SOUL SURMISE

STOCKI SURMISES V.A.R, HANDBALL IN THE BOX & THE OFFSIDE RULE - FROM THE CITY V SCHALKE GAME

It was quite a game. 

A seemingly one sided affair until two quick penalties rattled City’s sense of the script. Rattled even more by a sending off and City could have been on the ropes. Schalke however played for 2-1 which always had City still in charge of the two legged tie. Had it gone 3-1 and it really was game on at the Etihad in three weeks time.

As it was, City’s Leroy Sane, a former schoolboy and youth player at Schalke, came off the bench to score an unbelievable free kick. 2-2 would have been a nice escape but a pin point pass from the ball playing Ederson, City’s Hoddle-esque goalkeeper, and Raheem Sterling ran in to score a winner on the night! 

It was quite a game.

I am not blogging a short match report on another City win though. What really caught my surmising was the use of VAR and the second Schalke penalty.

The first penalty was interesting. It seemed that a corner had been given when suddenly the referee went to VAR (Video Assistant Referee). Now, I had no argument with that. Eventually after what seemed like minutes, the ref takes the captains aside and speaks to them, probably about the players requests for VAR which is illegal. Still no decision. Eventually… a penalty is given.

Now, let me add some extra surmising in here. I think there should a lot more hand balls given in the penalty area. The old mantra, “the player couldn’t get their hand out of the way” allows players to have their hands all over the place with the likelihood of getting away with it! In the City/Schalke game I don’t believe Otamendi deliberately handled the ball. Indeed I believe Otamendi was trying to get his hand out of the way… BUT it was in the way and he didn’t get it out of the way fast enough. I would have given a penalty.

However, the length of time that VAR took. There were 5 extra minutes at the end of the first half. That is very unusual. It suggests the referee added four minutes for that incident. Now… VAR is only to change a clear error. Four minutes suggests that VAR was very unsure if it was a clear error. We need VAR but we need it to work better than it currently is. 

So. For me a penalty but they way they used VAR it should not have been given. 

Confused… let me confuse you more… The second penalty. Oh my!

It is given for a foul by City player Fernandinho on a Schalke player. Always a bit of barging in the penalty box but I would again say that it probably was a penalty.

However… the player Fernandinho fouled was offside. Now, in my everyman’s view of soccer rules that therefore should not be a penalty. All the ex players in the studio took my point of view. The ex-referee in the studio did not.

The ex-referee said that because the Schalke player had not reached or played the ball, the referee could not penalise him for being offside so it was a penalty. WHAAATTTT!  Surely, a player is penalised for being offside when he is interfering with play. If winning a penalty is not interfering with play then the FIFA really need to have long look at that rule. 

It was quite a game.

SHOULD WE FORGIVE GAVIN WHYTE HIS LEWD ACT

Northern Ireland soccer player Gavin Whyte is all over the news having been caught on video doing a lewd act in public.

Today, Whyte has responded with an apology:

"I apologise to anyone I offended - I was stupid and completely regret being part of it. I hope Oxford and NI fans can forgive me for a moment of real stupidity.”

Whyte goes on to say,

”It was wrong, I know that, but it happened and now I have to try and move on. I have so many good people around me.”

How should Oxford and NI fans, and indeed the public in general, respond to Whyte?

There is almost a classic Biblical repentance in his response. He actually uses the word forgiveness. If we take a Biblical template to repentance and forgiveness, it is all here.

In the Bible repentance is not always necessary before forgiveness but forgiveness always follows repentance. 

Gavin Whyte’s hopes of forgiveness should not go unfounded. We need to accept that he has acknowledged his wrong doing and learned from his mistake. 

That should be the end of this newspaper story. That should erase the black mark against his name. It should not be held against him or dragged up at any time. Not even by away supporters! He should get a fresh start. He should be allowed to move on as he has asked for.

The press and indeed wider society is not good about such things. Away fans even less so! We hold something done decades ago against people whose lives have radically changed since their misdemeanour. That lack of forgiveness paralyses individuals and society. Those of us who don’t forgive get caught up in the bitter stagnation of the society they themselves have paralysed. 

A Biblical model for forgiveness would be such a helpful force to the transformation of individuals, like Gavin Whyte, and society as a whole. 

Gavin Whyte you are forgiven. Or you should be. I wonder if God would find it unforgivable not to forgive a repentant footballer!

 

note: for the theologically squeamish, this article has nothing to do with Gavin Whyte and God. What he does in that realm is up to him and God. This is about societal forgiveness.

This year's 4 Corners Festival from January 30 - February 10th is all about forgiveness. Info here -  https://4cornersfestival.com 

 

COULD FOOTBALL'S UNITY IN TRAGEDY CHANGE THE VITRIOL AT MATCHES

Football is working through a very sad week. News of Glenn Hoddle’s heart attack caused a reaction across the sport. He was a hero. Gifted as a player. Creative as a coach. As a pundit, I enjoyed his tactical insight. He is loved. Our prayers are with him and his family.

Then, not many hours later, the Leicester City Chairman’s helicopter goes down in the streets beside the stadium. There is shock and grief at the loss of life.

A lot of us probably didn’t know the Chairman, Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha’s, name but we knew his face and that amazing achievement of winning the Premiership for little Leicester City. Even as a City fan, who should have been winning it that season, I loved that Leicester did instead! 

What has struck me over the days since, has been the camaraderie of the football community. Everybody wants Glenn Hoddle well again. Every club sent their condolences to Leicester City. There was a wonderful sense of unity. Our humanity overcomes rivalry. 

Of course that is how it should be. My own prayers go out to Vichai’s wife and family and those Leicester players, and members of staff, who genuinely loved the man, not just his investment. Kasper Schmeichel running towards the crash said so much. As did Riyad Mahrez’s tribute after scoring for Manchester City last night.

However, it is not how football mostly is. I watch every weekend at the abuse that fans give the opposition’s players and fellow fans. It is angry vicious vitriol mostly enhanced by hand and finger gestures. I have been to matches and heard the abuse that referees, the opposition and even the team that fans are supporting receive. There are tirades of raw visceral hatred. I often wonder if there is something in the modern adult male that needs this place to vent something of the sadness and melancholy of a British life. 

It all seems dangerously uncivil to me. Of course there should be banter and a competitive spirit. Surely that can be healthy and humorous and actually add to the sporting atmosphere. I have enjoyed some good Rugby banter with fans of other teams and countries, standing side by side at matches. Less police needed there to separate supporters. 

What I am saying, on the very saddest of footballing weeks is that that same love and camaraderie in these moments of tragedy should be held and treasured. This feeling of one big soccer family should be nurtured that it might flourish, every single week in the stadiums of the beautiful game. 

I never want to contradict the great Bill Shankly but let me. This week he was proved wrong. It is not a matter of life an death. It is NOT more important than that.

SHOULDER TO SHOULDER - A Review

There was an American girl. She came to Queens University while I was a Chaplain. She was doing a dissertation on Sport and Reconciliation in Ireland. I thought she was a chancer. She was doing Sports Studies and wanted a trip to Ireland. Contrived, I thought.

Then we had coffee. It turned into a long coffee. Well…

 

Protestants support Rangers and Catholics support Celtic.

It is mainly Catholics who play GAA.

In the Republic soccer was not encouraged for decades.

Catholic schools in the north play GAA.

Protestant schools in the north play Rugby or soccer.

By the time students get to University they are playing different sports so it hard to mix.

The vast majority of the Ulster players who play Rugby for Ireland are Protestant.

In the north Cliftonville is the Catholic soccer team and Linfield the Protestant one.

Derry City play in the Republic’s Soccer league after it had closed down for many years due to violence at matches.

Some Catholic soccer players refuse to play for Northern Ireland and so play for the Republic.

In international Rugby we play as a whole island.

 

And on and on it went… there is a great dissertation in how sport divides.

This past weekend Shoulder To Shoulder was screened on the television. Irish Rugby legend Brian O’Driscoll investigated the story of the Irish Rugby team and The Troubles. Surely not enough for a dissertation. As it turns out… more than enough!

For 50 years I have watched Irish Rugby with no idea what was going on in the background. If I knew, and I possibly did, that Jimmy McCoy was in the RUC and Brian McCall in the British Army I didn’t consider the implications. 

What I do remember is Philip Rainey, David Irwin and Nigel Carr being blown up crossing the border in the bomb that killed Lord Justice Maurice Gibson. As Carr put it, some one stood on a hillside and detonated it when Judge Gibson car passed, having absolutely no regard for the other cars caught up in it. It was an attack that cost the injured Carr his place in the very first ever World Cup and highlighted the ruthless brutality of the Troubles. It  made the Republic players on the Irish team realise what then Northern players were having to deal with.

The film though is not so much about the divide but about the  positive contribution that Rugby made in a violently divided community. There is the story of the joint anthem, which gives the documentary its title. There is the wonder of Donal Lenihan from a Republican family sharing a room on tour with British soldier Brian McCall. Trevor Ringland and Hugo McNeill organise a peace match with the Barbarians after the 1996 Canary Wharf bomb shatters the peace process. There is the day that Rugby brought the British National Anthem to the home of GAA, Croke Park.

O’Driscoll even comes north to understand the Orange Order and plays a lambeg drum as part of his research. It was a beautiful act in understanding the other. He had a gracious welcome in Loughgall and the engagement was good. I was surprised that he got some grief about doing it and had to emphasise the fact that he didn’t actually march. That revealed that work still needed to be done even on the south side of the border.

In the end this is a poignant, often emotional, sometimes humorous and always heroic story. It is about a sport that brought two very divided communities together, at least for 80 minutes on some Saturday afternoons. This was particularly true when they were playing England, the irony of which was a mystery to O'Driscoll.

Rugby is the most high profile sport that works in an all island system. There are others. One wonders if soccer had been in the same system how much that too would have contributed to peace. People from different communities trusting each other on one team is a marvellous resource for breaking down barriers. A weakness in the plot might be the lack of engagement with working class loyalist communities who are not such big Rugby fans and might not be so keen to stand for the Irish Anthem.

I am back to my American girl and her dissertation. If only she’d seen Shoulder To Shoulder she’d have had plenty to work on. It is a powerful piece of documentary. 

IF HARRY KANE HAD HAD MY DAD... SPURS WOULD HAVE BEATEN INTER MILAN

If Harry Kane had had a father like mine, Spurs would not have been beaten by Inter Milan last night. My dad had a thing. He didn’t reckon you should get into the Boys Brigade football team if you couldn’t kick the ball with both feet.

When I was about 6 years of age my father would take me out to the green in front of our house at Maine Park, Galgorm and play shooting in. On some of those evenings he would not allow me to kick the ball with my right foot. For maybe an hour I had to shoot with my left foot. I loved those nights but hated the ones where I couldn’t kick with my right foot. I couldn’t get the ball off the ground. I would scuff it. It was so unnatural. 

When I played competitive football in my late teens I was so thankful for those awful nights where dad banned my right foot. Indeed, many coaches and players thought I was left footed. Don’t get me wrong, if it was a free kick, corner or penalty it was always my right foot but if the ball landed at my left I didn’t have to think twice. Bang! I had some shot on me with that left foot.

There was a moment in the San Siro last night when the ball landed at Harry Kane’s left foot in the Inter Milan box. If my dad had been given a few evenings with a 6 year old Harry Kane he would have hit it first time and scored. Instead, not confident on his left foot he took it around the goalkeeper. Three yards out and guess what? Didn’t have the confidence to finish on his left foot. 

Harry Kane is not the only one. Almost every modern player has only one foot. For most of them it is enough. I only reached the heights of Randalstown Reds with two feet! 

BUT… I cannot understand it. It drives me mad. Maybe very single week I shout at the television set. It must be modern football wisdom to concentrate on your good foot. George Best kicked the school with one foot and all the way home with the other, Sorry Harry, but George would have scored!

So what I do not understand is why coaches don’t do what my dad did. Even if the modern football intelligence suggests a player concentrates on one strong foot why not at least give the weaker one some potential. I watch matches won and lost every single week because a player cannot clear the ball or score a goal with his weaker foot. Just like Harry Kane last night. Why? 

WHY I'D RATHER LOSE WITH PEP THAN WIN WITH JOSE - Not Quite Gloating At City's Derby Win

I never enjoy the Manchester derby. Oh, of course it is the most important fixture of the season but there is that knot in the stomach, for all 90 or 99 minutes. Even those historic 5-1 and 6-1 wins, it was only deep into injury time when I could relax and feel we were safe!

No, as Colin Sinclair’s book was titled, Manchester United Ruined My Life. There was even a period a few years back when they would purposely leave it until injury time BUT in Fergie time they would then break our hearts. Time after time. Remember Michael Owen. Or Rooney’s amazing volley! Ouch!

Even yesterday with the pundits suggesting we were the better team, when we were coming off 13 Premiership wins in a row, I was still nervous that United would break my heart, yet again. Indeed, I preferred playing United when we were rubbish and fighting relegation. In those days we had nothing to lose. We had no expectations of beating the dominant team in Europe. A win was so joyous and I am glad to say that there were one or two!

Yesterday we were 8 points clear at the top of the league. We had lots to lose. A record 14 game winning streak as well as that healthy gap in points. United would love beating us in the same way we loved beating them back in the day.

United came into the game having shown some real form. Those first twenty minutes against Arsenal were very impressive. Our last few games had been a struggle to win. Paul Pogba suspension, due to a sending off against Arsenal, was a plus point for sure. It would be like us without De Bruyne.

I doubt that since Busby verses Mercer has there ever been such a head to head in mangers as Jose and Pep. Manchester is now divided in two on managerial approaches. Jose Mourinho has been an incredibly successful manager. Winning three Premierships with Chelsea says he knows the English game. Pep Guardiola has been successful too but many are unconvinced that he can do his thing in England.

As I look at these two mangers I see two very different approaches. Pep is a developer of players. I don’t just mean young players. De Bruyne, Sterling, Stones, Otimendi and Aguero are improved players over the last 18 months under Pep. He has a way of playing and he needs the players who can play his ambitious system, shaped when he was influenced playing under Johan Cruyff.

Jose is a whole different kind of manager. He is pragmatic. He is a tactician. He looks at the players he has at his disposal and, maybe even just as much, at the team he is playing and is a genius at getting a result. His personality is a little eccentric and the kind of quirk that doesn’t care what others think. 

Which is why I am glad that Pep not Jose is City’s manager. Yesterday Jose’s tactics embarrassed a club that deserves better. As City fans chanted their new song “Park the bus”, United did. At home against the noisy neighbours they had only 35% of the possession. Manchester United for goodness sake. They looked nervous and frightened. Manchester United for goodness sake. Jose has got away with his pragmatism for too many years because he has won. Yesterday he didn’t. I cannot see United fans being patient when it is the noisy neighbours beating them with poetic free flowing football. Having said that that is the very challenge Jose likes. It’s a big one but if anyone…

Now, here’s the thing. Right up until the referee blew the whistle yesterday, United were in the game. As at the end of the first half, when outplayed and one down going into injury time, a quick break and defensive mistake and Rashford could have finished beautifully again. City just couldn’t get that third goal and Ederson made a crucial double save that could have made it 2-2. 

Jose’s pragmatism almost matched Pep’s poetry… but it didn’t. United’s reputation is taking a mauling in today’s press. Pre match mind games did not effect Pep or City. Ironically it was a United player Herrera who was booked for diving! The after match perpetual blaming of referees and the later rumours of Jose’s confrontation outside the City dressing room hasn’t helped. Pep is not the gentleman that Pellegrini was but I would rather lose with Pep than win with Jose.

As for the Premiership it is far from over. City caught United in 2012 and we were 8 points behind at Easter. It’s not even Christmas. If City get injuries to crucial players and United, Chelsea, Liverpool, Spurs or Arsenal go on a 14 game winning streak… So, as Kevin De Bruyne said after the game, “I would rather be 11 points ahead than 11 points behind.” There are 22 games left. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if City won them all playing football that thrills us all! Just saying! 

MANCHESTER CITY - A LONG WAY TO GO

After the near forty years of utter misery supporting Manchester City, surely my friends will allow me a day in the sun. Paris St Germain are probably the only team in the world that would dare suggest that they are better just now! It’s a long way from 1999 and away days at Macclesfield Town, trailing around mid table, two Divisions down, for a part of the season while our neighbours won the Treble!

It was at a wedding a couple of years ago, speaking to a man who knows nothing about football, when I realised that the future, that we are already experiencing now was assured. My friend is working in the middle east seeing through a University hospital project. When he told me that they did not know the word failure and invested money until they succeeded I smiled. I knew then that City would have Pep Guardiola and silverware was pretty much guaranteed.

However, with all the winning streaks and free flowing football, City are far from completing the project. The project is to be one of the best teams in the world, challenging for silverware and selling shirts across the world. The Chairman admitted a few weeks ago that there is a long way to go. He is right. I have been monitoring it on my last three summer trips to Uganda. 

What have mission trips to Uganda to do with football, you might ask? Well, it is the football shirts. There is an abundance of soccer shirts across Uganda. Arsenal are the most popular. Apparently that goes back to the invincible team of 2003-04 that had African players Kanu and Toure in the squad. Anyway, in 2015 there were a decent amount of City shirts. This last summer, no improvement and if anything not so many. 

To become a global force you need to be continually winning trophies. A League Cup is not a good enough return over the last two years for a team with ambitions to be world contenders. After their Premiership successes of 2012 and 2014 City have been very much underachievers. On paper it is a travesty that they haven’t won the Premiership since 2014. It is time to put that right.

So the team is getting there. I fancy that when Pep puts his final touches to the squad next summer that City will be near invincible over the next few years. That sounds frightening considering that they have just gone 18 wins in a row in all competitions. I just do not think Pep has finished his build. 

And even this season… City who are good at writing cheques need to, in May, cash the cheque of this early season promise. Winter is coming. It could be Baltic! There is a long way to go! Those of us who have been fans for decades are all too aware of our teams's ability to Manchester City it! Failure from the jaws of victory. Too many times! I have been wondering which I would prefer; Jose pragmatic boredom week after week with scrappy 1-0 wins for a moment's joy as the trophy is lifted in May or the weekly ecstasy of beautiful Cruyffian football for a moment of deep disappointment at the finish line! Please, no! Pep needs to make sure that the best squad on paper has the best points tally at season’s end. 

It is is urgent to stop the slide in Ugandan shirt sales! It is vital if the club are to achieve the success that Sheikh Mansour has invested in. There's a long way to go. The going needs to start now! No pressure Pep!

SURMISING THE HEROICS AND HEARTACHE OF THE GAWA...

Has there ever been a more unsatisfactory winning team in a World Cup Play Off Qualifier than Switzerland? Tonight we did everything but score, even getting a header cleared off the line in the last minute. Switzerland were poor, panicking and in the end almost embarrassingly relieved. 

It all, of course, means that that awful penalty decision makes it feel unjust as well. Extra time at 0-0 over both legs and who knows, a last gasp McAuley header or a McGovern block out in a penalty shoot out. All lost when a referee has a bad angle and decides to make a big call.

All in all, this was a heroic performance, in a heroic campaign, in a heroic tenure for Michael O’Neill as manager. Northern Ireland have simply fought above their weight for at least five years. O’Neill’s achievements recognised after Euro 16 should never be forgotten. Qualifying for Russia 18 would have made that certain. Walking round Windsor Park museum this week I hope his place in that history of local football has a centre stage. He has been simply magnificent.

In the end though we have been an imbalanced team for some time. If we had had four forward players as cool, confident and classy tonight as our back four of Hughes, Evans, McAuley and Brunt then we would have stuffed Switzerland. Steven Davis has been the ultimate class act in recent years but oh for a Healy up front. Our strikers have done great and I am taking nothing away from their contribution to the heroics but that goal out of nothing was always an ask slightly too big.

It would seem likely that this is the end of the road for a dynasty. We have been the oldest team in this qualifying campaign and Hughes, McAuley and Brunt will hardly make 4 more years. Aaron might struggle to make the end of the season. Which makes his 90 minutes tonight another performance was above the ordinary. It will now take time to rebuild but the foundations O’Neill had for this team were firm and sure. The next few years do not look so rich in Premiership talent.

I fear Michael O’Neill will see this as a natural time to go. He has proven he is a good football manager and I would hope might manage at a top level. Now is his time to work out where. For our wee country it might be a while before we get this close again. This was a once in a generation opportunity. Which makes it all the more frustrating, unjust and heartbreaking. We should be no less proud, all the same!

SHOULD LUKAKU HAVE CELEBRATED IN FRONT OF THE EVERYONE FANS? ABSOLUTELY!

Was Romelu Lukaku right to celebrate his goal in front of the Everton fans on Sunday? I think he was - absolutely!

After scoring Lukaku turned away and held his hands to his ears to hear the Everton fans’ silence. For me, the gesture was not rude or disrespectful and should in no way have caused a bad disturbance from the Everton fans. 

When Emmanuel Adebayor scored for Manchester City against Arsenal and ran the entire length of the field to celebrate in front of the Arsenal fans it was a little bit out of order but for me Lukaku’s gesture was part of an ongoing conversation throughout the game between fans and player. 

I understand players who do not celebrate when they score against their old club. I am thinking of Frank Lampard with that big goal for City against Chelsea a couple of years ago. That too was about a relationship between Lampard and Chelsea fans. The difference went both ways. Chelsea’s fans respecting Lampard as a club legend would not be jeering a Lampard miss, so Lampard in return respects them and the years of love they had given him.

I think such relationships like Lampard’s with the Chelsea fans is rare and only comes with long years of service and success.

Lukaku’s relationship with Everton is different. I hope he gets enough respect that he will not be booed when he runs out at Goodison Park later in the season. However, a bit of banter is understandable. If Lukaku hits a free kick into Row Z then a wee jeer is obvious. If he then scores he should be a allowed to acknowledge the previous banter.

I think that though Lukaku changed direction as he arced away after his goal in order to send the gesture to Everton fans he quickly focused on his team mates and new fans. It should not have been caused any disruption among the Everton fans. They should have taken it as part of the banter. A message that needs to be sent to football fans is that if you can dole it out, you should take the idd wee gesture back.   

HAVE GOLF CADDIES TOO MUCH INFLUENCE?

It might be just me but I have been noticing golf caddies a little more, just recently. Obviously there is the Rory McIlroy's situation. PJ finally went his own way and Rory brought his old pal Harry Diamond in to carry his new Taylor Mades in his final Major of the year. Sadly it didn’t sparkle (ouch!). That PJ had made £8million pounds from his nine years with Rory seemed to be a reasonable return on his investment. Let us not feel too sorry for him.

Just about a month previous Phil Mickelson had split wth his caddie of 25 years. Was it a mutual decision? Who knows but one can only imagine what Bones earned in two and half decades carrying the bag of a five time major winner!

The other caddie to cross my radar was Rickie Elliott. Ricky is from Northern Ireland and caddied for Bruce Koepka when he won the US Open in June. The press speculated that the Portrush man won $200,000 that week. Probably after Rory he’ll be Northern Ireland’s best paid sportsman this year! 

Caddies eh!

Then this weekend at the Solheim Cup my surmising turned a little more serious. America’s Lexi Thompson’s caddie is a Scot called Alex McAlpine, a former professional player himself. As I watched how McAlpine helped Thompson I wondered, for the first time in my 45 years of following the sport, if the influence of caddies should be reconsidered by the golfing authorities.

McAlpine seemed to give Thompson all the lines on every shot but particularly on all of her putts. I think it was Laura Davies who said on commentary how this was a weakness of Thompson’s game and how much she depends on McAlpine. Thompson at times looked like a robot. McAlpine did all the thinking, told her what to do and Thompson’s gift was then following through on the advice. It seemed a little too much interference though. 

Which got me surmising. Is golf a level playing field? Do caddies give players significant advantage? If caddies have become coaches psychologists and crucial contributors to the outcome then should golf being recognised as a “doubles” events? Is golf comfortable with that? Or should caddies be just what they are, bag carriers? Then we would know the best player. They would all be on their own with no one to cover their weaknesses. They might then be cheaper too! 

Just surmising!