Soccer sportsmanship can be hard to define

Asahi - The crowd was in a tumult over a penalty kick. But the ball missed the goal widely, and the stadium erupted in thunderous applause.

This was a scene from a recent international friendship soccer match in Hong Kong. According to a local newspaper and other media, what happened was as follows:

The match was between Denmark and Iran. Just before the end of the first half, someone in the stands blew a whistle. An Iranian player mistook it for the end signal and picked up the ball by hand. The referee called a foul, and awarded a penalty kick to the Danish team. The Iranians protested the call, fans booed, and the stadium atmosphere turned ugly.

The captain of the Danish team missed the goal on purpose. ``You can't punish that hapless Iranian player for picking up the ball,'' he said in a post-match interview. ``And it's not fair to take advantage of a situation like Athis.''

Denmark lost the game 1-0, but won the hearts of many people.

This episode made me wonder what players would have done, had this been something very important like a qualifying match for the World Cup. Would they have aimed for the goal without a moment's hesitation because rules are rules? Or would they still have missed on purpose? They would have been in a real dilemma.

A similar situation befell Mizushima Industrial Senior High School, the winner of the Okayama Prefecture high school soccer championship last year. The final match went into overtime, and Mizushima's opponent scored what would have been the winning goal, except the referee refused to recognize the goal.

In the end, Mizushima picked up the win in shootout. But the team and their coach agonized over whether to forfeit their berth in the national championship series. The team eventually accepted the berth, but one talented member sat out the series. ``We lost the prefectural championship match,'' he explained.

This is not a matter of making value judgments. I personally can relate equally to the Danish captain and the Mizushima boys-the former for making that instantaneous decision, and the latter for agonizing over their decision. I keep wondering what I would have done.