So I saw the highlight briefly on the internet but haven't been near a TV since the dramatic goal yesterday.

For you soccer afficianados, I am curious - the first shot on goal bounced off the keeper and Donovan put in the rebound (if that's the proper term). After the first shot, someone before Donovan ran though and it appears as if he made contact with the keeper. COuld that have been interpretted as some form of interference and the goal disallowed?

Nope. They were both going for the ball, perfectly legal to contact the keeper if he doesn't have control of the ball and you're both making a play for it.

OK - thanks.

His question was "could" it have been so interpreted, and the way things have been going for us, the answer has to be yes. Or the goal could have been disallowed because the referee thought he saw the dead rising from their graves.

Check out the first four minutes of last night's The Daily Show

I will preface this post by saying that I know nothing about soccer, other than a bunch of guys kick a ball around (and other than the goalie, they aren't allowed to use their hands) and try to kick it into their opponents goal.

I was having lunch with a co-worker and he was explaining that soccer really doesn't have any rules: they are all laws (although I am not sure why that distinction is important) and the referee has a lot of leeway as whether something is a foul or not. Also, the ref doesn't need to even explain what an exact penalty was - he can just say there was a penalty.

Is this effectively correct? Sounds mighty bizarre to me.

Not entirely accurate. Some rules have specific definitions. For example, the definition of offside is when an offensive player goes past all defensive players (except for the keeper) before the ball does (there's more detail than that in the full definition, but that's a mostly accurate summary). There should technically be no room for "interpretation" or "leeway" on that, either you're offside or you're not. Of course, it comes down to whether the refs see it accurately (or are being paid off).

But yes, there are other things that are less precisely defined, mostly revolving around physical contact. You're allowed physical contact as long as it's not dangerous and doesn't give you an unfair advantage. And the lines there are left up to the refs to draw. And no, they don't have to identify a specific penalty that's being called.

And when the players are selling fake injuries better than most pro wrestlers, the referees end up looking about as on top of things as wrestling referees.

Great moment, but . . . a posited $10 million in endorsements for Donovan for not blowing a gimme past a fallen goalie. Kirk Gibson it wasn't.

I like the option added to all videos on YouTube to add vuvuzela noise over the videos while you watch.