Strange penalty decision ?

Am I correct in assuming that obstruction is an indirect free kick - if that's the case the surely I shouldn't have conceded a penalty for obstruction.

As far as i'm away it is IRL, however i've seen people post this several times and it appears (iirc) it's a bug in the comentary rather than obstruction being penalised incorrectly.

Yet another commentary ****-up then.

It's the terminology of FM and you probably did deserve to concede the penalty. You have to consider that the database is limited so while it says obstruction, which would mean an indirect freekick, we have no way of telling how bad the obstruction was so it may have merited a penalty.

However obstruction is obstruction - perhaps they should sort this out, along with the commentary being the wrong way round on free kicks, and the frankly rather bizzare 'team a's performance was a joy to behold', when team a has in fact conceded four times and lost. These are really basic things that there is no excuse for not picking up. It's just sloppy.

PS - the penalty was missed.

Sloppy yes, but not that big a deal.

It doesn't really affect the shape up of the game or highluights so we can live with it. Just have to remember if you concede a penalty you probably deserved to concede it whether it says obstruction or not.

I agree that it's easy sorted though and probably should have been.

With millions of lines of code, and thousands upon thousands of lines of commentary, I think it's acceptable that a few fall through the net.

If these apparently simple errors had been picked up in testing, they'd have been sorted - as it was, they weren't picked up, so they weren't fixed. You're a bright chap - what difference does it make to you if the commentator at the end of the game said you won when you didn't - you know the scoreline, etc, you know what's going on - the commentary in that case is purely cosmetic.

With so much going on in the game, not every little commentary error can be spotted - FWIW, I've never really noticed a commentary error, so no biggy to me.

I'd much rather SI spent their time on things like the transfers module, or something equally frustrating.

Gah - I've just seen another one. Apparently my player just whipped in a free kick, where on screen it moved about a centimetre.

Well, you can see on screen what's actually happening, so why worry?

You've got the stats, etc, for completed passes, etc, for successful crosses, the player's rating, tackles made - everything you'd really need to really evaluate how they're playing. Yes the commentary is very, very helpful, but if there's a mistake or two in it, I don't see why it's such a cause for concern.

Maybe I'm just less concerned about those things, though - for instance I really don't care what a game's graphics are like, hence I enjoy Theme Hospital a lot more than I enjoy GTA, etc etc

You see a penalty given quite a bit for obstruction. If the player has clearly got the better of you and you move to block his path thus denying a goalscoring opportunity its a penalty.

Law 12 clearly states that in the case of obstruction an indirect free kick is awarded. I agree that these commentary errors are not game stoppers but they are irritating and frankly should have been picked up.

Swindon, I think you're missing the point - the commentary might say obstruction, but it doesn't mean a 'technical onstruction' (actually called 'impeding' int he laws of the game IIRC) it means that the player has got in the way someway - you're mixing up the dictionary definition of obstruction, with what we technically understand obstruction to mean in the laws of football.

Imagine a situation where a striker knocks it past a defender, and goes to run around him, and the defender 'obstructs' his course - cast iron penalty there, we see it week in week out, game after game. It's different to a player standing in the way of another's run - which is the indirect free kick.

At the end of the day - it's a game, who really cares what the commentator says?

Here are 10 offences that can lead to a direct free-kick/penalty.

When a player:

Kicks or attempts to kick an opponent

Trips or attempts to trip an opponent

Jumps at an opponent

Charges an opponent

Strikes or attempts to strike an opponent

Pushes an opponent

Makes contact with the opponent before touching the ball when tackling

Holds an opponent

Spits at an opponent

Handles the ball deliberately

If any of these offences are committed by a player inside their own penalty area then it's a penalty.

The following lead to an indirect free kick.

When, in the opinion of the ref, a player:

Impedes the progression of an opponent (obstruction)

Plays in a dangerous manner

Prevents the goalkeeper from releasing the ball from his hands

Or when a keeper, inside their own penalty area:

Holds on to the ball for more than six seconds

Handles a back pass

Handles the ball after receiving it from a team-mate direct from a throw-in

Touches the ball again with their hands, before it is touched by another player, after releasing it from their possession

In the case of penalties it does matter as it's almost impossable to tell from the 2D engine.