decision of the judge, the ill-treated players of Newcastle decided to return to the game. Despite the referee and the unusual goal, the victims of the dog’s antics finally achieved an irrefutable victory, winning 3 to 2.
CONFLICT
When players protest a penalty, they usually get right up in the referee’s face—so close that they are practically nose to nose. This scene is so common in matches that when Romanian Remus Danalache protested a bit differently, his method was shared worldwide for its originality.
On October 16, 2011, during a heated match between FC Petrolul Ploieşti and Clubul Sportiv Universitar Voinţa Sibiu in the Romanian First Division, the visiting players wanted to grill the referee Andrei Chivulete alive. They blamed him for their 3-1 partial defeat. They also accused him of unjustly ejecting Claudiu Bunea from the pitch at the 30th minute and goalkeeper Bogdan Miron at the 48th. It was the last straw for the boys from Vointa when, during the 90th minute, Chivulete sanctioned a non-existent penalty for Petrolul. Eight of the players from Vointa protested ardently, going straight into the face of the referee. Substitute goalkeeper Remus Danalache, the ninth remaining player on the field, however, chose to turn his back on the situation…literally. Danalache, who had entered the fray to replace Rares Forika after Miron’s red card, decided to protest the ref’s performance in a very original way: He faced the shot from the 12-yard spot with his back to the kicker! Consequently, Daniel Oprita, who had already scored twice that afternoon, sent the ball to the back of the net while the goalkeeper remained motionless.
Chivulete, inexplicably, because the goalkeeper was correctly standing on the goal line, invalidated the goal, ordered the shot to be taken again, and warned Danalache with a yellow card. Oprita returned to the penalty spot and converted to put the score 4-1. The goalkeeper remained motionless, although this time he faced the kicker. At the end of the match, Danalache explained to the press that his original position had been agreed on by his teammates and coach, Alexandru Pelici. Impressed by the surprising behavior of the goalkeeper, the Petrolul fans bid farewell to the rival players with applause and cheers. Chivulete, however, received no such acknowledgment. According to the sports newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor, the referee was suspended for six months due to several serious errors, including having ordered the repetition of the penalty “back.”
A FIERCE STORM
It’s happened to all of us, an untimely internal, bothersome cramp that becomes annoying until finally becoming unbearable. When this happens, you can’t move, much less play soccer. On April 12, 1999, Fabián Binzugna, goalkeeper for Deportivo Morón, asked the referee Rubén Favale to temporarily suspend the match against CSD Defensa y Justicia for the B Nacional (Argentina’s Second Division) because his intestinal cramping was unrelenting. At 25 minutes into the second half, the western club of greater Buenos Aires had already made the three changes allowed, and the nearest toilet was in the locker room, about a hundred yards from the goal of the desperate Binzugna. “If you have to go to the bathroom, we’ll wait for you, you are the goalkeeper,” explained Favale, sympathetic to the goalkeeper’s torment. The game stopped, but not the goalkeeper’s feet, which carried him swiftly to the bathroom.
On the way to the locker room, Binzugna was assisted by the team’s physical trainer, who helped him remove his gloves and jersey. But the pain wasn’t receding. Binzugna then discovered with dread that the three toilets in the locker room were occupied by those who gone off the field minutes before: the defenders Gonzalo Martínez and Luciano Kirokián and striker Fernando Rodríguez—all experiencing similar intestinal cramping.
Upon learning of the urgency of the situation, Rodriguez, the least in trouble, got out of the way for Binzugna, who quickly “got rid” of the problem and returned to the pitch. Feeling better, the goalie explained at the end of the match that his and his teammates’ problem had been food poisoning—something they had eaten for lunch had been off. However, there was someone else whose stomach muscles were tested that day—Morón’s poor equipment manager had to endure firsthand (really, on his feet) Martinez’s discomfort as the defender’s relief began several feet before reaching the toilet.
EXCESSIVE CELEBRATION
Perhaps it was an attempt to mimic other South American goalies like Rogerio Ceni, René Higuita, or José Luis Chilavert that led to Hans-Jörg Butt’s poor judgment. On April 17, 2004, at the Veltins Arena in Gelsenkirchen, TSV Bayer 04 Leverkusen was ahead of the home team, Fußball-Club Gelsenkirchen-Schalke 04, 1-2, on a new round of the Fußball-Bundesliga, the German top flight. After 75 minutes, referee Jörg Kessler awarded a penalty to the visiting squad, and Butt went running with his head held high straight to the rival’s penalty box to take charge of the play. With a high right cross, the goalkeeper beat his opponent Christofer Heimeroth and was euphoric, embracing all his teammates to celebrate the 1-3 score. The arrogant Butt not only lost a lot of time with his celebration, but he celebrated on his own ground, which allowed the local forward Mike Hanke to restart the game with a direct kick from the center spot, which went directly into the unguarded visitor’s net. The clumsy Butt could celebrate, at least, that the match ended with his team still victorious.
ACCELERATED COMPLAINT
It is unlikely there was ever a penalty call that was not protested. If the players don’t complain, the coaches do. The fans, of course, always complain. But without doubt, the most unparalleled protest was the unusual revenge that a Yugoslav league soccer player attempted to exact from referee Platon Rejinac in 1965. Rejinac had dared to call the maximum penalty possible against Fudbalski Klub Crvena Zvezda Beograd (Red Star of Belgrade) just one minute from the end of the match and with the score tied. While ten of the players surrounded Rejinac to insult the honor of his entire family, the eleventh member of the victimized team left the field through a side door in apparent calm. However, what seemed like cool apathy soon turned into madness: The player got behind the wheel of his car, drove into the stadium, destroying the fence in the process, and began to chase the referee across the field in an attempt to run him over. After a few minutes of astonishing tension, the incensed player was subdued by the police and eventually sentenced to two years in prison for “attempted homicide.” Humorously, the soccer association of Yugoslavia only suspended the player for two years.
SOLD OUT
On March 14, 1936, Bradford City AFC and Doncaster Rovers FC were prepared to face each other in the English Second Division. The two teams were on the field, but the game was delayed: One of the line judges hadn’t shown up at Valley Parade. The referee in charge of the match tried to find a replacement, but there was no one in the area who would agree to act as an assistant. When the referee announced that the match would be canceled, the visiting player George Flowers—who had traveled as a substitute but had been left off the field, since changes were not authorized at that time—offered to replace the absentee assistant referee. At the end of the game, the Doncaster players weren’t too pleased with their partner Flowers. First, because they had lost 3 to 1 without any help from him; second, because they returned home with less money in their pockets than their pal—they had received 1 pound and 10 shillings each for having been defeated, while Flowers was paid a regular lineman’s salary for a match of 1 pound, 11 shillings, and 6 pennies.
ADVICE
Many field players have guarded the goal during penalty kicks
