Ah, but was the whole of the ball over the line?
Everyone stopped. It looked like it was out. WHO CARES? Just don’t pick it up on a whim, for God’s sake.
The weirdest penalty of all time may have been awarded on Thursday night when the Trinidad and Tobago women’s team were punished for the weirdest decision of all time.
During an Olympic qualifying game with Guatemala, some seriously good defending was undone by a moment of pure madness.
A superbly timed sliding tackle and a shepherding of the ball to the end line – maybe over it, who knows – were both undermined when the defender gambled that the referee would take her word for it and picked it up to end the play.
She walked over through the box, handed it to the ‘keeper and was for some reason amazed that the officials took exception to it.
It meant Trinidad went 1-0 down when the penalty was put away but, fortunately for her, they went on to win 2-1.
