When Manchester United striker Robin van Persie ripped his shirt off to celebrate his 93′ minute goal to salvage points at home versus Chelsea, he drew criticism from his Manager, countryman, and long time old friend Louis van Gaal. LVG called the celebration stupid and not smart. Van Gaal indeed has a point as Van Persie drew his third yellow card of the season.
Two more and he earns a suspension.
Still, it was a powerful scoring strike and a powerful moment, and you can understand why Van Persie let his emotions get the best of him. He didn’t defend his actions, but he explained them.
“I know it’s one of the rules that you have to keep your shirt on but sometimes you forget and everything comes together and the whole place explodes,” said Van Persie.
“It was one of those fantastic moments and the main thing is that we got something out of this game because we deserved it.”
Paul M. Banks owns, operates and very often writes The Sports Bank.net ,which is partners with Fox Sports. Read his features stories in the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. Listen to him on 1620 The Zone. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks). His work has been featured in hundreds of media outlets including The Washington Post and ESPN 2