Liverpool lost on Saturday, but in typical Liverpool fashion they lost to the one team I can’t bring myself to write nice things about… Watford. So instead I’ll be talking about how Crystal Palace made it two wins in two on Saturday with a 1-0 win at the AMEX Stadium against Brighton and Hove Albion. Thanks Liverpool.
Jordan Ayew got the only goal of the game in the 70th minute when Christian Benteke put him through on goal and he keep his composure to slide it under Mathew Ryan and into the back of the net.
That won’t be the talking point however as the altercation between Wilfried Zaha and Ezequiel Schelotto in the first half took center stage. After being called offside Zaha seemed to spit in the direction of Schelotto and the other Brighton dubs warming up on the touch line. Schelotto responded by kicking the ball at Zaha who squared up to the Italian before referee Martin Atkinson calmed things down and booked Schelotto, who was later seen making crybaby jesters from the touchline towards Zaha in an attempt to wind him up.
Kyle Martino said on the NBCSN feed that he’s never before seen the likes of a player being heckled from the sideline and all I could think was “how nice it must have been to play youth soccer in America” because where I grew up this was an every week occurrence. In some cases it was even encouraged.
Now I’m not saying what Schelotto did was in any way correct, even when we did it I wasn’t a fan, but you are playing a competitive sport, wanting to win and if you can gain an advantage from winding an opposition player up then you live by the old motto ‘by any means necessary’.
In some cases the coach would let us know who the danger man was for the opposition, if it was an unfamiliar opponent, and then it was the job of the players not in the starting eleven to find ways of putting him off his game. It certainly wasn’t the ‘everyone gets a medal’ society we live in today.
One thing Martino did get right was Zaha shouldn’t be letting this effect his game, which happens too often to the hit and miss star. He has the talent to let his football do the talking and shut both Schelotto and the Brighton fans up, but continues to let this pettiness effect his game.
FIFA 20 Arsenal Career Mode: Episode 49
He ultimately got the last laugh with a much needed three points for his team and was able to troll Schelotto on Instagram after the game. If that’s what is most important it’s no wonder he never made it at a top club like Manchester United.
