All this talk about Tierry Henry's handball and should the game re-played reminds me of an FA Cup early round game (within the past 5-15 years) that actually was re-played - Can anybody fill me in on the particulars? Here's what I remember: Chelsea was playing a smaller club in an early round of the FA cup and was playing poorly in a tie - Late in the game a player went down injured and Chelsea's opponent (in possession of the ball at that time) kicked the ball out of bounds to stop play - On the ensuing throw-in by Chelsea, all of the Chelsea players were in their defensive half of the field and the player throwing the ball in threw the ball towards the opposing goallee, assuming that the goallee would get the ball and then punt the ball up field to resume play - All the Chelsea players stood in their half EXCEPT one player who thought, "Hey - This is my chance to score and win the game" - Which he did (I recall he was a younger player from Africa with a name beginning with "K") - Everyone on both sides were flummoxed - The Ref was powerless and could only award the goal to Chelsea and then blow the final whistle when time was up - And Chelsea won BUT the Chelsea coach decided that NO, Chelsea and their opponent should re-play the game - The FA said OK - The game was re-played, and Chelsea won second game rather handily This is all I can remember - Can anyone fill in the particulars? (I know this is not DCU related, but I wanted to get this a wide audience)
It was Arsenal and Wenger who offered a replay to Sheffield United in the fifth round of the FA Cup in 1999. The player who scored off the throw-in was Kanu. I'm not aware of any famous outbreak of sporting behavior from Chelsea. <runs for cover>
OK - Thanks - I knew it involved some big English club - And I also knew José would never have done that, so that if it was Chelsea, it had to be before him
It was the Arsenal match as said earlier, and it was Wenger who wen tout of his way to offer the replay as he did not want to move on with what happened.
As I remember it, the player who scored had just entered the match and apparently was unaware of the kick out for injury--I guess just not paying attention. asitis
I could be wrong--hell, I usually am--but my understanding of what happened is that is had far less to do with Kanu just having come into the match than it did with his unfamiliarity with that particular sporting custom. Kanu is, like our own Ben Iroha, Nigerian. I remember reading that as an explanation at the time. Remember that this was also about the time that Kanu asked permission to have several members of his tribe consecrate the field at Highbury by urinating on it. Anyway, I am not sure I buy that explanation of Kanu the idiot savage, as he had been playing bigtime soccer for a couple years by that point and presumably would have been schooled in such a maneuver. The REAL trivia question about this incident involves someone with a DCU connection: The goalie whom Kanu scored on was none other than Alan Kelly, Jr., the son of our longtime goalkeeping coach. So yes, this is DCU related, at least in a tangential way.
De Rossi scored once with a handball and it was called a goal but he immediately went to the ref to say he used his hands. What a guy.
Since, no one bothered to actually do the research, I'm not going to stoop to do so, BUT... 1) I thought it was the League Cup, and... 2) Was it really Kanu? I know it was a young African kid, maybe scoring his first goal for Arsenal, so he was kind of excused for not knowing any better (if I remember correctly, he was running around celebrating with a confused look on his face because none of his teammates were congradulating him). But was it Kanu? As someone else said, I thought Kanu had been around awhile by then.
At least someone's brain isn't completely fried. This is from Kanu's Wiki page: "In February 1999, after just twelve games and one goal for Inter, Kanu was signed by Arsenal for approximately £4.15 million. His debut for Arsenal, against Sheffield United in the FA Cup, was a highly unusual match. With the score 1-1 and ten minutes to go, the United goalkeeper, Alan Kelly, kicked the ball out of touch so that treatment could be given to an injured player. When the ball was thrown back into play by Ray Parlour, although it was intended for Kelly, Kanu was unaware of the circumstances. Thinking it to be an attacking move, he chased the throw-in down the right wing unchallenged, and centred the ball for Marc Overmars, who promptly scored to make the match 2-1. Immediately after the match Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger offered to right the error and replay the match; in the end, Arsenal won that match 2-1 as well." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nwankwo_Kanu Here's the Alan Kelly (Jr) Wiki page, though it doesn't mention who his father was. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Kelly
But it was Overmars who scored the goal (I honestly hadn't rememberred that part). But I said it was "some young African kid"; I meant to say "It was some old Dutch guy." What probably threw me off, besides their obvious physical resemblance, was the similarities of their first names: Kanu's first name is Nwanko; Overmars' is Marc.