It is time FIFA bring in some balance in the protection of goalkeepers and punish them when they commit dreadful fouls
Goalkeepers are the most protected species in soccer, andoften for good reason. But long gone are the days when heavyweight forwardscould get away with battering the keepers during corner kicks and free kicks. Sometimes,however, that protectiveness can go too far. It happened over the weekend, whenAldo Simoncini, the goalie of San Marino, recklessly charged off his line. Hehit England winger Theo Walcott so late and so high with his body-check thatWalcott spent the night in a hospital. Walcott was lucky that the damageappears to be no more than a bruised lung, which might keep him out of actionfor two weeks. Simoncini was more than lucky that the referee gave no foul, nopenalty and no red card for dangerous play.
Aldo Junior Simoncini, trained as an accountant, is hisrepublic’s goalie because nobody else fancies his thankless task of picking theball out of the net more often than any other keeper in the world. Theo JamesWalcott is unquestionably faster than any player Simoncini has played against. Simonciniis not a high-quality keeper. His timing and not just in that hit on Walcott tellsyou that. We should accept that he is not a malicious person, and hiscontrition after he came out of his goal looked genuine enough. His foot washigh when he barged with his body into Walcott’s chest, knocking the breath outof the Englishman.
Quite likely, the referee, who these days is wired for soundto his assistant, gave Simoncini the benefit of the doubt because he is apart-time player who got his timing hopelessly wrong. But why no penalty? Whyno red card for dangerous play? Why should violence causing actual harm becondoned? There might be two conclusions: One that Mazeika was not up to thejob, and the other was that he made allowances for a goalkeeper who was out ofhis depth, given the quickness of the opponent. If it was the latter, then theFIFA-registered match official failed to put the health of players first.
FIFA must also take some responsibility for the inequalitythat brought Simoncini and Walcott together. They play the same sport, butEngland is ranked fifth in the world, San Marino shares 207th, and last place,with Bhutan and Turks and Caicos Islands. The mismatch is enshrined in thepolicy of FIFA, and UEFA, to give the minnows every chance to be squashed inthe name of progress. Astonishingly, the stadium was almost full.
Perhaps this spoke volumes for the English obsession withsoccer, possibly it rewarded some astute lowering of ticket prices, or maybethe English could not resist a ritual hammering of a hapless opponent. Chamberlainbeautifully chipped a goal, his first in senior international soccer. At justover 19 years, the youngster is swifter, stronger and younger than his father,Mark Chamberlain, was when he scored his only England goal at Wembley in 1982.
