Unforgettable Soccer. Luciano Wernicke
players, the referee gave the order and started a ridiculous match of Vale against…nobody! John McDougall, the captain, moved forward and played the ball with James Baird and Peter McGregor until he buried it in the empty goal. The ref—perhaps embarrassed by the unnecessary show—ended the charade, and Alexandria’s team lifted the cup for the second time. In the insert added to the base of the trophy, where all the champions are listed, it was written: “Vale of Leven, Rangers did not appear.”
FELL FROM THE SKY
A soccer match is an excellent target for advertising campaigns, both commercial and political. The massive competition and the vast variety of spectators make the stadium an important focus for marketing. This was understood perfectly by an intrepid promoter, who, on March 21, 1948, after boarding a plane, flew over the Gemeentelijk Parkstadion where the local team, Koninklijke Boom FC, and Beerschot Antwerpen Club were playing for the first division tournament of Belgium. The pilot, who had loaded the device with advertising flyers, descended, took a package, and threw it through the window to one of the bleachers. The pages dispersed, forming a colorful cloud that caught the attention of the fans, who stretched to grab one of the color papers raining down on them. A major success!
Encouraged by the excellent reception of his strategy, the skilled pilot pointed the nose of his aircraft to the other side of the stadium to repeat the maneuver. But he made an error, and this time, the package did not open and instead fell directly on the head of the referee. In that same moment, Boom FC scored a goal! While the pilot fled, aware that he had made a big mistake, the players and the line judges attended to the referee, who recovered from the knock, luckily, without any major consequences. The referee validated the goal at the request of his collaborators, since he had not seen it, and the game continued as normal. The host club finally lost by 3 to 4, a defeat that seemed to fall straight from the sky.
THE DOG THAT SCORED A GOAL
It is hard to believe this story, although several prestigious English newspapers, such as The Independent, swear it is true. In November 1985, the Knave of Clubs FC and Newcastle Town FC faced each other in Monks Neil Park for the Staffordshire Sunday Cup. With the score an unfavorable 0-2, one of Knave of Clubs’ defenders sent a ball down the opposite field in attempt to pass to one of his teammates in white. The ball did not reach any of the players, however, because, at that moment, a naughty dog had strolled on to the field. The dog ran the ball and, with a nice pirouette, headed it inside the net past a dumbfounded goalkeeper. Then the daring dog fled the field as fast as he could, accompanied by the laughter of the 22 players, the referees, and a handful of spectators.
The laughter did not last long for some of the players, though, because the referee, clearly ignorant of the rules, declared the goal valid. According to the regulations, “in the event that an additional ball, object or animal enters the field of play during the game, the referee shall interrupt the game only if said ball, object or animal interferes in the game.” Of little use were the protests of the Newcastle Town’s players, especially the goalie, who insisted on telling the ref that he had let the animal do as he wished because such action was not explicit in the law. “Exactly,” the referee said, “in the Football Association’s regulations, no reference is made to any dog.” Faced with the foolish decision of the judge, the ill-treated players of Newcastle decided to return to the game. Despite the referee and the unusual goal, the victims of the dog’s antics finally achieved an irrefutable victory, winning 3 to 2.
CONFLICT
When players protest a penalty, they usually get right up in the referee’s face—so close that they are practically nose to nose. This scene is so common in matches that when Romanian Remus Danalache protested a bit differently, his method was shared worldwide for its originality.
On October 16, 2011, during a heated match between FC Petrolul Ploieşti and Clubul Sportiv Universitar Voinţa Sibiu in the Romanian First Division, the visiting players wanted to grill the referee Andrei Chivulete alive. They blamed him for their 3-1 partial defeat. They also accused him of unjustly ejecting Claudiu Bunea from the pitch at the 30th minute and goalkeeper Bogdan Miron at the 48th. It was the last straw for the boys from Vointa when, during the 90th minute, Chivulete sanctioned a non-existent penalty for Petrolul. Eight of the players from Vointa protested ardently, going straight into the face of the referee. Substitute goalkeeper Remus Danalache, the ninth remaining player on the field, however, chose to turn his back on the situation…literally. Danalache, who had entered the fray to replace Rares Forika after Miron’s red card, decided to protest the ref’s performance in a very original way: He faced the shot from the 12-yard spot with his back to the kicker! Consequently, Daniel Oprita, who had already scored twice that afternoon, sent the ball to the back of the net while the goalkeeper remained motionless.
Chivulete, inexplicably, because the goalkeeper was correctly standing on the goal line, invalidated the goal, ordered the shot to be taken again, and warned Danalache with a yellow card. Oprita returned to the penalty spot and converted to put the score 4-1. The goalkeeper remained motionless, although this time he faced the kicker. At the end of the match, Danalache explained to the press that his original position had been agreed on by his teammates and coach, Alexandru Pelici. Impressed by the surprising behavior of the goalkeeper, the Petrolul fans bid farewell to the rival players with applause and cheers. Chivulete, however, received no such acknowledgment. According to the sports newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor, the referee was suspended for six months due to several serious errors, including having ordered the repetition of the penalty “back.”
A FIERCE STORM
It’s happened to all of us, an untimely internal, bothersome cramp that becomes annoying until finally becoming unbearable. When this happens, you can’t move, much less play soccer. On April 12, 1999, Fabián Binzugna, goalkeeper for Deportivo Morón, asked the referee Rubén Favale to temporarily suspend the match against CSD Defensa y Justicia for the B Nacional (Argentina’s Second Division) because his intestinal cramping was unrelenting. At 25 minutes into the second half, the western club of greater Buenos Aires had already made the three changes allowed, and the nearest toilet was in the locker room, about a hundred yards from the goal of the desperate Binzugna. “If you have to go to the bathroom, we’ll wait for you, you are the goalkeeper,” explained Favale, sympathetic to the goalkeeper’s torment. The game stopped, but not the goalkeeper’s feet, which carried him swiftly to the bathroom.
On the way to the locker room, Binzugna was assisted by the team’s physical trainer, who helped him remove his gloves and jersey. But the pain wasn’t receding. Binzugna then discovered with dread that the three toilets in the locker room were occupied by those who gone off the field minutes before: the defenders Gonzalo Martínez and Luciano Kirokián and striker Fernando Rodríguez—all experiencing similar intestinal cramping.
Upon learning of the urgency of the situation, Rodriguez, the least in trouble, got out of the way for Binzugna, who quickly “got rid” of the problem and returned to the pitch. Feeling better, the goalie explained at the end of the match that his and his teammates’ problem had been food poisoning—something they had eaten for lunch had been off. However, there was someone else whose stomach muscles were tested that day—Morón’s poor equipment manager had to endure firsthand (really, on his feet) Martinez’s discomfort as the defender’s relief began several feet before reaching the toilet.
EXCESSIVE CELEBRATION
Perhaps it was an attempt to mimic other South American goalies like Rogerio Ceni, René Higuita, or José Luis Chilavert that led to Hans-Jörg Butt’s poor judgment. On April 17, 2004, at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen was ahead of the home team, Fußball-Club Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04, 1-2, on a new round of the Fußball-Bundesliga,