Overlooked fact about Balloon/Beach-Ball

It's been an interesting couple of days for inflatable objects.

First, there was the identified flying object in Colorado that grabbed the attention of the world media for a couple of hours.

Then, an equally controversial balloon/beach-ball, 'wearing' a Liverpool crest, deflected a Darren Bent shot into the net for the winning goal at the Stadium of Light.

Amidst all the hullaballoo, one particular fact appears to have been overlooked. Having just watched a replay of the opening 15 minutes of the game, it's interesting to note that prior to the goal, the balloon/beach-ball was nestling comfortably in the corner of the Liverpool net.

That's an undeniable fact.

We could speculate on how it got there. TV replay vision indicates that a Liverpool supporter punched it on to the field of play. If that's the case, it's reasonable to think it happened prior to kick-off.

How did it end up nestling in the corner of the net? My guess is that Pepe Reina put it there, as 'keepers are wont to do with towels and other such sundry items. How else could it possibly have got there? Perhaps he felt it would be a good-luck charm. ;)

The balloon/beach-ball then appears to have blown itself into the field of play and taken up a 'defensive' position at the edge of the six-yard box, whereupon it then attempted to block Bent's effort and only succeeded in deflecting it into the net. Alright, I'm being a tad facetious there but I'm amazed that the media hasn't highlighted the FACT that the balloon/beach-ball was in the corner of the Liverpool net prior to the goal.

An unfortunate incident but if anyone's to blame, it's Reina, not the kid who punched it on to the pitch. Perhaps the Liverpool 'keeper should've sent the balloon/beach-ball back into the crowd rather than storing it in his net. Then again, he couldn't have foreseen that it would've floated back into play at an inopportune time.