offer him a waterboy role instead....

terminate his contract lol

Dude, acting ganas behind the computer and sprouting profanities will only highlight how classless you are.

Everybody is frustrated with the result, and Luk did really screw up for the first goal. The second one however was a bit dubious. The replays showed that Luk did receive the back pass with his foot before scooping it up so the ref might have got it wrong. What Luk should do is probably stand his ground and insist his innocence and at least delay returning the ball until everybody is in position. I don't think anyone can complain about Porto's quickly taken freekick especially if the ref has already given the go ahead; Titi used to do this all the time. Refs are becoming more and more useless nowadays so we can never depend on them.

Good things that can be taken from this game:
1. We only need a 1-0 victory at the Grove to proceed.
2. Tommy got another assist.
3. Sol isn't half bad as Silvestre although he's nowhere near his best.

If we truly have secured the services of Chamakh this coming summer, then we probably should focus on getting a keeper while waiting on the progress of Woj and Vito. Luk seems to have lost his head after his injuries while Al is too erratic.

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Feb 18 2010, 12:59 PM

mind explaining?

one thing abt the indirect free kick is why is it a indirect free kick inside the box hahaha wtf. thats mind boggling.

I won't even try to be politically correct here. Fabiansky was very very disappointing for someone who's playing at the highest level of football. Somehow our players are not as sharp in front of the goal and to see all the missed chances was demoralising.

But it was good to see Sol back in action. Reminds me of the old times. It was also great to see him score a goal. Arsenal have to take the game at home on the next leg. I hope Arsene rethinks his strategies & players.

I don't know too much about the rules, but more often than not the keeper is allowed to pick up the ball once he has received it with his feet. It is not uncommon for keepers to receive a back pass, wait for the opponent striker to come, and then scoop it up for a throw or a kick if he feels there is danger. It's only illegal if the defender passes directly into the keeper's hands, and frequently indirect freekicks are given.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xc9qv9_por21

Again, I could be wrong and am happy to be corrected if so.

The goal should stand unfortunately, as it was scored in a legal manner. Whether the ref got it wrong to begin with doesn't change the fact that Luk was horrible in dealing with the second goal.

Anyway, someone at AM noted a funny trend:
Seaman
Manninger
Lehmann
Manual Almunia

So maybe we'll see Vito Mannone as our new number 1 in the near future?

Quick... go google for keepers which M-A-N in their names....

This post has been edited by StarGhazzer: Feb 18 2010, 01:39 PM

we only needed 1-0 to win the game. hope we can score it and keep the cleansheet!

he shouldnt have gave the the ball to the referee if he wants to argue about it. Worse is he turned his back when porto was taking the quick free kick. He didnt even know what happened

Exactly what I said:

It is a backpass Starghazzer(just unintentional from sol).

This post has been edited by frankiejay: Feb 18 2010, 01:50 PM

the more i see fabianksi in arsenal goal, the more i feel arsenal will lose the game.
Vito Mannone is far better options than him..why was Wenger so stubborn??

plz start Mannone against sunderland plz, if not clean sheet, atleast he will only allow 1 goals, while making 10 fantastic saves.

I don't know how accurate it is, but here it is anyway...

Looks like it is really Fabianski's mistake.

This post has been edited by frankiejay: Feb 18 2010, 01:51 PM

If it was a backpass from any other part of the body then yes Fabianski is allowed to do so but if the backpass is done intentionally from the feet then its illegal regardless whether he controlled with his feet or any part of the body first.

In the replay you can clearly see Sol shaping up to sidefoot a pass back to Fabianski however from those replays it is still hard to determine if Sol's feet actually touched the ball. Sol might have miscued with that sidefoot and did not touch the ball leading Fabianski to think that it was safe to catch the ball.

I think wenger expected a DIRECT FREE KICK instead of an indirect one since sol's toe hit the ball back to fabianski unintentionally led to a backpass.

One thing you should know about Indirect FKs:

As soon as the ball is touched, it is in play.

So, It's fabianski's mistake.

This post has been edited by frankiejay: Feb 18 2010, 01:53 PM

the only argument to the awarding of the free kick was that Sol was not intentionally passing the ball back to Lukasz i.e. it's not a backpass. but surely that was stupid from Lukasz to pick up that ball when he can clearly see that the ball did touch Sol's left led

but to be fair to him, i thought he did delay the free kick enough so that the other players coming back to defend the free kick. Sol did tried to come back to defend but was blocked by the referee, but only Sol was there to make any meaningful defensive duties towards that free kick

anyway, i did said last night that we only have ourselves to blame for not winning last night

You are right.

http://www.fifa.com/mm/document/affederati...ofthegameen.pdf

So maybe when the ball was bouncing off Luk's foot, the ref considered it to be 'released from his possession'.

Manuel Neuer Schalke goalkeeper .......i didn't get to watch the match...i've only read it from the match report and some of the comments here....huhuhu....but we still have a chance for then 2nd leg as some players will be returning from injuries....

Porto posed zero threats and yet 2 goals were conceded . What a waste , it could easilly be 1-0 for Arsenal .