Official World Cup matches discussion thread [R]

amazingly enough MLS has some competition for the worst ********ing refs ever

what a ********ing joke the entire tournament has been ref wise

the worst ********ing ball ever (might as well play with a ********ing beach ball) isn't ********ing helping either

 

It is undeniable the we fans were robbed of what should have been two very exciting games.

England - Germany going into the half tied at 2-2 have a very different psychology that England having to press forward more to make up for being robbed of a goal.


Like was before the off-side goal, at one point I was think "Mexico" is going to make this a real game.

 

The game may have changed to a point but I still don't believe either Mexico or England will have advanced. England would have never beaten Germany. The same goes for Mexico vs. Argentina......

 

Problem is, unless it's going to affect the bottom line Blatter won't do shit. And it won't affect his bottom line in the majority of the world. They all love soccer too much and don't have enough other options for this to have much of an impact. Where you will see more of one is places where there are alternatives to watching corrupt soccer, like the US.

I take my old man as an example. He's never been a big soccer lover, but I've been working on him for the last 4-5 years and he gave this World Cup a go. After that piss poor display of officiating and flopping his opinion of soccer is down with his opinion of the WWE when it comes to credibility of the players and officials. It took two weeks to undo half a decade of work. And I doubt he's alone in being outright disgusted with the sport.

 

Trouble is we'll never know now. You're likely right, but it's also beyond question that the situation would have been much different had the bad calls not been made, particularly with how negatively they affected the two teams. Yes Germany and Argentina have moved on, but they did so on tainted wins no better than the France's win over Ireland a few months back.

 

Sepp Blatter apologises and says the issue of goal-line tech will be re-opened!http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/world_cup_2010/8771294.stm

 

Sure it will... just long enough for the World Cup to end and everyone to disperse. Then he'll close the issue just as fast as he did before the World Cup.

 

You know, I think the reffing in this cup is noticeably better than it was in '06. However, there have been a few high profile screwups that really hurt.

Also, part of the deal with bad calls is not just that it changes some aspect of the game (my throwin instead of yours), it also screws with the mentality of the aggrieved side. They either get peed, or lose some focus, or expect the ref to call everything against them. We see retaliatory fouls too when the ref allows a foul that he shouldn't.

I think it's great that Blatter apologized to Enguland and México. So when's he going to apologize to us? "Hey USA, I'm sorry your side got screwed by the refs four matches in a row." That would be kind of nice huh?

And as for bad officiating turning off USians, I think it's the consistently bad officiating in OUR matches that hurt the most. Goals called back and red cards not handed out and our guys getting too many yellows and off-sides calls when we were on. That adds up.

GO USA!!!!
GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

All good reasons for more accurate methods of judging fouls, offsides, whether the ball has gone over the line, etc. Countries like Germany where soccer is the only thing going might be able to put up with this crap more easily than we do (although I don't really think so), but when you have three or four major sports being the center of attention, it's hard to create a following from those who are not dedicated fans if casual fans dismiss the game because they think too much of it is bogus.
Blatter and his FIFA dinosaurs have to get their heads out of the 19th Century and make the jump into the 21st.

 

Problem I have with the apologies is that they're hollow without any real action. Ok, he's admitted they ********ed up... and? Just like the Ireland game during the qualification rounds, unless the game is replayed the apologies mean nothing and the teams that moved on are now tainted which means the whole tournament is now tainted. And if it's one thing American fans in particular don't like it's tainted results. Just look at the backlash against drug addicts and tainted results in MLB over the last few years. Not good for a sport that is trying to get it's feet under it in this country.

What I would like to see is Garber be proactive and institute changes like video replay and/or extra officials now in MLS and let FIFA look silly on their own.

 

THIS!! would be excellent!

And our MLS refs need all the help they can get. Most of them are so lame it's just tragic. The AR's are getting the off-side call correct more often than they used to, but I'm not sure they are much above the 60% mark on those.

GO QUAKES!!

- Mark

 

None.

 

Good article by Ridge Mahoney (Soccer America):
http://www.socceramerica.com/article/38724/needed-more-refs-and-video-aid.html

 

fyp.

 

So, in the Spain/Portugal match, was Captavila even touched by the Portugal player that was given the red at the end of the game? From the replay it looked like no contact whatsoever. I wish FIFA would have the balls to go after the blatant fakers and punish them after review. They should be handed the same punishment that was given to the player that was penalized for their simulation. In a fair world Captavila would be sitting out the next game.

 

I don't care for the "revenge for 1966" thing, but they are probably just pointing out that these things happen, and not only to England. Also, I don't think they're necessarily bragging as much as talking about what I think you have to do in those situations. It's not your responsibility to do the ref's job for them. You have to play as if it's not a goal even if you think it might have been one. You have to assume that the refs got it right, and you play on.

I'm kind of torn about the blown call thing. On the one hand you can say that the blown call in the England-Germany game or the Argentina-Mexico game irrevocably changed the game, but on the other hand there's no reason why those teams couldn't have overcome the adversity and tied up the game. England and Mexico both had over half the match to get it done.

At some point in the tournament something is not going to go your way, whether it's a bad call or a very unlucky occurrence. And you have to be able to rise above it. The US did it twice - by overcoming improperly disallowed goals in both the Slovenia and Algeria matches. They could have very easily not made it out of the group stage if they hadn't. I think Bradley had something to do with that - you have to have an attitude where you're accountable for your own performance, and you don't look around for excuses, and you keep plugging away and overcome. In fact, after the Slovenia game, Bradley simply said that "the game is very hard to referee". Contrast that to the sour grapes of Capello, for example. You may not be able to overcome the adversity, but if you let it affect your play, you are surely toast.

 

I didn't see either game today but I know Japan lost on pk's. What
I want to know is how did they play?

 

Portugal! I was expecting them to lose but it still leaves me heartbroken.. they could have/should have played much better. Some of the lineup changes Queiroz made this game were depressing and disappointing - he insisted on using guys that should have stayed on the bench the whole game, instead of the squad that whopped NK 7-0. To be so close to beating Spain... one goal! I had small hopes they would win and now is crushed. Ah well, "there can be only one" champion..


I too am left rooting for no team in the final 8... Root for one of the soccer superpowers? No way I'm wanting Brazil, Germany, Argentina, or Spain to win the WC.. I kind of like the Dutch.. but other than that, root for one of the 'guays? Ghana? Depressing..

I'm hoping for a Paraguay - Uruguay final

Netherlands to beat Brazil