Tournament News
Fabiano admits handling ball
2010-06-21 08:09
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Johannesburg - Luis Fabiano ended a six-match scoring drought in style on Sunday, helping Brazil beat the Ivory Coast 3-1 with a powerful shot from a difficult angle and then a goal that followed a controversial hand ball.
Luis Fabiano scored his first international goal in more than nine months in the 25th minute. He jumped over a challenge before firing his angled shot into the top of the net before the goalkeeper could raise his arms to block it.
"I knew it was going to happen," Luis Fabiano said. "I had been trying and I knew that I had to keep insisting. The ball would eventually get in."
The first goal ended the drought, but it was his second that was the talking point after the game.
He beat two defenders in the area, but replays showed he used an arm twice to control the ball before his volleyed shot.
"It's true, the ball really touched my hand and then my shoulder," he said. "But it was involuntary. It was one of the greatest goals I've scored in my career."
The French referee went to Luis Fabiano immediately after the goal and appeared to indicate he thought the ball came off the Brazilian striker's shoulder rather than arm.
"I don't know what he was saying, I didn't understand a thing," the 29-year-old Luis Fabiano said.
The Sevilla striker celebrated his first goal by showing six fingers with his hands, honoring the sixth birthday of his daughter Giovanna, which happened two days previously. He said the second goal was for his other daughter, Gabriela.
Last year at the Confederations Cup, Luis Fabiano also scored on Giovanna's birthday and honored her in similar fashion.
Luis Fabiano was the top scorer in last year's Confederations Cup with five goals, helping Brazil win the title with two goals in a 3-2 win over the United States in the final.
After scoring two goals against Argentina in Rosario on September 5, he had been blanked in his six following matches. He hadn't even been able to score against the lowly African teams that Brazil picked to play its warm-ups ahead of the World Cup - Zimbabwe and Tanzania.
The striker arrived in South Africa nursing a sore left thigh that forced him out of several matches last season.
He now has an impressive 27 goals in 40 matches with Brazil.