Crossbar bug

[Steve Camber]

After investigating some strange behaviour at the recent world cup I have discovered that after enabling and disabling the "pitch walls" KO2CV option, the crossbar lets the ball pass straight through it instead of bouncing it back into play.

So, the "disallowed goals" we saw were in fact crossbar hits.

It was a simple coding mistake on my side which is easily fixed. Apologies to all!

[Robert]

Dear Mr Camber, you should provide a link to this from the Tournaments section where you indicated you were doing an forensic investigation....

In your opinion, is crossbar behaviour the same at all ball heights? For example at certain heights a header could hit the crossbar and go in? A bit higher and it bounces back into play?

[Steve Camber]

From memory... the crossbar is a cylinder, so the higher the ball hits the crossbar, the higher it bounces up.

[Robert]

So, is a 'bounce back' always the outcome of a crossbar hit, or are 'bounce over' and 'bounce in' also possible. I am pretty sure I have seen all three.....

Some testing footage of a working non-bugged copy would be most helpful if you ever get time!

[thor]

In my experience, in those two situations, the ball will bounce back and hit the heading defender. It may go back and forth a few times, but it will end in a goal.

There was another situation, in one of Chris' games, where a Mr. Dig attempt went "over". In that case it is not clear what would have happened; some of those go in off the bar, some ricochet off the bar and continue towards the other side-line.

[Robert]

Can you provide a link and a time stamp for that Thor? Maybe the bug affects the post as well?

[thor]

I don't recall, I'd have to watch the games over. I just remember watching that and thinking that I'd never seen that happen before.

[thor]

In my experience, in those two situations, the ball will bounce back and hit the heading defender. It may go back and forth a few times, but it will end in a goal.

After some further thought, I am now not 100% sure these would have ended in goals because I'm not sure what the goalkeeper would do on the rebounds. The only thing I am sure about is the ball will hit the bar, and if it rebounds, be headed towards goal again by the same player.

[Steve Camber]

I'll study the code over the weekend and see what facts it can tell me about heading in crossbar-rebounds.

In the meantime, if anyone would like to do some practical tests and see what percentage of "headers hitting crossbars" actually end up in the net, that would be very useful info.

[Robert]

Can't you make a program that will fire lots of balls of a different height at the bar?

[Steve Camber]

Not the stupidest idea you've come up with! I'll see what I can do

[thor]

I decided to try this yesterday. On the very first attempt, a diagonal cross, I headed it towards goal, “gong” - ball hit the bar, and then the keeper grabbed the rebound before my player could head it again.

I sent a video to Camber for analysis.

Anyway, all that means is I can’t conclude all such headers that hit the bar will end in a goal. Some will go in off the bar, some will hit the bar and be saved, and some will rebound back to the player and be headed back on goal. The outcome probably depends on where the header originates, where the keeper is, the height of the header, trajectory, velocity, where on the bar it hits, etc.

I don’t want to speculate further on the two headers in question.

[Robert]

Good work Thor. Seems like we can't draw any firm conclusions about the two 'crossbar hits that never were'.