A phantom goal sounds like a power up in Mario Soccer (or should I say Super Mario Strikers), as in it sounds like the ball turned into some sort of ghost and diffused into the back of the net. It sounds pretty sweet, really, but sadly there are no ghosts involved in this real life phantom goal.
It was scored by Bayer Leverkusen’s Stefan Kiessling against Hoffenheim in the Bundesliga, and while there are no ghosts, it certainly seems to defy explanation at first.
As soon as I watched it happen I rewound and watched it over and over, about 5 times. Each of those 5 times I was convinced I had just seen the on-field version of some David Blaine street magic. Then I let the video finish and saw that there was just a hole in the net. If I had such a hard time understanding what had happened, it’s no surprise that the referee gave the goal when all he could do was watch it in real time. I’m pretty sure even the goalie thought the goal was legit, and he was right there.
For those of you wondering about the "Thomas Helmer phantom goal" the narrator in the video talks about, here it is. Just be warned, it doesn’t have anything on Kiessling’s ghost goal. The referee just screwed up big time.
Going back to Kiessling’s phantom goal, it is pretty ridiculous that the referee couldn’t take the goal away once he saw the hole in the net that allowed the ball in. Maybe he didn’t trust the Hoffenheim players. Maybe the rules in soccer just don’t allow a referee to go back on a decision once it's made. Either way, Hoffenheim got screwed, and I doubt many at Leverkusen would have protested much had the referee reversed his call.
Follow me on Twitter: @yetly
