Tonight: UEFA Cup Final

Luis Medina Cantalejo

Tonight the UEFA Cup final will be played between FC Shakhtar Donetsk and Werder Bremen at the Fenerbahçe Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium. The referee is the very experienced Luis Medina Cantalejo from Spain. He was the fourth offical at the FIFA World Cup final 2006 who saw Zidane give Materazzi a head-butt. See here for my earlier post on this very interesting incident and he was involved in several other disputed decisions; see here and here. Lets see how he manages a real final.

Goal-line incident (4): Rangers v. Hibernian in Scottisch Premier League

Gordon Smith

Last week, on 13 may, the Glasgow Rangers played against Hibernian. In the first half the Hibs took a 0-1 lead and in the second half the Rangers seemed to have scored but the goal was correctly denied by referee Martin Cryan. The situation was unclear but Hibernian boss Paatelainen thought it would be a good a idea to install some goal-line technology for these kinds of situations. Read here. The match ended in a 1-1 draw but later on the Scottish Football Association chief executive Gordon Smith also said to be in favour of goal-line technology, his comments are rather interesting:  

Smith said in the Daily Mail: “The issue of goal-line technology was on the agenda at the first International Football Association Board meeting I attended last year. They had done experiments and it looked great.

 ”But as soon as we had a vote on it, right away the four FIFA delegates lined up against it.

“I couldn’t believe it because the system seemed 100% infallible to me. There was a chip placed inside the ball that would only indicate when all of the ball had crossed the line.

“If it’s a goal, it shows up on a watch being worn by the referee. I think officials would be open to that idea.

“In March, I raised the issue again but was told it was on ice. Unfortunately, that’s the end of it until it gets six out of eight votes from the IFA Board – only then can it go forward.

“There is no way we can bring it in ourselves, even if we wanted to, because the IFA Board is responsible for setting football’s laws.” Read here. For the video:

Unjust goal (1): Hand Of God

hand of god

This is a world famous goal that doesn’t really need any introduction but here we go. On 22 june 1986 Argentina played England in the quarter-final of the Fifa World Cup in Mexico. Diego Maradona scored in the 51th and the 54th minute both goals are historical and Argentina won the match (2-1).  The first goal is the ‘Hand of God’-goal and the second is considered ‘the goal of the century’. Check the video’s of both goals:

Unjust penalty (1): Feyenoord v. Roda JC in Dutch ‘Eredivisie’

Kah

In the last round of the Dutch competition Feyenoord played against Roda JC. This match was esspesially important for Roda JC because they needed a win to prevent direct degradation. In the second half Roda JC had an easy 1-3 lead but the referee decided to make the match more exciting by giving a penalty to Feyenoord. Television images clearly show that Hofland, a Feyenoord player, touched the ball with his hand in the box but the referee gave Feyenoord a penalty because he thought Roda JC player Kah touched the ball with his hand. Check the video:

Unjust red card (2): Bahrain v. Japan in Asian Cup 2004

Endo

In the last minutes of the first half, with Bahrain at a 1-0 lead, the referee gave Yasuhito Endo from Japan an unjust red card in the semi-final of the Asian Cup 2004. Japan won the match in extra time (3-4) and Japan supposedly had to do with a hostile and unfair football environment with shady dealings throughout the tournament. Read here. The tournament, held in China, was nevertheless won by Japan. To see some great Bahrainian acting skills:

Unjust red card (1): Real Valladolid’s Inaki Bea against Villareal

Bea

Unjust red cards are a source of unfairness in football. We can all remember the unjust red card given to Barcelona’s Abidal against Chelsea in the Champions League semi-final. See here. An unjust red card is not only directly unfair in a match but also indirectly because after the match a team or player normally can’t appeal against it due to Fifa-rulings. In the match between Real Valladolid and Villareal in the Premira Division on 19 april 2009, Inaki Bea got send off for a challenges and Villareal got a penalty because of it. The referee was wrong with these decisions because Bea didn’t make a foul. Luckily Villareal missed the penalty and the match finished in a 0-0 draw. Video of the challenge:

Offside-goal (3): Flamengo v. Friburguense, Carioca 1 div

Friburguense

In the Carioca 1 div (competition within the state of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil) a match was played between Flamengo and Friburguense on 25 january 2009. Just after the start of the second half Friburguense scored a goal but it was denied because of a completely wrong offside decision by the assistent-referee. Three players and the keeper were in front of the player who was given offside. Ten minutes later Juan Maldonado Jaimez Junior scored the winning 1-0 goal for Flamengo. This didn’t make the Friburguense fans happy. The offside-goal reminded me somewhat of the denied goal by Suarez for Ajax against Heracles. See here. For the video of the denied goal of Friburguense:

Offside-goal (2): Romania v. Italy, Euro 2008

Luca Toni

In the Euro 2008 Uefa European Football Championship in Austria and Switzerland Romania played Italy in Group C. The match ended in a draw (1-1) and the referee was Tom Henning Ovrebo. In the fist half of the match Luca Toni scored for Italy but the goal was denied because the assistent-referee flagged for offside. This was a wrong call, as can be seen in the video:

Goal-line technology system and Hawkeye

goal-line technology

Besides Hawkeye, what is in use in several sports, other techical appliances are available. Read here in German about the Goal-line Technology system. My opinion is that this system will be outdated before it comes to use. Hawkeye has more options. To prevent goal-line incidents (see here, here or here)  it makes a three dimensional image of the situation around the goalpost and can determine or a ball passes the goal-line. I think it is very likely that this system is also appliable on offside-situations. Video of hawkeye and Goal-line technology system:

Offside goal (1): Siena v. Inter Milan

Maicon

I guess this will also be an interesting category for my website: the offside goal. I’ll kick off with a goal in the Italian serie A between Siena and Inter Milan in december 2008. Maicon was, as the video shows, clearly in offside position when he got the ball. Mourinho was happy because this was the winning 1-2 goal for Inter Milan. Without these two extra points Inter Milan would still be in lead of the serie A but the lead would only be 5 point instead of 7 points from AC Milan with just three matches to go. For the video: