Son Heung-min and the forgotten wonder goals

by Dan Mobbs

It had all the necessary ingredients; a silky first touch, a fearsome strike that thumped in off the bar, and a despairing keeper with his hands hanging heavy by his side. However, Son Heung-min’s crisp strike against Swansea in the quarter-final of the FA Cup was unromantically disallowed thanks to a protracted VAR decision from referee, Kevin Friend.

Destined to be consigned to the rarely browsed pages of history and filed alongside people’s fuzzy recollection of the third person to ever step foot on the moon, many goals of incredible beauty, importance and skill have been chalked from the history books by the referee’s whistle and removed from the limelight they crave.

Unheralded, unloved and understandably unwanted by fans seeking only definite goals to help propel their team towards a potential win, the ones that don’t count can still hold flickers of joy for some enthusiasts, and pain for others.

Frank Lampard v Germany, Free State Stadium, World Cup 2010

It was the goal that never was that led ardent England supporters to increase the volume of their clamour for video referring, and allowed the more optimistic fans to claim that if the goal had been allowed to stand then England would have had a chance to progress.

They wouldn’t as Germany were considerably stronger and were quite happy to embarrass England with their repeatedly simplistic route to David James’s goal, but it was one of the few positives to cling to in a humiliating defeat.

Roy Carroll, v Spurs, Old Trafford, Premier League 2005

If there was ever any doubt that Lampard’s strike crossed the line, this wasn’t the case with Pedro Mendes’s effort that those who had taken an ill-timed trip to the bar could see was only centimetres from gently rippling the net.

Carroll played his part and did his best to contribute to the carnage by allowing the ball to squirm from his freshly greased gloves, before helplessly diving back to scoop the ball from the first row of seating and darting a glance towards the referee’s assistant that displayed so much guilt it would be enough to send him down for a five stretch in most crown courts. As it was the goal didn’t count and United sneaked an undeserving point.

Edinson Cavani v Barcelona, Camp Nou, Joan Gamper Trophy 2011

An away goal against Barcelona is a treasured thing. An overhead kick away at Barcelona is a memory deserving to sit on the mantelpiece. An overhead kick that goes in off the bar away at Barcelona is something that deserves to adorn a player’s headstone, but despite Cavani’s hat-trick of achievement the referee decided it wouldn’t stand.

Misery was further piled on Cavani and his Napoli team when Barcelona stuck five past them in the pre-season friendly to completely bury any distant memory of joy.

Dani Osvaldo v Lecce, Stadio Olimpico, Serie A 2011

You remember Dani Osvaldo, right? He was Southampton’s attacking saviour signed for £12.8 million, who more often than not moved with all the grace of someone completing the London Marathon with a fridge tied to their back in the name of charity.

On this occasion though he was the epitome of agility as a leapt like a flea to acrobatically boot the ball into the roof into the net, only to have it disallowed. The decision was tough to take as he hid his disappointment beneath his shirt, but at least he won’t be remembered in England as a flop who had his contract terminated after two seasons. Wait…

Kevin Keegan v Manchester United, The Dell, Division One 1981

“The linesman is there with his arms on his arms on his hips” explains Brian Moore to add further confusion to an already uncertain scenario, after Kevin Keegan’s glorious volley was disallowed by an official wearing enviably wide lapels that make him look like he has a date with the disco after the match.

Keegan’s disbelief is well placed in this instance, but his feeling of indignation is likely to have been diluted by the fact that Southampton finished the game as 3-2 winners.

Ronaldo v Spain, Lisbon, Friendly 2010

There was always one kid in a kick-about with an assembled cast of friends and hangers-on over the park that desperately wanted to prove their worth. They wanted to be taken seriously, they wanted to be seen as the best, and they wanted to take all the glory. That person was Nani.

“I touched the ball because I thought I wasn’t offside. Everything happened so quickly,” Nani explained in a desperate and pleading tone of voice. “After having time to think about it I apologised to Ronaldo. It was a great piece of play and I shouldn’t have ruined it.” Thankfully for Nani, Portugal secured a memorable 4-0 mauling of then world champions Spain, but the ignominy still pulses through Ronaldo’s ultra-competitive veins.

Image: NASA

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