.................and what should the referee's decision be if the ball had gone straight into the goal without that defender touching it?
Can't remember how the play started. Was it a free kick or did the keeper just play out from the back? If it was a free kick, isn't it some oddity like a corner? Something obscure.
If the keeper had the ball in hand when he kicked it out, the goal would have stood. If he was taking a dead ball goal kick after the ball had gone out of play and nobody else had touched it before it went into the net, the ref should award a corner kick to the opposition.
I wasn't sure, but had heard it being something odd before. Does the same apply if it was an outfield player taking the free kick? What if it was a goal kick?
Anybody could take the kick, as long as the ball had gone "dead" and a goal kick was being taken. Someone has to touch the ball for it to be "back in play" otherwise the kicker would have deemed to have put the ball behind his own goal line and a corner would be the correct decisison.
