Wellington Phoenix head coach Giancarlo Italiano says his side did not deserve a penalty after a challenge from Brisbane Roar’s Walid Shour on Hideki Ishige in the first half of a 1-1 draw at Sky Stadium on Thursday.
Ishige had gone down in the box under contact from Shour, having controlled the ball off his thigh to beat the Roar midfielder to the drop inside Wellington’s attacking penalty area.
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Shour made contact with his right foot high up the leg of Ishige as he attempted to clear the danger and the late challenge led to referee Jack Morgan halting play to review the incident on the pitchside monitor.
But via live VAR comms, Morgan returned to the field of play to give his reason for upholding the original call of no penalty, explaining: “There is contact – it is not a foul. No penalty.”
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Wellington defender Scott Wootton described the incident as a “stonewall penalty” in his post-game interview with Sky Sports, but as Italiano joined the broadcast panel in the aftermath of the 1-1 draw, he explained why he felt the decision not to give a spot kick was the right one.
“This is just my take, without looking at it again,” Italiano began.
“I think when Ishige takes the touch, it’s a heavy touch. So their interpretation is: can he essentially make an action after the contact, right? So it’s a heavy touch. Now, if he had a lighter touch where he could have volleyed on the second, you could make a good argument.
“Look, there is contact. The other way of looking at it is, if that player had put his studs through him regardless of the touch, that’s reckless, that’s a penalty. But I don’t think that’s a pen.”
MATCH REPORT: Wellington held by last-placed Roar as penalty no-call causes Phoenix frustration
Phoenix legend Paul Ifill joined Italiano on the Sky Sports post-game show, where he posed the question to the Wellington coach whether the potential foul on Ishige would be given anywhere else on the pitch other than inside the penalty box.
“100%,” Italiano replied. “But the discretion outside the (box) is less.
“I think it’s a hard one. Players are smart, so they are also looking for those little advantages with contact and so on. The referees are doing a really good job of trying to knuckle down to intent, which is a really hard thing to establish.
“I think their process, it’s harder to prove the case that there’s really a foul. I don’t think that’s a bad thing, I think in the meantime until they get it right 100% – maybe they’ll never get it right – but they have a good process and eventually there’ll be more consistency.”
