Check With the Linesman Before You Celebrate

By: Daryl | February 26th, 2008

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9V_eoM0iHE

Not a good day for Real Madrid, but at least the club managed to match Barcelona’s claim on most original goal celebration of the weekend. I’ve never seen anything like this before. Here’s what happened:

Raul squares to Arjen Robben, Arjen Robben sidefoots it home. Real Madrid celebrate. But they don’t notice the linesman’s flag signalling Raul was offside. So while Madrid’s players congratulate each other, Getafe take the ball up the other end, outnumber the handful of Madrid players who were actually paying attention, and Ikechukwu Uche scores. 1-0 to Getafe and that’s how it stayed.

The whole thing is perfectly captured by the close up on Arjen Robben’s face. First he’s running around celebrating and his expression says “Joy! I’ve scored,” then a few moments later he’s rooted to the spot and his expression says “Wait…. what???”

If you squint hard enough you can also see that the gameclock reads 17:59 (in the second half) when Robben puts the ball in the net and thinks it’s 1-0 to Madrid. By 18:26, it’s 1-0 to Getafe. From one up to one down in 27 seconds.

Some Related Stories:

Category: Spain La Liga

« Offside Sound-Off: 15 Questions For The Fans | Home | Oscar De la Hoya Buys Him Some Dynamo »

The Offside RSS Feeds

mele419

If I could find that announcer, I'd punch him in the back of the head.
Hana

Oh dear me, I cannot stop laughing at Robben. Great find.
Jay

Brings a smile to my face every time I see this vid.
derek

It was a nice move by Getafe to score as well. They didn't exactly walk it in. Nice crisp, accurate passing.
Juliet

An instant classic.
JT

Even at the youth level, they say play to the whistle, or the flag in this case. People will says that Getafe were unsporting by starting play so quickly, but you can be damn sure that Real would have done it if the situation was reversed, and been proud of it.

Which brings up another point, why do defenders consistently slow down or stop completely to signal offside? I laugh heartily when they get burned for their stupidity.
Daryl

It's been replaced now. We'll see how long this one lasts...
Anthony

That was the fastest I've seen a video taken down.