Chris Rattue: Phoenix beaten by LA, not just hand ball

Chris Payne's pivotal hand-ball goal for Sydney FC gave the Wellington Phoenix an excuse they hardly deserved. Photo / Getty Images

A cheating Aussie has given Fifa more food for thought, but soccer should be thankful the oft-criticised Sepp Blatter isn't making a meal of the problem of wrongly-awarded goals.

Teenage substitute Chris Payne's pivotal hand-ball goal for Sydney FC gave the Wellington Phoenix an excuse they hardly deserved after a lifeless performance in the A-league playoff clash on Saturday night.

Soccer is not always a game of justice, where the better team wins, and had Payne's goal - when he netted via the left forearm - been disallowed, maybe the Phoenix would indeed have risen from the accumulating ashes.

The Phoenix were unable to find new resolve or tactics at 1-2 down. Ricki Herbert's men continued to be ripped apart at the Sydney Football Stadium with only tough midfielder Vince Lia emerging with much credit, although the languid Eugene Dadi was prominent as a replacement.

The dream is over. The soccer fairytale is no more. Melbourne and Sydney are deserved A-league finalists.

The Phoenix fans can put their twirling shirts back on, knowing their team has taken a giant leap forward this year, with the promise - although, given the fickle nature of this business, certainly not an assurance - that there will be a vibrant soccer future in the capital.

There should be good seasons ahead, but there will inevitably be bad, and that's when the acid test will arrive yet again for a sport with big dreams that struggle to ward off the nightmares.

The chickens came home to roost on Saturday night. If rushing over to Los Angeles for an All Whites game had no effect on the Phoenix, as dual coach Herbert claimed, how come key midfielder Tim Brown went Awol on the big stage and had to be dragged midway through the second half?

Brown was probably knackered, and justifiably so after the All Whites match, the travel and two extra-time semifinals.

Payne's second goal, which gave Sydney a 2-1 lead, was a shocker. He lunged for a header but left a trailing arm out as a second option, slamming the ball into the net with a forearm.

Most of the soccer world wouldn't know the difference between the A-League and rugby league so this moment of madness, in front of about 13,000 people in a desolate stadium, will die a quick death.

Argentinian genius Diego Maradona's "Hand of God" will never be forgotten, and French superstar Thierry Henry dominated the headlines for a similar incident last year in a World Cup qualifier, and now Payne sneaks into a broom cupboard in this hall of infamy.

Fifa must take note however. The soccer overlords need more urgency in providing referees with back-up over crucial penalty-area decisions. There are three possible solutions.

Goal-line technology has been developed so that science can determine if a ball has crossed the line.

Instant video scrutiny, where an official or officials "upstairs" review incidents, is common in other sports. Thirdly, extra officials, radio linked to the match referee, could be stationed near each goal.

The goal-line technology is extremely accurate under testing, but Blatter and Fifa are not impressed enough and disputed goals of this sort are rare compared with controversies in the rest of the penalty box.

Video scrutiny is the area where Fifa must tread most carefully, and it should be applauded for a cautious approach in the face of what might be called knee-jerk reactions to Henry's hand ball against the Irish.

The cost is one concern. More importantly, Blatter rightly fears that once video scrutiny of goal-mouth incidents becomes the norm, there will be inevitable demands to bring video stoppages further into the game. This could absolutely ruin the flow and character of soccer.

The third option, of using extra assistants, is the most promising to my mind. Using two more assistants has been experimented with - not entirely successfully according to some reports - in the Europa League.

The word is that there has been insufficient practice for additional assistants to be used at the World Cup, but on this count Blatter and Co should at least have a serious rethink.

With so much warning of trouble, the World Cup would be a disaster should the final or another big match, or even any match, turn on a goal that anyone near a TV set knows is illegal.

As for Payne, he will escape the sort of abuse Henry faced because the majority of sports fans in New Zealand don't give two hoots about the A-League and Payne doesn't even rate as "almost famous".

You can hardly build a controversy around a vital playoff match that barely attracts enough spectators to form a queue at the chip stand. But still, Payne did wrong, and even one of his teammates - Alex Brosque - was quoted as saying the handball appeared intentional.

Having committed the foul though, it is not up to a player to give himself up, as the Aussie commentator Mark Bosnich demanded on Saturday night.

As with video replay, where would the owning up stop - and there would also be honesty and manipulation problems, a la walking in cricket.

Where Fifa is falling down, without an opponent in sight, is in the speed - rather than the direction - at which they are moving. The governing body should have sorted something out in time for this year's World Cup in South Africa.

To leave goal-mouth officiating to one referee and a linesman - who might have to analyse something which occurs 50 metres away - when super-sharp cameras can pick out the writing on a player's boot is an invitation for controversy and trouble.

Herbert, meanwhile, will be feeling more confident about the All Whites' chances of goal-mouth survival in South Africa with the overseas recruits Tommy Smith and Winston Reid on board.

Herbert's All Whites left-fullback Tony Lochhead was easily pushed off the ball by Payne for Sydney's first goal, a painful reminder of the way Andy Boyens was out-jumped and Ben Sigmund shoved aside by little Mexicans in Pasadena.

Weekend winner:

* The Crusaders - won the crunch New Zealand derby against the flighty Chiefs.

What to watch:

* Finally - the first cricket test against Australia starts in Wellington on Friday.