Usa vs Ghana (Merk) [R]

[mbar]

Can't wait to hear the resident referees here circle the wagons and defend the pk decision against Gooch.

Please tell me why I should not be furious at the decision?

[MassachusettsRef]

We won't.

You should.

[DiamondsYank]

Referees should be invisible. They should never determine the outcome of a match. That PK was unjustifiable.

I had my doubts about Merk, since there was quite a lot of contact by the Brazilians that went uncalled. This match just confirmed for me what a sham FIFA officials are.

An "oops, my bad, here's a PK for you" doesn't fix the situation IMHO. There's a lot of time being wasted here, desperately seeking TWO goals!

[ChiBrasil]

Merk had nothing to do with the US being unable to finish. Blame goes else where this game.

Now, he did blow the penalty, but did it really matter? What showed us that the US was capable of actually scoring?

[FutbolArbitro]

The penalty made have affected the final score, but not the outcome.

[Claymore]

Merck screwed up the penalty call, but I don't think you can completely dismiss the effect that had on the game. Giving up a ridiculous PK in first half stoppage time, when you've just evened the score, is a devastating blow. It allowed Ghana to pack it in and counter-attack in the second half.

[DiamondsYank]

Merck scrwed up the penalty call, but I don't think you can completely dismiss the effect that had on US play. Giving up a ridiculous PK in first half stoppage time, when you've just evened the score, is a devastating blow.

I agree. There are questions to be raised about Arena's management of the team and individual player performances. I'm not saying Merk single-handedly cost us the match or advancement to the round of 16. Surely we placed ourselves in this situation and couldn't get ourselves out of it, but what I'm saying is that PK was devastating, as you said, after having just evened up the score. We could have played the second half a little more relaxed knowing we just needed one more goal to win than playing desperate trying to score two. While Merk was not solely to blame, you can't discount his blunder as having no effect on the outcome. There is no room for these kinds of errors in officiating at the World Cup stage.

[Alberto]

Absolutely pathetic decision by Merk on the penalty. Let all remember the next time they mention him on a broadcast as Doctor Marcus Merk that he is a Dentist.

Javier Castrilli that offers commentary on the Spanish language radio broadcasts said it was a terrible decision and that Merk had a very shaky game. To me he helped cost us the match. Pathetic!

[ZipSix]

There's nothing to defend. It's not a debatable call. No foul occured.

[KMJvet]

The penalty, plus the failure to call diving, plus the failure to call persistant infringement, plus the failure to deal with time wasting and feigned injury DID NOT "affect" the final score-- it absolutely determined it.

The US had all the momentum when it was 1-1 and belief they could determine the outcome despite Merk. The bogus PK was a message they just couldn't will themselves to ignore--they weren't going to get a fair match. (In part because I think they suspected that the first goal wasn't legit and Reyna had been fouled, whether the knee to knee was a foul I'm not sure; but in any case for them, I think the doubt was there that had been a goal off a bad call too). And then total ignoring of persistant infringment and simulation allowed Ghana to just kill off the game. Laws against that exist for a reason and when you decide to ignore them, it's going to have a big effect which clearly can't always be overcome. I don't know what the foul total against Ghana is, but I would guess it'll show that 6 or 8 players should have been carded for PI.

Bad referring is hard to overcome at times with good play (eg Italy-USA) but with biased refereeing, it's virtually impossible. Merk with a little help from poor sportsmanship in the form of diving, feigned injury, and endless fouling turned the beautiful game into a video poster for all the soccer-haters to prove what's wrong wtih the game. I want that 2 hours of my life back because it makes me hate soccer. Why did I even for a minute hope Merk could be fair?

[usatowin]

Is someone going to fix the title?

If that PK wasn't a go home error, I don't know what is.

Edit: Actually don't fix the title, it fits this team perfectly. All they did was hope Italy would win and forgot they still had to come out and beat Ghana.

[MidwestRef]

The call was indefensible. I didn't think it was a foul at full speed, and replay proved it.

Merk should be thankful that Germany is a probable semifinalist. When he doesn't get late-round games, he can point to that instead of the fact that he blew his "moment of truth". If anything, a Ghana card was in order for a dive, but Merk bought too many of those throughout the game.

The US still couldn't score a goal, but Merk's call was poor at best.

[Englishref]

To quote Lemar, "if there's any justice in the world", this performance will have ended Merk's participation in the WC, just like he did to the US. It was a ludicrous decision to give the penalty. Even if you want to attempt to justify it, you'd then have to justify why he didn't give a penalty at every attacking free kick or corner.

It's a shame because up until that point I thought he was doing well, and was a refreshing change from the standard Merk performance. Lewis shouldn't have been booked, but otherwise, he was letting it flow, and using common sense. Then he went and blew it.

The second half returned to more of what we're used to. Whistle, whistle, whistle, with absolutely no flow whatsoever. Unsurprisingly, everything seemed to go the US' way in the 2nd half. He couldn't really do much about the Ghanian tactic of staying down at the slightest contact in the final 20 mins though, apart from add the time on.

This, coupled with his failure to show a yellow or red card to Kewell, and the standard of these three performances, should merit him getting no further games, as there are plenty better than him IMO at this WC. But then he is one of the golden boys, so I still wouldn't rule him out of the final.

[Dr. Wankler]

Merk had nothing to do with the US being unable to finish. Blame goes else where this game.

Now, he did blow the penalty, but did it really matter? What showed us that the US was capable of actually scoring?

I agree, at this point I'm much more ticked off about the way the US played this match. In terms of his refereeing, I'm more bummed about Merk's yellow card to Essein. I would've liked to have seen the match-ups that created against Brazil.

[KMJvet]

The US still couldn't score a goal,
:confused:

[Morpheus1271]

Merk had nothing to do with the US being unable to finish. Blame goes else where this game.

Now, he did blow the penalty, but did it really matter? What showed us that the US was capable of actually scoring?

Ridiculous quote really. What did it really matter? How about psychologically especially after the Italy match. I can only imagine what the players must have thought after that.

Now, fault the players for not stepping up, but trying to step up becomes much more difficult when you start to feel like "man, every BIG call is going AGAINST us"

[Morpheus1271]

The second half returned to more of what we're used to. Whistle, whistle, whistle, with absolutely no flow whatsoever. Unsurprisingly, everything seemed to go the US' way in the 2nd half.



Does this quote suggest that you feel the ref was trying to make up for the call?

[Alberto]

Does this quote suggest that you feel the ref was trying to make up for the call?

It was plainly obvious to me that he was.

[MidwestRef]

All I was saying that even if Merk doesn't award the penalty, the US still had to score one more goal to move on. They didn't do that. Of course, tactics changed after the PK, but the fact remains the US needed one more goal to advance and they didn't score that goal.

[Alberto]

I agree, at this point I'm much more ticked off about the way the US played this match. In terms of his refereeing, I'm more bummed about Merk's yellow card to Essein. I would've liked to have seen the match-ups that created against Brazil.

The key point being that the penalty changed the game. Everyone knew the US team was having difficulties scoring goals. Going down 2-1 in stoppage time of the first half changed momentum and made it more diffcult for the USA as Ghana could keep 10 men behind the ball.