All said and done, lets us talk about Bahrain's disallowed goal.
In general we are pleased with the result and I went along with the mood although deep inside I wanted Bahrain to put up a good show simply so Asia would not be given a bad name. Beside that I thought they played fairly well.
Anyway, back to the goal. There are two points I want to make here:
Point 1:
From what I heard the commentator say and the picture I saw (remember that the stream had been changed to Romania vs Nigeria at this time), to me it seemed a perfectly legitimate and allowable goal. The player did not foul the keeper by touching him, did not take the ball out of the keeper's hands and did not prevent the keeper from taking a free kick.
It all goes to show that it was a perfectly legal challenge and the goal should have been allowed. There are many examples of this kind of play with film clips to prove that it is legal.
This brings me to my second point:
Uzbekistan had a penalty disallowed and the referee awarded a free to Bahrain instead of making Uzbekistan take the penalty again. Due to this mistake the Uzbeks had to forfeit that win and replay the game. We know the outcome of this. Although you cannot blame Bahrain here as they had nothing to do with it. It was the referee and FIFA that were at fault.
Bahrain went on to win the tie and go to the second playoff set of games, a set that we all felt should have involved Uzbekistan and TnT. Anyway, with the score tied at 1-1 with Bahrain having an away goal in the first leg, it seemed more or less certain that they would qualify, a situation that had the Bahraini people celebrating a few days before the second leg was played. They were so certain of qualifying that it seemed the return leg was just a formality (of course TnT had other ideas
).
Anyway, with all that happened including the spectators sitting in the stadium with Saudi flags waiting to wave it at Iranians to goad us again, was it not poetic justice at what happened although Bahrain was not at fault in this instance?
As DD said in another thread, what goes round, comes round. The Bahraini hopes were built to a crescendo only to be so cruelly dashed especially with a fully legitimate goal that was so poetically disallowed.
That to me is revenge. Cold, calm and enjoyable revenge from a small nation half way across the globe.
We were avenged (so many times already) and the Uzbeks were avenged. Now let them cry their eyes out. Who cares? Not me
In general we are pleased with the result and I went along with the mood although deep inside I wanted Bahrain to put up a good show simply so Asia would not be given a bad name. Beside that I thought they played fairly well.
Anyway, back to the goal. There are two points I want to make here:
Point 1:
From what I heard the commentator say and the picture I saw (remember that the stream had been changed to Romania vs Nigeria at this time), to me it seemed a perfectly legitimate and allowable goal. The player did not foul the keeper by touching him, did not take the ball out of the keeper's hands and did not prevent the keeper from taking a free kick.
- The goalkeeper when in play is considered the same as any other player. When the ball has left his hands and is no longer in contact with him physically, it is considered to be in open play.
- The goalkeeper was not touched or fouled so the Bahraini player was quite correct in tackling the keeper to take the ball away. All legal moves in football.
- The ball was in open play and it was not a dead ball situation for the Bahraini player to prevent the keeper from taking a free kick.
It all goes to show that it was a perfectly legal challenge and the goal should have been allowed. There are many examples of this kind of play with film clips to prove that it is legal.
This brings me to my second point:
Uzbekistan had a penalty disallowed and the referee awarded a free to Bahrain instead of making Uzbekistan take the penalty again. Due to this mistake the Uzbeks had to forfeit that win and replay the game. We know the outcome of this. Although you cannot blame Bahrain here as they had nothing to do with it. It was the referee and FIFA that were at fault.
Bahrain went on to win the tie and go to the second playoff set of games, a set that we all felt should have involved Uzbekistan and TnT. Anyway, with the score tied at 1-1 with Bahrain having an away goal in the first leg, it seemed more or less certain that they would qualify, a situation that had the Bahraini people celebrating a few days before the second leg was played. They were so certain of qualifying that it seemed the return leg was just a formality (of course TnT had other ideas
). Anyway, with all that happened including the spectators sitting in the stadium with Saudi flags waiting to wave it at Iranians to goad us again, was it not poetic justice at what happened although Bahrain was not at fault in this instance?
As DD said in another thread, what goes round, comes round. The Bahraini hopes were built to a crescendo only to be so cruelly dashed especially with a fully legitimate goal that was so poetically disallowed.
That to me is revenge. Cold, calm and enjoyable revenge from a small nation half way across the globe.
We were avenged (so many times already) and the Uzbeks were avenged. Now let them cry their eyes out. Who cares? Not me
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