Roma Fakes Out Everyone, Including The Linesman

By: chris | March 17th, 2008

Crafty corner
Uploaded by SerieAtv

Roma dug deep into the playground playbook as the first half ended yesterday against Milan and made the linesman look like quite the fool in the aftermath. David Pizarro, lil’ rascal that he is, brought the ball to the spot and just grazed the ball with his foot, moving it just slightly – but into the field of play. Taddei put on his sneaky sneaky shoes and took the ball off the spot and into the box, dumping it off to a wide open DP. Whistle came, everyone looked confused, and then the ref gave Milan a free kick. The Giallorossi were (rightfully) livid that the linesman had flagged a “foul” (or infraction, whatever it was) and yapped at him all the way to the locker room. On the way back out after the break, Totti and the ref having a nice chuckle. Now you don’t think the ref saw the replays during the break, do ya?

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Category: Serie A

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Marco P.

Wow... are these the plays you guys practice at Trigoria? The never-ending quest of "trying to beat your opponent at smarts"... :roll: It's gonna take a lot more than that to overtake Inter.
chris

http://blogs.reuters.com/socce...
Jon

The ref made the right call. Roma crying because refs don't buy their cheating? Wow... shocking.
Sam

Yeah, that's really clever by Roma, but they tell you over and over in reffing school, the ball's gotta make a complete revolution.
Ricky (ASR)

this play was used a lot by an argentinian DT in the mexican football this couple years. With his side, Toluca, he made a bunch of goals and maybe spal saw that and try to incorporate into the roma playbook.

In matter of the corner play, you just need to touch the ball. Is juts like a free kick, if you move it, you have to carry on. Thats the rule.
moka

Ok I've watched it 5 times already, and Pizzaro doesn't touch the ball with his foot. He places it with his hand on the corner spot, leaves and Taddei comes in. How the hell is that legitimate?
Ryan

Its usually the ball has to make a complete revolution before it is considered in play, and this year they also changed the rule that the ball has to be passed and not simply rolled by a player's foot (like everyone used to roll it and just stop it immediately after).
Shazback

"The ball is in play when it is kicked and moves."

That's one of the rules of the game when referring to Corner kicks. I think the linesman got it wrong, but it's arguable that Pizarro didn't... move the ball. Touching the ball isn't enough to begin play. It needs to move.

A club in Spain took a free-kick like this a week or something ago, and it was fine... Because the ball had been moved clearly (about 2-3 feet).