Eduardo da Silva broke his left leg Saturday afternoon in the 3rd minute of the Arsenal-Birmingham match. The game ended in a 2-2 draw despite Birmingham being down a man the entire match after Martin Taylor’s unnecessary and ignorant tackle on Arsenal’s newest striker and Croatian international, Eduardo da Silva.
In my opinion, that kind of tackle didn’t have to happen for that situation. They were 3 minutes into the game and Eduardo was in open field. He had full possesion of the ball and the defender wasn’t even beat- it was an ordinary play.
Arsenal manager, Arsene Wenger, is furious over the foul and has called for a permenant ban for Taylor from the Premiership. Wenger states on soccernet.com that “this guy should never play football again! What is he doing on the football pitch?”
Now….where does this put Croatia in terms of Euro 2008?
It’s too early to say anything right now but the initial report is that he will not play again this season for Arsenal. The Premiership runs into May and Euro starts the second week of June. If he is unable to play this will be a huge hit to Croatia’s hopes of a European title. But then, as my fellow colleague, Denis Svirčić, just told me; it could be a ‘blessing in disguise’ as Alen Bokšić injured himself and was unable to play in the ’98 World Cup- but we all know how that turned out. Only time will tell but stay tuned to more indepth reports on the matter- only on the Croatian Soccer Report.
Below is a clip of the Eduardo tackle. What do you guys think?
I completely agree with you!…It just kind of boggles my mind. They were less than 3 minutes into the match, so ‘heat of the moment’ doesn’t describe the scene. I don’t see the motive for the tackle. I’ve seen players in my social-amateur league do this kind of stuff but THIS IS THE PREMIERSHIP. I would suspend Taylor every game until Eduardo can play again. That seems just.
too terrible too watch!!! this foul borders on aggravated assault. Taylor should be suspended for a long time. even worth to think about to make an example of suspending for ever in order to avoid such massive fouls in the future.