Luis Fabiano’s Handball

Actually, there wasn’t just one handball but two on Fabiano’s goal. At first, Fabiano’s goal looked like a classic Brazilian player’s goal, juggling the ball over a player’s head, not once but twice. However, if you looked at the replays you see that Fabiano didn’t control the ball with his chest but with his upper arm, and did it twice.

What’s funny though is the referee scolded Fabiano as he was running back after he scored the goal, shaking his finger at Fabiano and pointing at his own arm showing Fabiano that he shouldn’t have done that. So, it’s clear the referee saw that Fabiano used his arm to control the ball but didn’t call anything. And Fabiano even said he used his arm:

“It’s true, the ball really touched my hand and then my shoulder,” Luis Fabiano said of his second goal. “But it was involuntary. It was one of the greatest goals I’ve scored in my career.”

It strange, it’s a great goal, as Fabiano cleverly lifts the ball over the on rushing defender’s head, but an illegal goal if he used his arm. This wasn’t like Maradona’s handball versus England or Thierry Henry’s handball versus Ireland, but it was still a handball, or I should say two handballs.

In a way, it’s good the referee let the play go, it was a beautiful goal if you are looking at the play from a distance, yet it wasn’t fair to the Ivory Coast. The game was 1-0 at that point, and this second goal changed the game. I don’t know what the referee thought, or why he didn’t make the call if he saw it.

The 2010 World Cup is turning out to be very interesting, a lot of questionable calls and allowed and not allowed goals. And I’m sure there are more to come.

There was nothing wrong with Fabiano’s first goal though.