Global Soccer A Beautiful Goal Contrasted With So Much Ugliness By ROB HUGHES LONDON â It was the goal of a playerâs lifetime. Sebastian Larsson, a Swede who cost nothing when he changed clubs this summer, raised his body horizontal to the ground, kept his eyes on the ball, and executed the perfect volley to score with a perfectly timed cross shot. Hold that image. It is what sport is about: technique meeting free expression inside one of soccerâs cathedrals, Liverpoolâs Anfield Stadium. With Larssonâs goal, Sunderland held Liverpool, 1-1, on Saturday. The 26-year-old Swede has just begun his third major career move after being let go by Arsenal and then Birmingham City. He is too modest to go around boasting about his talents, but he may keep the video of that goal to show any grandchildren. His quality is to be seen but not heard. That is why I suggest holding onto that image. Its beauty was buried beneath invective from another Premier League match that, unavoidably, filled television screens across the globe. Newcastle United versus Arsenal did not have a goal to compare to Larssonâs. It had no goals and few delights. What gave this match its worldwide attention was notoriety. ESPN broadcast it on a global scale after selecting it because, last February, Newcastle had provided one of the all-time comebacks to wipe out a four-goal Arsenal lead and finish all-square at 4-4. This time, alas, there was only caution, ineptitude and downright violence by the assembled multimillionaire players. Both teams ignored pleas from the gameâs rulers and from their own playersâ union, begging them to behave responsibly. Their game was allowed to go ahead despite the drain on police staffing after a week of mob violence, arson, looting and murder in Englandâs cities. The resumption of the Premier League, everyone said, was important to show the world that England was not a lawless state. It was vital that the players showed respect to one another, and to their âpolicemen,â the referees. Neither side at Newcastle was equal to that basic requirement. Newcastle is a one-club town, and its St Jamesâs Park stadium produces a fevered atmosphere. That fever was extenuated after an hour of uneventful play when Arsenalâs Alex Song stamped on the calf of the grounded Joey Barton. Barton yelped in pain, leapt to his feet and ran to match officials calling for his opponent to be sent off. The arbiters had seen nothing. The television replays of Songâs stomp on Barton left little doubt that it was premeditated, spiteful and potentially injurious. That video evidence will probably persuade the soccer authorities to bar Song for three matches. He might claim provocation because Barton is the most provocative player in England. Barton has a talent for this game, but a vituperative, ugly character. A week before this season began, Newcastle said he was a free agent and anybody who would take him was welcome to him. No English club has yet done so, but there was reported interest from Zenit St. Petersburg. The Russians, apparently, would pay Barton $110,000 a week, tax free, to play there. England might say good riddance. For Barton has used up any amount of attempts to pardon his foul temper and his criminal violence. He was jailed for six months in 2008 for his part in a mob assault on a student outside a McDonaldâs restaurant in Liverpoolâs city center. That same year, he was convicted in another court for assaulting Ousmane Dabo â a teammate of his when they were Manchester City players â so badly that Dabo was taken to a hospital with severe eye damage. Barton has undergone anger management therapy, and been granted countless fresh starts after several events that include assaulting a 15-year-old Everton supporter in Thailand, stubbing a lit cigar into the face of a Manchester City reserve team player, punching a Blackburn opponent last November and two acts of obscenities toward spectators. He appeared the victim in that 60th-minute stomping by Song. The Arsenal player himself faces court action in Cameroon later this month after a nightclub brawl in his hometown of Douala, where he was charged with the malicious wounding of a student in June. We are still talking here of a sport, right? Well, if only we could dwell on Larssonâs fine moment and leave the unsavory behind. We would be negligent to do so. Barton was not going to lie down and take what had happened to him quietly, and within 15 minutes he was the spark to a mass brawl on the field. He decided, almost certainly wrongly, that Arsenalâs new player, the Ivory Coast international Gervinho, had made a dive in the penalty box to try to cheat the referee. The ref, as it happened, refused the penalty and turned his back toward the prone figure of Gervinho. At that moment, Barton took the law, and Gervinho, into his own hands. Barton grabbed Gervinho with both hands near his neck. He hauled him up by the shirt, shouting abuse into the Arsenal playerâs face. Players on both sides jostled around, and Gervinho, angered and possibly afraid, slapped out in Bartonâs direction. His open hand lightly brushed Bartonâs cheek, whereupon Barton collapsed to the ground, feigning injury. The referee Peter Walton, an experienced man who represents other Premier League match officials as a spokesman, listened to his linesmen. He then dismissed Gervinho with a red card, and cautioned Barton with a yellow. The managers of Arsenal and Newcastle took diametrically opposite views on everything. Arsenalâs Arsène Wenger saw it as a clear penalty, and at its worst a fight that should have resulted in two red cards, or none. Newcastleâs Alan Pardew viewed it as an attempt to cheat by Gervinho, an acceptable and âcalmâ reaction by his man Barton, and an outrageous overreaction by Gervinho. EPSNâs spin on it all was dominated by Robbie Savage, a recently retired player turned television pundit. âI was one of the dirtiest players there has ever been in the Premier League,â Savage said. âI smashed into players, but in a fair way.â Villainy on the field, judged on air by a soccer miscreant-turned-cult figure. Maybe we should all run and rerun Larssonâs goal, and switch off the other stuff.
Usual stuff, Barton was in the wrong, everybody else was right. To say that Gervinho lashed out because he was afraid is absolutely laughable. He's right about the Larsson goal though, it was a stunning finish.
barton should be banned for three games and so should song and gervinho.. end of the day you cant lift your hands to any player and on the same note you cant grab someone from the floor by there neck...
Should have stopped there..he should have been banned and prevented from making a good living from this game years ago.PS..great read Scatty..
I was unimpressed with what looked like a dive from Gerviniho, but Barton had no right to do what he did, regardless of what had happened before. To say he was afraid is dumb. They had been pulled apart when he slapped him, which was idiotic. Barton's reaction to the 'slap' was disapointing, but what Taylor did was disgraceful, and to then lie makes it worse. Song, Barton and Gerviniho should all be banned for three games
