FIFA and these majority of these teams have done a terrible job of dealing with head injuries. It's absolutely barbaric what has been ignored. Again today we have a player concussed who is allowed to stay in the game and he then staggers and falls. Just horrible.
Neuer/Higuain challenge: http://gfycat.com/InfantileWigglyAmazondolphin Edit: Now with bonus parry! http://gfycat.com/SlowSneakyChimpanzee
One poster earlier touched on this, but was the ball in the PA when he punched it? I've not seen a good angle, but when you see Higuain just in the box with the ball coming down on his right side, and you see how far across Neuer's reach was when he punched - it would have been close. I would not expect any official to have the perfect angle to see that, but I'd hoped that one of the many, many cameras would show it. My take is that Neuer, having committed, was going to make sure he got the ball. Personally, I think he was reckless - but no more reckless than when a keeper comes through a crowd to clear a cross, etc. In other words, he did what keepers are taught to do (and probably what most/all coaches, teammates, and supporting fans would expect). Edit to add: I think keepers get away with too much - and I say this as father of a keeper.
Let's put it this way....any other player makes that challenge anywhere else on the pitch, it's a card and a foul. Neuer has the right to go for the ball.....he doesn't have the right to do so recklessly.
Some may argue that neither does Higuain, who undercut his opponent and was called for such. For me, it was a non-call. One player reached up for the ball, the other was waiting for it to drop. Neither had possession. It happens.
This is ridiculous. Higuain does not undercut Neuer. He standing straight up waiting to make a play on the ball.
He ran into him. Neither player was standing. Both were running towards the ball. Don't make up facts that are not there. There were 3 possible calls, foul by Neuer, foul by Higuain or no call at all. This is a contact sport and often that contact does not mean there is a foul. And often there is a foul because one player was a second quicker than the other. That does not invoke a card necessarily. But we have the powers to be from up top trying to dictate every single call when the beauty of this sport is about two teams competing. The center of attention is not suppose to be the man in black and fortunately that was not the case today.
Going to be in the minority but honestly it was a 50/50 ball and the restart should have been a throwin for Algeria. Several of you are over reacting to this play.
The difference being that Higuan was on the ground, while Neuer was flying through the air like a kamikaze....that's why I think Neuer was reckless....
Couldn't agree with this more! Some of the European referees just looked lost out there and uncomfortable with the instructions. I fear that this style will start to trickle it's way down to the domestic leagues. Rizzoli did a fine job according to the standards that were set in this tournament and what was expected of them. I think the performance was fitting for the way this whole tournament was refereed. For me, it was a poorly officiated tournament. I think probably the worst that I can recall since I've been watching the World Cup. The first Cup I watched was the '94 World Cup. In terms of critical game incidents the referees were very good when it came to getting those right. We only saw one truly horrible PK decision and there were hardly and stonewall PKs missed. I really was not surprised by any decision he made in this game. The reality is there was never gonna be a red card in this game unless Rizzoli's hands were tied 200%. I asked myself yesterday if Silva would have gotten sent off if it was the World Cup Final and I said yes. But the more I think about it, the more i think, no matter who the referee was, that there would not have been a red produced 2 minutes into this game. The Neur play was never gonna be called. It's just not a foul in the modern game. I know I'm not calling in a PDL games. It's just one of those part of the game plays. Should it be a foul? Yes it should be, but we just allow keepers that lee way. It doesn't make it right, but that is just the reality. I just don't know what he saw to call the foul on Higuain though. Even though I hated the style of refereeing in this tournament, for what ever reason, the players generally accepted the style. Apart from the Schweinsteiger cut incident, all the players accepted Rizzoli's decisions and accepted the lenient style of officiating.
Obviously I was having fun...we are allowed to have fun guys. Don't take it so seriously. I agree the restart should've been throw in for Argentina with no foul called. Swype on cell phones makes for autocorrect typos.
Actually, I would have loved to see Rizzoli award the throw in to Algeria "It seems that play is stopped while the Algerian Team is flown back to Brazil to take the throw in..."
I honestly don't think you're in the minority here. Most everyone I've talked to today (probably half refs, half players/coaches) thought that a no call was the right one.
2 questions about Neuer / Higuain - please advise if they're spurious / irrelevant / etc.: 1) Where was the ball when Neuer punched it? Inside the area or out or does it matter? 2) Was Higuain in between the ball and Neuer when Neuer reached over H and punched the ball? If so, would this be any different than if a defender kicked a ball by putting his foot and leg through the attacker's legs & then wiped out the attacker with his follow through?
I was dissapointed with Rizzolis performance. He made a couple of bad calls and his try to let the game flow was at the price of the players health. I hope the FIFA rethinks their refereeing guidelines for the next tournaments. It does not help the sport when players are systematically taken out. This way you support butcher teams.
I though Rizzoli did a good job overall. His assistants got the key offside calls right, his foul identification was pretty good and he did not hesitate to dish our cautions in the first half. If the blonde Argentinian player sliding on Schweinsteiger and Aguero on the elbow that made Schweinsteiger´s head bleed would have been cautioned too, then I would say it was a really good performance. But I guess he didn´t have the best angle on Aguero´s foul and didn´t want to risk sending a player off in the final for something that wasn´t obvious to everyone in th stadium in real time. As for Neuer/Higuain, I side with the people who would have called for a free throw for Argentina. For me, it´s like any slide tackle: If you get to the ball first and then the attacker falls over your legs (unless you intend to bring him down in an action that is unrelated to the tackle clearance), then it´s not a foul. And with goalies in the box you see it all the time that they box the ball out of the box, and some attacker then gets a fist or a knee in his face. It´s never a foul on Neuer.
If you want to give a card and penalty for the Neuer incident you have to do the same for Garay taking out Kramer earlier on. It is exactly the same situation from a rules standpoint. Both are challenging for the ball Garay gets it a split second before his shoulder takes out Kramer. It's also in the box. So penalty and card there too?