Dortmund - Malaga

[Ron Obvious]

Holy crap, what a finish! I'm actually glad I was fairly neutral in this one. Malaga fans must feel absolutely gutted.

Nobody else seems to have noticed it, but that first Dortmund goal was an own-goal, I think. It's hard to see at normal speed because both players have pink boots, but I think it was actually the Malaga player who shot it into his own net.

There was some controversy over the winning goal being off-side, but I haven't seen an angle confirming that. I know the final touch couldn't have been from an off-side position because there was a Malaga player behind the goal and the keeper was in front of the goalscorer. This was similar to the van Nistlerooy goal scored in the Euro's a few years back for Holland against Italy, where an Italian was far behind the goalline which had meant Van Nistlerooy was on-side but looked off-side.

In any case, Malaga's second certainly was off-side, so they shouldn't have any complaints. Their owner is already making an ass of himself in a series of angry tweets alleging racist conspiracies at UEFA. What a low-class buffoon.

I was complaining about boring interviews a few days ago. I liked this one:

[Upton]

1. I watched the replay on FSC..after I heard about the ending.

Yeah, you could say the 2nd Malaga goal was offside, and as a neutral it's better for my CL viewing pleasure that Dortmund won, but how can the officials miss at least 4 players offside?



http://balls.ie/football/incredible-finish-to-the-dortmund-vs-malaga-game-gifs/

[Ron Obvious]

3. Thanks for the link...

I watched it on FSC live, and they didn't give me a replay angle that showed it clearly and there was no post-game, but it does look like the initial pass into the box is indeed offside.

Fair result and crazy fun for the neutrals, but damn rough on the Malaga supporters and Pelligrini.

[Aquavit]

2. The final 5 minutes of this one were outstanding.

As a massive Bayern homer, I was really impressed by Dortmund's performance once they fell behind. The last goal was not offside, as there was a Malaga defender basically on/just past the goal line (and still in front of Santana) as Santana tapped the ball in.

Loved the Klopp reaction afterward too. I really like him and the excitability that he brings to Dortmund, and had we not signed Pep I would have been very happy to see him take the helm at Munich next year!

My dreams of an all-German final lives on, through at least this afternoon!

[Ron Obvious]

4. Crazy stuff

Those last few minutes of madness, with all tactics thrown out and just a sheer mad scramble in the box were the stuff of legend. Endings like that are why football arouses so much more passion than any other sport, in my opinion. I don't think I can think of any other sport were fortunes can shift so rapidly and the margins between exhilaration and despair are so tiny and subject to the whims of fate, luck, and human error.

I'm hoping for a German semi and a Spanish semi, but no matter how the draw turns out, there will be those alleging it was rigged. This will give us the German-Spanish final which we missed out on in the euros.

Good luck today. I can't see Juve scoring three unanswered goals, though, so I'll be watching the other semi.

[Aquavit]

5. Football vs. other sports

I would say that baseball comes close to eliciting as much passion as football, at least here in the states, but that's the only other sport I can think of that is even in the conversation.

Would UEFA really allow die Klassiker/el Classico ahead of the final? That would drive ratings for the semi through the ceiling I'm sure, but the final could become anticlimactic.

[Ron Obvious]

6. Would it?

I seem to recall finals featuring teams from the same country draw a smaller audience world-wide, but I don't know where I read that.

[Aquavit]

7. We'll know tomorrow!

The draw is tomorrow, so I guess we'll know then!