Porto Did Nothing Wrong, But THAT Goal Should Never Have Been Scored

As expected, the aftermath of Arsenal's Champion's league defeat to Porto was littered with a plethora of opinions regarding Porto's winning goal. Some said Porto had cheated, others said Fabianski should have chucked the ball away and gotten booked, some said Arsenal's defence was asleep whilst others applauded Porto's quick-thinking.

Inevitably, people began to point out the number of times that Arsenal demigod Thierry Henry exploited FIFA loop-holes with his quick free kicks, through-ball penalties, and blocking goal kicks. However, all of these views have their flaws. In reality, Porto broke no rules, but should not have been in such a position in the first place.

Firstly, it should not have been deemed a back pass. I would need a supercomputer to count the number of times that the ball has bounced off a player's shin and been picked up by the 'keeper, with no punishment being given. Therefore a line must be drawn between a genuine PASS-back and a simple accident in which Campbell did not deliberately pass it.

Nonetheless, the call was made and Porto scored well within the rules of the game, as the should-be specsaver poster boy Mr. Hansson had given them permission to take it.

The problem is that if all free-kicks were to be taken so quickly, the game would be a fiasco. Imagine if Steven Gerrard was allowed to simply smack it from 20 yards out immediately after being fouled, he would score every time, as would any able-bodied human being.

I can picture it now: Cristiano Ronaldo gets fouled on the edge of the D, he quickly places the ball and whacks it, without having to beat a wall, essentially taking a penalty from a few yards further back.

The fact is that the referee should wait at least 30 seconds after blowing up in order for a team to assemble a wall, or else every single free kick from within 20 yards of goal at a reasonable angle will result in a goal.

Of course, Arsenal are being hypocrites, aren't they? After all, Henry did this on numerous occasions and the goals were always allowed, as did Ryan Giggs against Lille in 2007, therefore Arsenal have no case.

Well, actually, they do.

If you look at any of the free kicks, you will see that a wall had been assembled, the referee was not impeding any defenders, the goalkeeper was in his goal facing play, and the level of skill required to score was such that only players such as Giggs are capable of such goals.

Therefore, it is pointless comparing the two, as Porto's goal required no skill whatsoever, and although no rules were broken, any fully sane referee would not have allowed Porto to even get posession of the ball, let alone force Fabianski to give it to him moments before handing it to the Porto players on a plate.

I suppose the ref was trying to outdo himself after his comical decision not to give Arsenal a penalty. 

As for the argument that Fabianski should not have relinquished possession so easily and risked a booking, I believe that that says more about the dire state of officiating than the player himself. What kind of a world do we live in where a player has to decide between giving away a certain goal or getting booked. Surely if there is one person on the pitch Fabianski should have been able to trust to follow correct procedure, it is the referee.

Finally, people are saying that Arsenal's defence was "caught napping," and that a team like Chelsea or Manchester United would not have conceded such a goal.

Wrong again.

If you look at any run-of-the-mill free kick in world football (including all but one in yesterday's match) you would see any defence behaving in the exact same way:  some players taking a bit of a breather (Campbell), some players speaking to teammates to get back (Vermaelen), and, of course, some players arguing with the referee (Fabianski).

I don't care if it is Arsenal, Barcelona, or Grimsby Town, there are no defences who immediately form a wall (especially when there were only three players in the box like yesterday) within nanoseconds of hearing the whistle.

Why? Because who would expect a referee to behave the way he did yesterday? No one. Moreover, if this was purely a matter of "quick thinking" like many pundits are making it out to be, why do we not see it almost every time a free kick from inside the box is given, as it is by and large always the same situation as far as who is in the box is concerned.

The fact is that this goal was purely a result of three calamitous refereeing decisions: not to award a penalty seconds earlier to Arsenal, incorrectly judging a "backpass," and not allowing the defence to prepare before the kick was taken. On the bright side, I have seen the highlights of the Fiorentina-Bayern match, so I know that Arsenal only had to deal with the second worst referee in professional sport.