed he wasn’t impeding Dawson, but Kavanagh saw through the act. Periera received yet another warning before the corner as he continued to jockey in front of Dawson’s run, and when the corner finally flew in, Dawson was on the ground.
Commentator Tony Jones labeled Pereira’s play “absolute stupidity” and it was exactly that. Being warned not once but twice by Kavanagh to stop impeding Dawson did not stop Pereira from thinking he was in the right. There was no third warning and a penalty was awarded instead.
Impending an opponent can be a difficult and subjective decision for a referee, but Pereira made the call easy. Squaring his body away from the ball, fake staring at the ground in a meager attempt to show he wasn’t focused on Dawson, and arms extended out as blockers all worked against him. He argued that because his arms were straight and not actually pointed at the player, he couldn’t be impeding. How wrong he was. Kavanagh wasted no time making one of the easiest penalty calls of the season.
Craig Dawson certainly played his part in making the decision possible. An experienced 32 year old center back who made his League Two debut in 2009 and has worked his way up in the years since, Dawson knew exactly what he had to do. Any contact by Periera after being warned twice to keep his arms down would be called, and although Pereira can be seen nearly hugging Dawson when the corner comes, the slightest of contact and the 6 foot 2 inch defender would have fallen like a feather. It can be argued Dawson did his part to cause the contact, but after two warnings Pereira should have taken care and stepped back.
Jarod Bowen scored the resulting penalty and West Ham went on to win 3-1 after a contentious but correct no-handball call on Gianluca Scamacca’s lovely finish and Michail Antonio added insult to injury by forcing the ball home in stoppage time after a big mistake by a Fulham center back. What could have been for Fulham if not for Pereira’s unwillingness to listen?
The game of soccer is dangerous in that no matter how well one may play, it only takes one moment of foolishness to tarnish whatever good they caused. Sometimes players are at the center of attention for the wrong reasons, like Ethan Pinnock for Brentford in their 5-1 loss to Newcastle the day before. After an already poor showing by the Bees, Pinnock severely underweighted a pass back to his goalkeeper that a Newcastle forward pounced on, and then scored an own goal while attempting to prevent the fifth.
However, the sympathy for players like Pinnock who simply had a rough day should not be extended to Pereira’s case. Rarely do players get an opportunity to prevent giving up a penalty, let alone two. Fulham have four games against mid-table teams coming up, and Pereira will have to work hard to make up the points he cost the team this week.