I have seen Palace concede in some strange ways over the years. A deflection off a fan’s coat is about as wild as it has got. But I have never seen a team concede two goals at the same moment, in the same net, from two different balls. That is what happened in China League One at the weekend, and the more I think about it, the more I believe everyone involved did something wrong, apart from one man.
It was a rare piece of football chaos, and it is worth looking at in detail, because the funny part is only half the story.
What Happened
Shaanxi Union were at home to Foshan Southern Lions and went on to win 5-1. But the match everyone is talking about was decided by none of those goals.
Early in the second half, the ball went off the side of the pitch for a throw-in. A second ball was sitting on a cone beside the pitch, and when the throw was taken, that ball was kicked into play too. Suddenly two balls were on the field at the same time.
Shaanxi Union did not notice. They launched a quick counter-attack with one of the balls, believing it was the match ball. Foshan striker Mame Ndiaye was the only person who seemed to understand what was happening. He kicked the other ball back towards his own goal, trying to signal to everyone that there was a second ball in play.
Nobody picked up on it. Goalkeeper Shi Xiaotian was left looking at two footballs heading straight for him. He saved a long-range shot from one of them, but spilled it, and an attacker poked it into the net. At the same moment, the other ball rolled between his legs and into the goal.
Only then did the referee stop play. The Foshan players surrounded him in protest, and he disallowed both goals.
Watch here:
How a Second Ball Gets Onto the Pitch
This is the part that bothers me. A ball on a cone at the side of the pitch is not an accident. Clubs keep spare balls at the edge of the field so play can restart quickly when one goes out, and the habit is common at every level of football.
The risk is obvious, and it is why those spare balls are supposed to be controlled. The ball boys, the fourth official and the officials around the pitch share responsibility for keeping them out of play. In this case a spare ball was kicked on during a throw-in, and nobody stopped it.
I do not want to be too hard on a single ball boy. It is easy to blame whoever is nearest. But the system around the pitch let a second ball get into the game, and that is something every club and referee team should be able to prevent.
The Referee Got the Decision Right and the Timing Wrong
Here is where I would be tough. The Laws of the Game are clear that an extra ball on the field has to be dealt with if it interferes with play, and in this case it interfered completely. Two balls ended up in the net, so the only fair outcome was to disallow both goals, and the referee did.
The problem is that he let it happen first. He allowed the attack to continue, he watched two balls go in, and only then did he blow his whistle. A referee who spots a second ball while it is moving towards a goal should stop the game immediately. Waiting until both had crossed the line turned a mistake into a farce.
It is also worth remembering what the opposite looks like. In October 2009, Darren Bent scored for Sunderland against Liverpool after his shot deflected off a beach ball thrown on from the crowd. The referee, Mike Jones, allowed the goal, and it decided the game 1-0. That one caused arguments for years. This referee let a game go on with two balls and ended up disallowing both, which at least is the sensible result.
Poor Mame Ndiaye
The man I feel sorry for is Ndiaye. He was the only player on the pitch who noticed the problem and tried to fix it. By kicking the second ball away from the attack, he was doing exactly what a sensible professional should.
He was shown a yellow card for it. The referee booked him for unsportsmanlike conduct for kicking the ball towards his own net, according to the Sun, and it is hard to see the logic. He was trying to help the officials, he was not trying to gain an advantage, and he was the only person who spotted that something had gone badly wrong.
I would have shown him a thumbs-up. If you want to look at it in a more cynical way, a player who knocks the ball towards his own goal to stop an attack deserves a talking to. But a yellow card for trying to restore order is the sort of decision that makes referees look as though they are covering for their own mistake.
Spare a Thought for the Goalkeeper
The other man who deserves some sympathy is Shi Xiaotian. He is standing on his goal line, and he suddenly sees two balls coming at him from different directions. He saves one and spills it, and the other rolls through his legs.
There is no coaching manual that covers that. Whatever he did, he was going to concede something. It is a situation that no goalkeeper has ever trained for, and I would not blame him for any of it. If I am being unkind, I might say that the only goalkeeper who has ever come out of a two-ball situation looking good has been the one who was nowhere near it.
The Protest and the Joke
Foshan’s players surrounded the referee after the two goals went in, which is understandable but a little strange, since both goals counted for Shaanxi Union and ended up being disallowed. The visiting team had every reason to be furious about the stoppage coming so late.
The online reaction was pretty much what you would expect. Fans called it ridiculous and asked how it was possible to score two goals at the same time. One Chinese supporter joked that it should be counted as two points, which is the best line I have read about the whole thing.
My Verdict
My view is that the referee made the right call, made it too late, and then compounded it by booking the one player who tried to help. The ball boys and officials around the pitch should have kept the extra ball out of play, and the whole sequence is a lesson in why spare balls need to be controlled.
It is easy to laugh at China League One for this, but I would be careful before piling on. Every league has its share of embarrassing moments, and the Premier League has had plenty of its own officiating controversies. What makes this one special is how perfectly it captures football’s capacity for absurdity. Two goals, two balls, and a scoreline that stayed exactly the same.
