THE WORST. Today was the WORST day I have had in 17 years of being a Manchester City fan. I have not gone back to it...How long as the match been over, since about 2 pm?...in six hours. Haven't checked the other league scores. To have it snatched from you, and again, EVEN THOUGH IT WAS THE RIGHT CALL, in INJURY TIME, it was the most deflating occurrence, I went from first to worst in about 60 seconds.
I admit that I am a hopeless partisan and obviously Spurs fans do not feel as bad as I do, but I bet you some, a lot of, Spurs fans were not celebrating hysterically. Hopeless partisan though I admit to being, if this shoe was on my foot, it would still pinch, I would be embarrassed, upset a little. Why, isn't the point to get it right? Yes, and to that, I answer with Lord Tweedsmuir's verdict on Henry Wilson, that “he had a gift, too, of making a situation more clear than God intended it to be.” Things can be made a little too right.
I have only my experience as a son of those orphaned by parricide acquitted by reason of insanity to draw upon for remedy to VAR’s collateral damage. I read that Gabriel Jesus' shot hit a City player's arm. Handball, that is. Even in a handball the interpretation of the rule is not to be too right about it. In some instance (not as many as I would have thought reasonable) if the handball was inadvertent, if the arm did not move, if the arm was hanging limp by the mother fucker's side and the ball struck it, then the goal will be allowed. But if the arm moved, as arms tend to do when the rest of the body is in motion, it matters not if the arm movement was incidental to scratching the crotch, no goal. But there is at least that concession to the Almighty's intent. Or was. The rule changed for this year and intent is no longer part of the calculus. It is now a bright line, an exceedingly dull bright line.
Nor was there concession to reason last week when another Jesus goal was disallowed because Raheem Sterling's sleeve--away from play with the rest of Raheem--was offsides, negating the goal. Last week I proposed that greater concession to reality that the NBA uses in calling fouls. Those mother fuckers are BIG out there on the basketball court and if the referees were going to call a foul for every goddamned incident of physical contact the game would have been ruined. A rule of interpretation in the NBA is that unless the physical contact gives the aggressor an advantage on the play then the rule is summarized as “No autopsy, no foul." So applying a mild, reasonable shading in like spirit to the handball rule to today's situation, if the handball caused the shot to be deflected such that the deflection wrong-wayed the goalkeeper, then I don't care if the offender was armless, no goal. However, if the handballed shot would, beyond a reasonable doubt, have gone in anyway, if for instance the shot was going to half a wide open goal and was deflected a millimeter, goal.
And to all of that a big, Whatever. Nobody listens to me. All I can tell you is this happened to my team today and it was the worst feeling ever and if it had happened to Spurs or any other team--even Liverpool...Well, maybe not Liverpool..--I would not be celebrating. I have said before, the use and misuse of instant replay in tackle football is MUCH MORE extensive than with VAR and I have been pissed at instant replay! But I never felt anguish like I felt today. This is the worst.
I admit that I am a hopeless partisan and obviously Spurs fans do not feel as bad as I do, but I bet you some, a lot of, Spurs fans were not celebrating hysterically. Hopeless partisan though I admit to being, if this shoe was on my foot, it would still pinch, I would be embarrassed, upset a little. Why, isn't the point to get it right? Yes, and to that, I answer with Lord Tweedsmuir's verdict on Henry Wilson, that “he had a gift, too, of making a situation more clear than God intended it to be.” Things can be made a little too right.
I have only my experience as a son of those orphaned by parricide acquitted by reason of insanity to draw upon for remedy to VAR’s collateral damage. I read that Gabriel Jesus' shot hit a City player's arm. Handball, that is. Even in a handball the interpretation of the rule is not to be too right about it. In some instance (not as many as I would have thought reasonable) if the handball was inadvertent, if the arm did not move, if the arm was hanging limp by the mother fucker's side and the ball struck it, then the goal will be allowed. But if the arm moved, as arms tend to do when the rest of the body is in motion, it matters not if the arm movement was incidental to scratching the crotch, no goal. But there is at least that concession to the Almighty's intent. Or was. The rule changed for this year and intent is no longer part of the calculus. It is now a bright line, an exceedingly dull bright line.
Nor was there concession to reason last week when another Jesus goal was disallowed because Raheem Sterling's sleeve--away from play with the rest of Raheem--was offsides, negating the goal. Last week I proposed that greater concession to reality that the NBA uses in calling fouls. Those mother fuckers are BIG out there on the basketball court and if the referees were going to call a foul for every goddamned incident of physical contact the game would have been ruined. A rule of interpretation in the NBA is that unless the physical contact gives the aggressor an advantage on the play then the rule is summarized as “No autopsy, no foul." So applying a mild, reasonable shading in like spirit to the handball rule to today's situation, if the handball caused the shot to be deflected such that the deflection wrong-wayed the goalkeeper, then I don't care if the offender was armless, no goal. However, if the handballed shot would, beyond a reasonable doubt, have gone in anyway, if for instance the shot was going to half a wide open goal and was deflected a millimeter, goal.
And to all of that a big, Whatever. Nobody listens to me. All I can tell you is this happened to my team today and it was the worst feeling ever and if it had happened to Spurs or any other team--even Liverpool...Well, maybe not Liverpool..--I would not be celebrating. I have said before, the use and misuse of instant replay in tackle football is MUCH MORE extensive than with VAR and I have been pissed at instant replay! But I never felt anguish like I felt today. This is the worst.
