We can put a man on the moon but we still can't determine if the whole of the ball crosses the whole of the line! I was in the Liverpool end at the cup final, in line with the corner flag in the second tier, and it looked to me that the ball had crossed. Cech was behind the line when he scooped the ball onto the bar and it bounced down the safe side of the line. It follows a catelogue of similar controversies and its a bit ironic that Chelsea scored a goal that never was in the semi and benefited from a very dodgy line call at 2-1 up in the final. As a referee myself over many years the one thing I have to be certain of is that the whole of the ball has to cross the whole of the line without a foul or infringement being committed in the build up. This is what constitutes a valid goal. The football authorities must now bring in technology once and for all to minimise basic mistakes. I was gutted yesterday, my wife is a lifelong Liverpool supporter as she comes from the area. I have always had a soft spot for them as well and so to lose in that manner was a bit hard to take. How can a multi Billion pounds industry be allowed to be run by amateurs!
I thought at first that it was a goal, but after several replays, which the officials don't have the use of, I am now fairly confident that "no goal" was the correct call! Of course, you can't be sure that the angle of the TV camera was correct!
I think the problem is that the 'line' that was shown on TV was in fact the cross bar. im fairly sure that the goal line itself is not as thick as the crossbar. That said, if in doubt, and there were millimetres in it, you can't give it. For me, the argument for goal line technology is to prevent mistakes, I don't think you can argue that anyone's made a mistake on this occasion.
