By Our Mystery Correspondent P.Dantic.
Of the many dumb things that commentators can say, it seems to me that ‘It could’ve gone anywhere’ is one of the dumbest. They tell us ‘It could’ve gone anywhere’ when the ball rebounds in a crazy unpredictable way. They’re letting us know that, while the ball may have gone where it went, it could have gone somewhere different.
First of all this fast and loose ricocheting can happen to the ball many times during every game, on pretty much most parts of any football pitch. We don’t need to see it listed in among the official match stats for us to all know that the ball spends large chunks of any given game ‘could’ve going anywhere’. But what’s odd and unusual is that, although the commentators say ‘It could’ve gone anywhere’, they don’t say it when a deflection happens anywhere. Did you ever hear any commentator say ‘It could’ve gone anywhere’ after any one of the berserk harum-scarum rebounds in every one of the many and varied other locations? They will only say ‘It could’ve gone anywhere’ when the ball is turned aside from a straight course or its intended purpose in one of the two penalty areas. As they like to say, ‘If that happens anywhere else on the pitch. It’s not mentioned. But if it happens in the penalty box then ‘It could’ve gone anywhere’.
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