Alexis Sanchez’s long run of summer festivities is at an end as Chile failed to qualify for the World Cup in Russia.
They were beaten 3-0 by Brazil in a game they had to win, and will rue defeats against Bolivia and Paraguay in qualification, although as ever there was a bit of Arsenal related drama last night in South America.
Despite being beaten, Chile would have won a place in the playoffs if Colombia had held onto their lead over Peru. However, in the 76th minute the hosts were awarded an indirect free kick from outside the box.
It meant that the ball had to be touched twice, but bizarrely veteran striker Paolo Guerrero curled the ball over the wall straight towards goal.
Even more bizarrely, Arsenal keeper David Ospina made a late effort to keep it out, when he could have just left it, and only succeeded in pushing the ball into the net – giving it the second touch it required.
Guerrero's goal by Peruvian TV.
Narrator: "Indirect free-kick, Paolo!
He takes it… GOAL!
He (Ospina) touched it!
He touched it!" pic.twitter.com/ihNUlVRT3W— FlamengoENG ???? (@FlamengoENG) October 11, 2017
Of course Peru could have scored in the final 15 minutes without that, and Chile really only have themselves to blame for not qualifying, but it was certainly a strange moment to end the group stages of the South American qualifiers.
Alexis will now return to London and we’ll have to wait and see what his frame of mind is like. Infamously, failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup had a very negative effect on Andrei Arshavin, so we’ll have to see how Sanchez – over whom there are already question marks after failing to leave the club this summer – copes with this setback.
Ospina, held high on the shoulders of his teammates after they booked their place in Russia, is probably very happy though.
Shocking keeping on all accounts.
That’s 3 shockers from Ospina in their last 2 qualifiers !
Ospina has been nothing short of appalling recently.
To me this just highlights how much we needed to keep Szczesny.
I’m not sure I will ever get over it, I mean he came to Arsenal aged 16 and actually cared for the club. He couldn’t have done more on loan and now, having spent a decade with arsenal the guy will be spend his prime reaping the rewards as number 1 with Poland and Juventus for the next 10 years.
For fucks sake. Seriously? What an absolutely insane decision to let him go, and for 10m? incredible. It makes me fucking blue.
Time to move on man. Let it go.
He had only 1 year left on his contract. Cech has 2. Why would he come back and sign an extension to know he would be a backup for 2 years? At least there is a “succession” plan at Juve. Who knows what Juve does if Buffon really does retire and if they bring in another goalie.
Who else was going to pay more for him? Only the Prem pays excessive fees for players unless its PSG, Barca or Real.
He’s only a back up at Juve. Lunacy to sell him
Lunacy to keep harping on about it.
I’m glad someone is as angry as I am about selling Szczesny. I think it’s the biggest mistake Aw has ever made. Heaven help us if Cech gets injured. We would have been better keeping Martinez as back up.
I’ve got a really itchy bum!!!
Alexis is gonna be hitting rockets at Ospina in practice!
The one summer Alexis gets a rest and he leaves Arsenal. FFS.
Oh well Alexis, I hope you buy a massive TV with your City’s money to watch Ospina playing in the world cup.
Of course the summer he has no commitments he’ll be resting for another team ?
I was thinking exactly that!
Dustbin dave at his best ????
Quite funny though. Our Chilean mozart ll b watching the world cup via his HD screen. Wouldn’t have wished more for him since he decided not to sign a new contract with us. Giroud, top class squad player any day. Hopefully, Bosscielny makes it through after the Watford game. I trust Wenger to slot in Per or revert to 4-3-3. I wouldn’t mind making space for Ozil behind the forward. This forward line up of Alexis-Laca-Iwobi for the forward three. Midfielders: Ozil-Ramsey/Eleny-Xhaka. Defense – Bellerin-Per-Monreal-Kolasinac. GK – Cech. I believe we have a decent squad to compete with the top… Read more »
Before I say this I’d like to point out that I’m not a fan of Ospina (I wanted us to get rid of him and retain (home grown) Szczesny). I don’t get what people expect him to have done there. How would he know if it was indirect or not? I didn’t even realise there was still such a thing as an indirect free-kick any more (I thought the rule had been changed to get rid of them, for some reason), so I don’t know how he’s expected to know what is and isn’t one. What would people have said… Read more »
seriously?
the ref signals that the free kick is indirect (hence why several Colombia players were confused why the goal stood, as they hadn’t realised that Ospina had touched it)
there’s just so much wrong with your post that it’s hard to respond seriously
OK I’m obviously very unobservant. What is the signal for an indirect free-kick? I’ve never paid any attention to the referee to know.
As I said, I thought the indirect free kick had been abolished as well. Am I imagining things or was there some change with regards to when indirect free kicks could be awarded?
For an indirect kick, the referee will hold one arm straight up in the air until the second person touches the ball. No arm up or pointing towards the goal indicates a direct kick. In general, a direct kick comes from a contact foul or hand ball. Everything else is indirect.
Thanks for the response. Informative without being patronising and pompous.
The signal for an indirect free kick is when the referee has his hand up in the air until the free kick is taken. VERY obvious to see.
Let’s not imagine that the laws are very important. Two current examples: The laws say that the ball should be kicked forwards at kick off, but this has been abolished in practice – only one man enters the circle and plays it back to his team mates (minor, I realise). The law still states that obstruction (i.e. not playing the ball) is worthy of an indirect free kick but this is also ignored and accepted by all. The ball is shepharded out of play 10 times per game every weekend, with the defender leaning back onto the striker and not… Read more »
Wrong and wrong, I’m afraid. The laws were changed specifically to allow the backwards kick-off, and shepherding the ball out of play is not obstruction because by shielding it you are in fact making a play on the ball. Also, it’s no longer called “obstruction”, it’s called “impeding”. An example of impeding in the situation you describe would be where one defensive player shields the ball and another defensive player impedes the forward from trying to reach the ball. In that case, the defender who is preventing the forward from reaching the ball is not playing the ball, so he… Read more »
I agree with you Alex.
Shielding the ball is ok. i.e. keeping the ball in your possession.
But blocking an opponent from reaching it, by physically leaning into the attacker rather than actually playing for the ball, is a blight on the game.
Just like defenders holding attackers on set pieces.
However, we will be stuck with both issues forever…
So we have to accept it and move on!
(Although I personally don’t want to engage in these actions)
I agree it’s very harsh.
A keeper has milliseconds, probably during a dive, to determine whether the ball took even the slightest touch off, in this case, a player in the wall.
I always thought indirect meant another player, other than the keeper, had to touch it for a goal to count.
True, I didn’t know the GKs touch/save can be counted as the second touch in an indirect FK. Agree it’s very harsh to blame Ospina for this. If it had touched the wall even slightly, and Ospina had left it, ppl would be arguing that Ospina is at fault and he’s a GK he should always try to make the save.
Take it from a Colombian national…on Peruvian and Colombian punditry it was determined and admitted by the referee that the ball touches a man in the wall’s hair on the way in if even the slightest of touch, so it wouldn’t have mattered whether Ospina touches it or not.
What I saw in the match was that the ref pointed to his hand trying to imply that the goal was allowed because Ospina’s touch… now, what I feel Ospina thought was that James Rodriguez touched it with his head so he tried to make the save and by his angle is diffucult to decide. I think people is harsh with David but some fans love to mock/balme him even by the smallest mistake.
I also think this is harsh because indirect free kicks can and have been given in the past inside the box. There was that famous one from Alan Shearer but even he had a team mate touch it before he blasted it into the net, but if you can just play it off an opponent, it would be harder to defend against.
Never knew an indirect free kick counts if a keeper touches it.
Very harsh in my opinion.
If a goalkeeper touches the ball straight from a throw-in does it count as a goal? I feel like I’m completely ignorant of the rules all of a sudden!
Of course it would count. Simply an own goal, same if the throw-in comes into the box and a defender deflects it into his own net.
Just like this one clips the keeper on the way in. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WTzO4nhUBXs
Chile, Netherlands, Uganda. Three giants of world football narrowly miss out on the world cup
Did you say Uganda? Come on!
Uganda be kidding me
Maybe he’s thinking Uruguay? Or maybe just teasing the Ugandans….
Think he meant Ghana..
Sanchez will now play casual non committal football in my opinion. We should try and force a winter window sell if that’s the case. I hope I’m proven wrong. I’d love to see Sanchez put in his best game – something I am skeptical about happening. Now is really the period which will define his character. Tough on Chile to not qualify.
interlull is over but we’ve two players returning with possibly broken soul and another staring at potential lengthy layoff…
In case anyone was wondering what the translation for the commentary is:
‘GoooooaaalllgolgolgoooooaalgogogoaliogoalGOAAALgoGOgoGOAAAAALLL.Goal.Goal.Gol.GOAOAOAOAL … GOAL!’
is the direct translation to the British of
‘goal’.
Alexis deserves to play for a country that qualifies for the World Cup. He needs to transfer to Brazil
This is so correct. They have no ambition at Chile, don’t could not even get in the right players to qualify them for the WC.
Its not the team’s fault but the prime minister’s fault holding back Tax-payers money and not getting players like Messi,Ronaldo,Neymar in ….No ambiton
Quite apart from the fact that it was indirect and he should have left it he should have saved it anyhow, shocking goalkeeping all round, honestly what is he doing at Arsenal.
Ospina did it on purpose. Sanchez is constantly making fun of his English
Rather than focusing on Ospina let’s focus on Chile as a team. They should’ve never ever been fighting to qualify. Karma came back to bite them in the ass, should’ve been even further down the table had it not been for the 3 points they got from the Bolivia game through litigation.
“… failure to qualify for the 2010 World Cup had a very negative effect on Andrei Arshavin…”
So if we see a Ginsters truck pull up outside Sanchez’s place we should be very worried?
If you watch the replay of the goal he goes for the ball because maybe he tought James Rodriguez touched the ball in the trayectory. Feel bad for Ospina because he plays for Arsernal and gets criticized then plays for Colombia and still gets criticized, and his errors are constantly pointed out in this blog. I know he hasn’t been good the last games with the national team but he alone has given the team way more points than the ones he has gave away (only vs Paraguay). I understand that fans prefered Szczesny but he deserves a bit of… Read more »
I wonder if this means Alexis still leaves in November during the break? Just to say Fuck you to Arsenal?
If he did it unintentionally then he is really a bad keeper, Lol