Morning Ticker: Jamaica hires Barnes, Colombia fires Pinto and Ferguson sees red

So who is this man pretending to be a seal? It is none other than Liverpool legend John Barnes, who has just been hired to take over as manager of the Jamaican national team.

Barnes takes over for fired head coach Rene Simoes, who presided over a pair of World Cup qualifying losses to Mexico and Honduras last week. Former Jamaican national team standout Theodore Whitmore will serve as interim coach for the team's upcoming qualifiers in October, but Barnes will take over in November.

Born and raised in Jamaica before moving to England in his teens, Barnes starred for Liverpool as well as the England national team. His coaching resume consists of one unsuccessful year in charge of Glasgow Celtic.

Jamaica is currently in a tie for third place in its World Cup qualifying group with Canada. Both teams have one point and are five points back of Honduras for second place in CONCACAF Group B. Mexico leads the group with nine points.

Colombia fires Pinto

What a difference a month makes. Colombia entered September unbeaten in World Cup qualifying and looking like a strong candidate to make a run at a 2010 World Cup berth. Two losses later, the Colombian national team is one spot out of qualifying range and introducing a new coach.

Colombia fired head coach Jorge Luis Pinto on Tuesday, appointing former youth team coach Eduardo Lara as his replacement.

Colombia recently suffered a pair of shutout losses, 1-0 to Uruguay and an embarrassing 4-0 drubbing against Chile, to drop out of the qualifying zone. The top four teams in CONMEBOL qualify for the World Cup, with the fifth-place team playing the fourth-place team from CONCACAF for another spot. Colombia is currently in sixth place in CONMEBOL qualifying.

Ferguson irate over lifting of Terry suspension

As you probably expected, Manchester United manager Alex Ferguson is not too happy that Chelsea captain John Terry had a red card and three-match suspension overturned ahead of Chelsea's clash against Manchester United this weekend.

Manchester United will be without star defender Nemanja Vidic, who drew two yellow cards in the team's 2-1 loss to Liverpool on Saturday.

Share your thoughts on these stories, and any other stories from the morning, in the comments section below.

Comments

[RK]

Columbia is lucky to not be in last 4 GF, 7 GA. Yup, 4 goals in 8 games. Their away form seems to be in the shape of a parked bus.

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/tables?cc=5901&league=fifa.worldq.conmebol

[Mig]

Maybe not a bad move for Colombia at this time. There is room to move up for them and better to do it now than later. I can't say that Pinto did a poor job though. Almost midway thru and his team still had a good shot of qualifying.

Good break for Chelsea on Terry's suspension. It wasn't a straight red and Sir Red Nose's pissiness over the thing is kind of amusing. Greatly looking forward the game this week between these two.

[EDB]

4 goals in 8 games.. sounds like the fire.. but the hammer is still around =/

[randall]

now its time to see how big phil is really going to work out at chelsea- hes going to have to seriously step up his whining game to keep pace with the other "big four" managers.

[CanadaMan]

So when's Canada gonna fire their head coach?

[Kartik]

John Barnes is a good hire......3 games to get 9 points though is a bit much to ask of anyone however.

[dazedyankee]

When will the US fire their coach and hire someone who is can actually coach a team???

[doug]

JOHN BARNES!!! Growing up watching him play with my team, Liverpool, he is opne of the most underrated English players of his generation. Also he and John Stockton wshare the title of shortest games shorts EVER.

[Al17]

It's about time Jamaica brought John Barnes on as a manager. I know this is something he's wanted for a long time. It will be interesting to see if Jamaica can get out of that group when you look at the talent both Honduras and Mexico has. I hope this is a long term hire for Jamaica. There's plenty of talent on the island but the program needs to be changed in a very aggressive manner to develop it.

[Chris]

Jamaica's problem isn't the coach. Hiring John Barnes is like putting lipstick on a pig in Alaska.

[undrafted]

Glasgow Celtic?

Are you going to start using London Arsenal from now on too?

[brett]

dazedyankee- >.<

[Tom]

"Hiring John Barnes is like putting lipstick on a pig in Alaska."

Or like copying your autobiography from an Englishman.

[Alex]

I think Terry's red card was totally deserved. I think it's really dumb that it's been overturned.

[kpugs]

I'm torn on the John Terry thing, and it has nothing to do with my United bias.

Here's the thing: sure, Carvalho was in the process of sprinting back to cover Jo in case he got by Terry. But Carvalho was BARELY behind the ball and still about 10 yards away at the minimum. Therefore Terry was truly the last defender WHEN THE FOUL WAS COMMITTED.

That makes the referee's decision correct, and means that the FA has decided to predict the future in rescinding the red card. Not that I'd expect anything less than pure hypocrisy from the FA (I've seen them add additional matches to a suspension when the card should have been rescinded), but how do they know Carvalho would not have tripped and fallen down or something like that?

That is what the rules are for. The worst part is that in my opinion they made the CORRECT decision. But that is just my opinion, and their decision is flaunting the rules of the game and is only going to cause them more problems in the future. They are a bunch of morons. They say how important the rules are, but then throw them right out the window whenever they please.

[kswiss]

Though I'm a fan of Man U and Sir Alex, I have to admit that it was a ridiculous red card on Terry. Yellow card, sure, but it was never a red for "serious foul play" as the ref said. That being said, I'd be upset too if I found out that I now had to face the guy whose missed PK won us the Champions League final. Terry should be out for retribution, and things just got a bit more interesting for Saturday.

[kswiss]

kpugs: I just wanted to point out that the red card was given for serious foul play, not a professional foul. Therefore it didn't matter whether he was the last defender when the foul was committed. The FA decided the foul wasn't serious enough for a red card, and were not trying to predict the future of the play. I'm not trying to defend them in general, but I happen to agree in this instance.

[Mig]

kpugs: good points, actually. I have a Chelsea bias so it's actually rare for us to agree on anything. :)

I think it should not have been a red card, because the interpretation is supposed to be a) defender behind the ball and b) providing defensive cover. I believe that Carvalho had both points covered. HOWEVER, I'm not so sure that overturning it was entirely correct either because it IS a judgment call.

What I worry about here is that what happens when yellow cards are appealed to avoid an accumulation-based suspension. This could get a little carried away.

I'm actually torn on the topic while believing that the right answer was come to eventually, I'm not sure I like the process or implications.

[Mig]

Good point, Kswiss....Halsey did "refine" his justification for the red card in his match report.

FYI, I'm not such a Chelsea fan that I don't realize that Terry is a bit of thug. :) In this instance, that surely ain't "Serious Foul Play" though.

[kswiss]

Thanks Mig. I definitely see your point, though, that it's difficult to justify overturning a judgement call. I believe they got it right in this case, but the FA will have to be careful not to make a habit out of it. It's definitely a slippery slope, like you mentioned.

[Larry]

Whether or not the card on Terry was right or wrong is irrelevant. The ref judged it to be Serious Foul Play, an offense that warrants a red card. That was the ref's opinion and he is the sole arbiter of the game. To say that he was wrong is to introduce post hoc refereeing by some authority who was not on the field, who used different information than available to the ref and who, seemingly, knows more about the game than the ref who was there. I think this decision by the FA undermines all referees who serve the game to the best of their ability and only makes it more likely that play will become more John Terry-like (that is, incredibly cynical).

[BJR]

Will they also start giving back goals that were called back because of erroneous offsides calls?

[James]

Lifting the Terry ban is nothing compared to the mess that's been made over Danny Guthrie. He tried to injure Fagan, missed and then went back a second time and succeeded in breaking his leg. And to miss only 3 games for an assault he'd be jailed for if it occurred on the street is a total embarassment to the FA.

[mig]

Yes, Larry I agree it can be a problem but post-hoc refereeing is indeed part of the rules. The ref's opinion is not the "sole arbiter of the game". They have an appeal mechanism and its existence clearly indicates that there is a process for review of those decisions.

So, while I think we agree that it should not be overused, the process for appeal is there for a reason.

[mig]

@James: you ain't kidding there. Guthrie's actions were just plain violence.

[A.S.]

If the referee claims that Terry's foul was "Serious Foul Play", rather than preventing a goal scoring opportunity, then I don't see any possible way that the card could be correct. The foul was not dangerous in the least. And "Serious Foul Play" cards are given for plays that use "excessive force or brutality" or which "endangers the safety of an opponent" (See Rule 12 and the interpretations in FIFA's rule book). Terry's foul was nothing like that - it wasn't brutal and it didn't endanger anybody. It was a typical cynical professional foul. That's a yellow card - and only a red card if it prevents an obvious goal scoring opportunity. Since the referee is NOT claiming that the foul prevented a clear goal scoring opportunity, I don't see how the red card can stand.

[kco]

Chelsea captain John Terry had a red card and three-match suspension overturned ahead of Chelsea's clash against Manchester United this weekend.

In other minor league news, witchcraft in African football?

[Richard]

I am excited that Jamaica decided to hire Barnes. But they still have a tough mountain to climb. Simoes screwed up, he relied heavily on younger players, this strategy could have worked if he was hired before the "Worst Coach Ever" (Bora). I hope Theo can hold down the fort until Barnes arrives, and I hope to see my Jamaica in 2010.

[Larry Y]

Any chance of Juan Pablo Angel called up for the Colombian national team?

[MetroStars Fan]

Good for John Barnes. Who cares about Colombia? John Terry is a wanker and deserved red. Bob Bradley still sucks as a coach and I hate the fact that the US has breathing room now. Bradley makes me want scratch my eyes out.

[martha in miami]

Viva Colomia! Yep, they were so exciting and then, not so much. If I were a nat. team coach, dont think Id bother to unpack my suitcase! Doubt it for JPA but you never know, a good bye tribute like Blanco had would be appreciated.

[martha in miami]

Dear Metrostars Fan, I do!...and the other 400,000 living down here! Dont get mad at me cuz I am Metro since day 1/Fusion/back to Metro/Redbulls diehard! Thanks for covering it Ives.

[martha in miami]

and p.s. which country has sent the most intl. players and head/ asst. coaches in history, to the MLS? whom in my opinion are the best quality overall...you guessed it...from Valderrama to JPA, and Zambrano to JCO!

[martha in miami]

oops, umm...Zambrano is actually from Ecuador, so strike that from the record, and really, who googles before posting, lol!...but anyway my arguement still speaks for itself, so to speak!

[Will]

Terry should absolutely be suspended, unless the red card is overturned. Either way, the decision must be made before the next league match (ideally before the next team match, but it's a league red, so the league match will do).

Itchy trigger fingers galore in World Cup Qualifiers. Yet Canada keeps its ineffective coach. Go figure.