Stuff/styles you would like to get rid of in our sport?

[pingpongrob]

I might be a little silly here, but what actually happened.

[blue_smartie68]

I might be a little silly here, but what actually happened.

I'm with you Rob... I wasn't sure what was going on either 
Can you tell I'm not a soccer fan?? 

[Peter C]

Don't worry Rob, you're not being silly.

The reason why it's comical is two schoolboy errors made by a professional player, who should know better; resulted in a winning goal and could potentially cost Arsenal a place in the next round of the Champions League; if  they don't win the right result in the second leg.

Here are comments off the Guardian newspaper blog of the game :

52 min: FABIANSKI IS A COMPLETE EEJIT. Porto 2-1 Arsenal. 

Campbell passes the ball back to his keeper, who inexplicably picks the ball up.
That's an indirect free kick.
Of course it is!
Why on earth didn't Fabianski kick clear?!?
And, adding high farce to farce, the keeper then hands the ball back immediately.
Porto take a super-fast free kick, the ball being tapped by Ruben Micael immediately to Falcao, who strokes the ball into an empty net as the keeper and all his defenders stand around like loons.
What a pair of goals Arsenal have conceded tonight.

55 min: Arsene Wenger has a blazing row with the referee on the sideline.
Perhaps he wants to look at his goalkeeping policy first.
"This is the best game Almunia's had all season," suggests Andrew Lunny.

Almunia is Arsenal's first choice goalkeeper, but was out injured; if you're wondering


Porto's opening goal, wasn't exactly a moment Fabianski will wan't to remember either :

11 min: OH DEAR LORD!!! Porto 1-0 Arsenal.
This is a total shambles from Fabianski, who goes down to claim a low right-wing cross by Varela under no pressure whatsoever, but only succeeds in deflecting the ball straight into the net.
I have no idea how he contrived to do that.
The cross was throw-your-cap-on-it stuff.
That was utterly farcical.

Speedplay

The referee: Martin Hansson (Sweden)

Overall I thought he had a reasonable game and you can't blame him for Porto players, making Fabianski and Sol Campbell, look like a pair of mugs; for the winning goal.

[speedplay]

No, I know he can't be blamed, but if you look at the replay of the goal, it is doubtful if Campell actually touched the ball. Still, the blame is on the keeper, what a horrible night for him!

[Der Echte]

I saw the news of this match before I was able to read my news about Bayern winning their C.L. match. It was ROFLMAO stuff for sure. Won't Rob get a little warm we are discussing this here, instead of the Bayern thread?

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Why is it a free kick for the keeper to pick the ball up though? He's allowed to handle the ball inside the square isn't he? I can see that after that point they should have been aware of protecting the quick goal. Surely even if they had stayed with the ref there would have been an offside risk for passing forward to the other player, but more likely the keeper should have run back to goal ball in hand and then thrown it back?

[speedplay]

The goalie is allowed to handle the ball with his hands, but not if the ball is passed back by a member of his own team. Since Campell (defender in Arsenal) touched the ball, the keep should have kicked it clear in stead of picking it up.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

The goalie is allowed to handle the ball with his hands, but not if the ball is passed back by a member of his own team. Since Campell (defender in Arsenal) touched the ball, the keep should have kicked it clear in stead of picking it up.

Really!! Its a long time since I played soccer but I don't remember this rule. I watch a bit of soccer, but not that often these days. I'll have to look out for this more often. Perhaps I've seen them pass back and the keeper not pick it up, just kick back into play, but never thought anything of it. But if thats the case, WHY THE HELL would a pro player do that??? Surely it should never enter his head to do such a thing (and ok this is the reason its funny, but surely it would take a payoff from the opposition or something for him to do that?). Was he sacked?

[speedplay]

The rule is actually quite old, not sure how old, but I would guess at least 10 years old. I think that he hesitates if his player did touch the ball or not, cause at first Campell (the defender) is only shielding the ball from the opposition, then he (might) touch it, which put the goalkeeper in a predicament, as he is prepared to pick it up with his hands. Still, he should realise the risk and simply kick the ball out of the way.

Also, this rule only comes in to play if they use their feet to pass the ball back to the goalie, if the use their head, it is legal for the goalie to pick it up with his hands. The rule was implemented because teams who were leading often passed the goalie, he picked it up, threw it to a defender, who passed it back to the goalie, who once again picked it up, all to waste time.

Also, soccer? Seriously, it is called football in the big world, I thought it was only the weird Americans who called it soccer to differentiate it from their kind of football, the kind where you use your hands a lot more then your feet

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Ah see we have football here...Aussie Rules Football. So Aussies call it Soccer as well to differentiate. And with our football they do use their hands, but the ball is kicked a lot in the game. Not sure if you've seen it or not.

And that rule in regard to wasting time makes a lot of sense.

[pingpongrob]

Aussie Rules Football Promo

[Peter C]

Reb

Here is an explanation of the backpass rule and why it was introduced.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A757433

Nowadays the time wasting tactic, is trying to get the ball into the corner, which is also boring to watch too.

_______________________________________________________

Canada also uses the word Soccer, as they have Canadian Football

It's similar to American Foootball, but they only have 3 downs, instead of 4 and a longer 110 yard pitch.

The bigger pitch and three downs makes it more exciting to watch too, as they run the ball a lot less and they don't try to run as many short plays either.

[speedplay]

I still don't get it,  Aussie, American and Canadian football. Sure, I know about the sports and have a very rough idea of how they are played, but I don't get the idea of calling it football!

Most of the actual play is done with their hands, so why involve the word foot in there?

Further on, a ball is, according to my definition a round object, where as the "ball" used in these sport is anything but round, so the entire name is wrong, they don't use their feet (much) and it isn't played with a ball, yet you guys persist on calling it football and the game that is actually played with the feet, using a ball, is called soccer? Please explain how this makes sense...

[cyber1call]

I still don't get it,  Aussie, American and Canadian football. Sure, I know about the sports and have a very rough idea of how they are played, but I don't get the idea of calling it football!

Most of the actual play is done with their hands, so why involve the word foot in there?

Further on, a ball is, according to my definition a round object, where as the "ball" used in these sport is anything but round, so the entire name is wrong, they don't use their feet (much) and it isn't played with a ball, yet you guys persist on calling it football and the game that is actually played with the feet, using a ball, is called soccer? Please explain how this makes sense...

Blame it on the English who supposedly invented football. The problem was that in England there was Rugby football and the new game called Association football. "Soccer" was slang for the latter. So it's the bloody English themselves who invented the term soccer.   

And I said "supposedly invented football" above because there is good evidence that the Romans played a game similar to rugby called "harpastum." And since the English were once subjects of the Romans I would suppose the game was known on the island since ancient times.

 

 

[speedplay]

I knew the English where to blame, they always mess things up

Lots of countries tries to honour them self for inventing football, but I think it is sort of like the wheel, it was probably invented at multiple places in one way or another.

[Der Echte]

It's all good. The Americans were the first to market Sliced Cheese.

[speedplay]

It's all good. The Americans were the first to market Sliced Cheese.

Yes, Americans have given us loads of useful things, like this:



Only in America people, only in America