And there we were, thinking he’d given the ‘keeper the eyes…
Everton, you may have heard, got their preseason up and running in emphatic fashion last week. Towards the end of their training camp in Austria, they agreed to play a friendly against local side ATV Irdning to help the club mark its 60th anniversary, eventually winning the game 22 (twenty-two) -0.
For obvious reasons, word of the game spread quickly across social media, as did footage of one of Everton’s final goals of the afternoon, scored by Nicola Vlasic.
Here, watch. And if you’ve somehow managed to avoid this over the last few days, very well done.
Everton 20-0 ATV Irdning.
Here’s the latest goal: pic.twitter.com/wzjFoAFzeC
— joel (@jbrookes7) July 14, 2018
Irdning’s goalkeeper, Wolfgang Zelzer, makes absolutely zero attempt to prevent the goal, something many assumed was his way of showing that, having already been beaten 19 times by this point, he’d well and truly had enough.
This, however, was not the case at all.
Under a heading of ‘Fake News’, a statement posted on Irdning’s official website clarifies what actually happened.
It explains that the referee’s assistant had raised his flag to give Vlasic offside, something which took place out of shot of the footage circulated on social media. Because of this, the goalkeeper stopped and waited for the referee to blow his whistle. Unfortunately for him, the man in the middle decided to overrule his assistant, allowing play to continue and the goal to stand. A shame, really. You get the impression this could’ve been a pivotal moment in the game…
‘At first the situation looked very strange indeed,’ the statement reads. ‘For the 293 visitors in the stadium it was totally clear what happened.
‘Our goalkeeper Wolfgang Zelzer is a very fair sportsman and would never give up during the match,’ the statement added.
Well. That’s that cleared up then. We’re already looking forward to next summer’s rematch.
