Best goal I've seen in a long while. It was allowed, and was the only goal of the match so set up the win!

OK, 1) that kid is a f***wit for putting the ball on the field

2) that guy that kicked the goal - why does he immediately start celebrating? his s***ty strike was going straight at the keeper, and then it hits the beach ball and he doesn't even stop to think "oh hai guys is that going to be a goal?" I can't believe it was actually allowed!@#

yer that definitely shouldnt have been allowed.

Shouldn't have been allowed, but considering a liverpool fan put it on there, suckers.

As a united fan, that goal made me very happy.

It's a legal goal, even if it came off the ref it would still be allowed.

Damo - you're sorta correct.

The beachball is deemed to be part of the field (like the Ref, goalposts etc, thus play on.

However, as it is also an external obstruction play should have been stopped immediately when the ref saw it and restarted with a drop-ball - even if sunderland is in a goal scoring oppurtunity.

So, conceivably, if the ref didnt notice the ball it is a legal goal.

However, as its a big red beachball in the goal mouth, I think it's a good chance he saw it, and thus play should have stoppped.

total bulls***.

only sunderland and liverpool..second rate teams so who cares.. ahah

fade is correct - the only debatable thing about this is if the ref saw the ball before the incident.

but considering a liverpool fan put it on there,

This was the best bit, i expect he was shortly later beaten by every skinhead around. Especially at the 90min mark.

If he didn't leave early in anticipation of beatings.

fade is correct - the only debatable thing about this is if the ref saw the ball before the incident.

well, I would debate that in modern sport the presence of the '3rd umpire' is basically a necessity, precisely to stop bulls*** outcomes like that. We have the tools and technology now to notify the on-the-field ref of what happened in case he missed it and/or to overrule obviously wrong decisions.

I know people say that "oh it's just part of the game" but there's just no reason for bad decisions in professional sports.

Yeah, 3rd umpire a necessity. And embrace technology already (e.g., goal-line technology to detect if the ball has crossed the goal line, touch lines and so on).

I think tennis and cricket are leading by example with technology. I really love the 'challenge' system in tennis. I know you can't implement that in football, but there are definitely things that would improve football decisions.

Bad decisions and learning to deal with them and get on with the game are a part of professional sport.

The EPL is the fastest pace league in the world - the FA doesn't want to slow it down with use of technology.

I think with 3 (or 4 if you included the fourth official) officials out there, they can bear the brunt of the responsibility.

I'm all for goal line technology, but I'd stop it there.

Wow fpot speaking rationally, something you don't see every day.

http://i37.tinypic.com/2njg5tl.gif

Bad decisions and learning to deal with them and get on with the game are a part of professional sport.

This is very true. As a national level referee I make mistakes from time to time. The guy who just walks away will play the next point with a level head. The guy who blows up and cops a card will unbalance his whole team and then they will implode.

What is the actual soccer rule? In volleyball that would undoubtedly be a replay (or disallowed), some sort of match jury would normally override the referee.

What is the actual soccer rule?

The goal stands.

Law 5 states that the Referee must immediately stop, suspend or abandon play for an outside interference - this beachball qualifies.

It also goes on to state:
The decisions of the referee regarding facts connected with play, including whether or not a goal is scored and the result of the match, are final.

The referee may only change a decision on realising that it is incorrect or, at his
discretion, on the advice of an assistant referee or the fourth official, provided
that he has not restarted play or terminated the match.

lol_me_timbers at that gif python, the expression on the kids face after he swung at the ball is gold.

"HAHA TAKE THA' YOU DIR'Y SUNDERLAND GEEZAH, OH 'ANG ON THA' WAZNT MEANT TO HAPPEN INNIT TOMMIEEEE, FOOKIN'ELL! BULLOCK ME SIDEWAYZ CHAURLIE!!!!! NOOOOOOOO CHAURLIE NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!"

p.s. the beachball almost went in as well. Considering the ref is a dimwit he would've counted that as a goal too.

last edited by MatchFixa at 13:28:15 19/Oct/09

I also love the one where a streaker runs on the field, gets passed the ball and scores.

I also love the one where a streaker runs on the field, gets passed the ball and scores.

I had to search that.



Bloody awesome.

It's a legal goal, even if it came off the ref it would still be allowed.

It isn't actually a legal goal. It should never have been allowed. You can clearly see in the replay that the goal keeper tracks the beach ball instead of the football...

In this day and age a mistake like this from a referee and a linesman is appalling. Surely one of them had to see this. I guess this is just another example why a video referee should be brought into the game (as terrible as it might turn out to be..).

It's a legal goal, even if it came off the ref it would still be allowed.

Thats interesting. I agree time off should have been blown as soon as the ball was noticed. It was quite big. How'd they miss that ?
Soccer is a big sport. Imagine if you had a huge bet on the game.
Do they know who did it ?

Faceman - see the gif above of the kid

I think people are confused. It's not an illegal goal, it's a case that the play should have been stopped to clear the interference (before it even came into contact with the ball).

gave me more points in the fantasy league, so hooray for bent scoring again.

Has a goal ever been disallowed after a game ?
or has a game been declared Void because of something strange like this happening ?

See my earlier post - no.

Laws of the Game are unequivical.

I know you can't implement that in football, but there are definitely things that would improve football decisions.

NFL, NRL, Rugby all use video referees. Challenge system as well.

a simple 1 on 1 penalty shot should have been awarded. Similar circumstances. Though it did look like the keeper had it 100% until it smashed the beachball.

NFL is a joke. Pretty sure nrl and rugby only use video for tries, where there is a break in play anyway.

I know people say that "oh it's just part of the game" but there's just no reason for bad decisions in professional sports.

agree so much with this

A similar thing happened in the UEFA Cup earlier this year with a paper ball on the pitch:

NFL is a joke. Pretty sure nrl and rugby only use video for tries, where there is a break in play anyway.

There aren't that many video challenges in NFL. And when there is they're usually pretty certain of the challenge because it blows their timeouts if they're wrong. Then again they also have enough referees on the pitch to ensure total coverage and the referees are usually pretty good too (as opposed to not noticing a f***ing beach ball on the field).

Didn't the NFL drop video ref? They all use to huddle around the camera an watch for a few mins. Video ref is bad in any sport and having it in football(soccer) will be the worst decision, it's pretty rare for something like this to even happen, hey tend to be spot on with their calls. They need to can it in the nrl as well, worst decision making and even when they have to use it they still get it wrong.

You think paperballs are bad.
I saw a report last week on the ABC on Lateline or 730 report about soccer in China.
They have riots BEFORE the game starts.
They throw bottles on the field and at players.
They cop bottles and other stuff as they leave the field when the game finishes.

Game finishes in the afternoon and theres a riot out the front of the hotel where the team that won are staying and police and soldiers have barricades up to finally let the team bus out lated in the night.

Next week new team visits.

You can watch the report here. its centre of the screen.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/10/16/2715800.htm

last edited by FaceMan at 18:03:20 19/Oct/09

tbh its good it was dealt with this way

otherwise whenever the ball gets into your defensive half, as a supporter you'll just throw crap on the field so the game gets stopped.

I heard on the news before the ref should have declared it no goal.

streaker goal is fake

I'd believe that Spook. It's a fantastic hit of the ball. Not impossible for a girl but certainly unlikely.

Lawls:

Beach Ball Ref Dropped From EPL Duties:
http://au.fourfourtwo.com/news/115057,beach-ball-ref-dropped-from-epl-duties.aspx?r=rss

Didn't the NFL drop video ref? They all use to huddle around the camera an watch for a few mins. Video ref is bad in any sport and having it in football(soccer) will be the worst decision, it's pretty rare for something like this to even happen, hey tend to be spot on with their calls.

Except, say, in this specific case where a beachball came onto the field and resulted in a goal that should never have been awarded?

I really don't think it'll impact the play that much. I'm not saying they should be able to do video replays of every decision; just that there are certain REALLY OBVIOUS incorrect calls that should be able to be overruled by a video ref. The real ref can have a two-way radio and it would take literally seconds for a decision to be made. It's obviously not applicable in every case, but in this one it is.

I like the tennis system too, how the players can appeal bad decisions. It's interesting to see how often they get it right, as well.

poor old roger isn't great at those calls

They've been talking about introducing video refs into the premier league for quite sometime but the argument was that the refs would see that as an insult.... something about questioning their umpiring abilities or some total BS!

Being a Liverpool supporter i'm utterly disappointed that the goal should have been allowed to stand but hey sometimes it happens in sports... unfortunately more often than usual of late... and that's in all codes be it AFL, NRL, NRU, etc.

Read the article that he was demoted to the second division but it doesn't help much as the damage has already been done...

Back to the drawing board for Benitez...

PS for those Man U and other supporters who thought it was amusing ... think about how you'd feel if it was your team that suffered this unlucky incident.

I made a bad call once and the only person who didn't know it was a bad call was me. Everyone stood still and looked at me.

Lucky that everyone was only like 14yo and their parents hadn't been on the grog for long, else i could have been in a world of pain.

:(

I really don't think it'll impact the play that much. I'm not saying they should be able to do video replays of every decision; just that there are certain REALLY OBVIOUS incorrect calls that should be able to be overruled by a video ref.

The problem is you get a perception that there is no reason for a ref to get things wrong when they have a video ref to fall back on. So you often see refs and umpires (in other sports) overuse the technology to make sure they don't make a mistake on even simple calls, and therefore it does end up impacting on the play.

Read the article that he was demoted to the second division but it doesn't help much as the damage has already been done...

The problem is that these decisions have big consequences, they're not just bad calls. For example later at the end of the season if they missed out on a champions league spot by 1-2 points...you could look back at this retarded decision and it could be a 20-30million pound mistake as far as the club is concerned.

I understand that Twisted and completely agree. But there is really nothing that can be done about it now. On top of that Gillet (part owner) is a bloody idiot! Yes you'll have the funds to purchase a decent player ... then turns around and says no sorry instead of a 30million pound budget you have to make do with 2million pounds... get rid of the idiot!

.you could look back at this retarded decision and it could be a 20-30million pound mistake as far as the club is concerned

or one of the million missed opportunities on goal.

I think the only valid call for video ref is when there *MUST* be a stoppage in play eg. a goal or a penalty.

Having any sort of ability for players to stop play would destroy the counter attack.

Besides which it's questionable how useful the tech is. I watched Phil Gould go on a rant about how s*** the video refs in NRL are (One of the storm games in the finals, could have been Brisbane). As long as a "Person" is making a "Judgment" about something there is room for error, technology won't change that. Australia Italy '06 is a great case in point. I am convinced it was a dive but I have seen neutral people argue that Grosso didn't dive, there is a case to be made either way.

Didn't this happen in first 5mins of game.. so liverpool had another 85 mins to scroe a goal and they didn't. If they knew how to play a good game they could have scored a goal or two..