Day -217 WorldCup2018
Day one of some of the best football days: World Cup qualifying playoffs and final round of matches (Africa). These winner take all, loser stay home matches are very often more exciting than many of those at the World Cup.
I can't lie and describe what happened today as all I could see was BBC live text updates. But their reporters do paint a pretty good picture. As Northern Ireland struggled to impose their impressive home form on Switzerland who were pretty spectacular in qualifying but had the misfortune of losing one match, just one, against Portugal, Croatia were coasting against Greece. As I wondered if Northern Ireland would overcome the injustice of the nonexistent penalty, I also wondered if Greece would do what they do and score a late goal to make their almost certain elimination at 1-4 not so definite. Taking a 4-2 loss back to Greece would be more winnable than 1-4. But no they didn't score again and, really, can anybody see Croatia messing this up now?
Back to "that" penalty. By all accounts, and I read a few, Northern Ireland were pretty bad today and the Swiss were the only team that deserved to win. When they scored the penalty it was a goal that "was coming". I also read (and I agree with this but don't want to be accused of taking false credit) that no matter how good the Swiss were they hadn't actually scored a goal. And isn't that the game is all about? Isn't that how you win, by scoring goals? And after the penalty, they still didn't score another goal.
The Irish can feel bad that they didn't play very well but (and again I agree with the many posted opinions) it's pretty hard to take when you don't lose to a wonderful goal scored after an end to end, fluid team move but to a penalty which the whole world seemed to think was not a penalty. At the moment, the BBC reporters mentioned how even the Swiss players didn't claim they should be awarded a penalty.
But there you go. The cruelty of football. All part of the game. The decisions all even out. You have to go with the call. You can't dwell on it, but move on.
In the end Switzerland might have won anyway over the two legs, regardless of that penalty. But it still hurts for those who care.
This is how Colin Murray, BBC's radio commentator, felt at the end:
"Feel free to take the mic out of my hands if I overstep the mark in the next 20 minutes. We talked about history and occasion and how football can be a catalyst for change and for heroes. Yet here we are talking about referees. It's the dark ages. Welcome to the dark ages."
He went on to compare it to the famous Thierry Henry handball against the Republic of Ireland, and how nobody watching on TV today thought it was a penalty.
"Nobody in Switzerland thought it was a penalty. It was shocking. Here's a clue, if the opposing team do not appeal for a penalty and you're standing on the wrong side of the player, it's probably not a penalty.
"There's no point reading out texts or tweets. It'd be like saying text us if you are breathing, if you have a phone. There are no shades of grey with that decision."
Passion. And if you don't understand that, then you have to go back to my Nick Hornby quote from a few days ago about the (irrational, some may say) mind of a football fan.
Day one of some of the best football days: World Cup qualifying playoffs and final round of matches (Africa). These winner take all, loser stay home matches are very often more exciting than many of those at the World Cup.
I can't lie and describe what happened today as all I could see was BBC live text updates. But their reporters do paint a pretty good picture. As Northern Ireland struggled to impose their impressive home form on Switzerland who were pretty spectacular in qualifying but had the misfortune of losing one match, just one, against Portugal, Croatia were coasting against Greece. As I wondered if Northern Ireland would overcome the injustice of the nonexistent penalty, I also wondered if Greece would do what they do and score a late goal to make their almost certain elimination at 1-4 not so definite. Taking a 4-2 loss back to Greece would be more winnable than 1-4. But no they didn't score again and, really, can anybody see Croatia messing this up now?
Back to "that" penalty. By all accounts, and I read a few, Northern Ireland were pretty bad today and the Swiss were the only team that deserved to win. When they scored the penalty it was a goal that "was coming". I also read (and I agree with this but don't want to be accused of taking false credit) that no matter how good the Swiss were they hadn't actually scored a goal. And isn't that the game is all about? Isn't that how you win, by scoring goals? And after the penalty, they still didn't score another goal.
The Irish can feel bad that they didn't play very well but (and again I agree with the many posted opinions) it's pretty hard to take when you don't lose to a wonderful goal scored after an end to end, fluid team move but to a penalty which the whole world seemed to think was not a penalty. At the moment, the BBC reporters mentioned how even the Swiss players didn't claim they should be awarded a penalty.
But there you go. The cruelty of football. All part of the game. The decisions all even out. You have to go with the call. You can't dwell on it, but move on.
In the end Switzerland might have won anyway over the two legs, regardless of that penalty. But it still hurts for those who care.
This is how Colin Murray, BBC's radio commentator, felt at the end:
"Feel free to take the mic out of my hands if I overstep the mark in the next 20 minutes. We talked about history and occasion and how football can be a catalyst for change and for heroes. Yet here we are talking about referees. It's the dark ages. Welcome to the dark ages."
He went on to compare it to the famous Thierry Henry handball against the Republic of Ireland, and how nobody watching on TV today thought it was a penalty.
"Nobody in Switzerland thought it was a penalty. It was shocking. Here's a clue, if the opposing team do not appeal for a penalty and you're standing on the wrong side of the player, it's probably not a penalty.
"There's no point reading out texts or tweets. It'd be like saying text us if you are breathing, if you have a phone. There are no shades of grey with that decision."
Passion. And if you don't understand that, then you have to go back to my Nick Hornby quote from a few days ago about the (irrational, some may say) mind of a football fan.
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