Litke's article is crap IMO. I'd rather we go out in the first round than resort to cheating or as he says "[bothering] to learn how to play the world's game". Basically he's saying that we need to learn how to be better cheaters. If that's what the game is all about I'm not interested. And this part is wrong. Bad, bad journalism. "The U.S. team managed three shots in its final outing, after just one in two previous games." I think he's talking about shots on goal (which is a highly over-rated statistic), not shots. Which is more of a "near miss", Dempsey's lollipop header straight to the keeper in the Ghana match or McBride's header off of the post in the same match, or Reyna's drive off of the post in the CR match?
As Albany saya, you're an American that can't buy it. I am an American that couldn't buy it. But all my anti-cheating righteousness has been beaten down by the shear weight of the facts. Maybe in 30 years we'll be Argentina or Brazil with enough skilll and flair players to win with that. But until then, forget about international soccer because you have to embrace "picardia" if you care about winning instead of just participating.
I was going to suggest that the article smells of a certain level of elitism. The suggestion is that countries who do well at the game are the same countries where mass poverty exists, and people's daily lives can be situations where "just enough" cheating is an acceptable thing. However, my premise is not entirely true, as we still have a couple of non-third world countries still in contention. I am afraid that if learning to cheat is necessary to become a world power, the US should just give up the effort. Perhaps our society will change, but I can't imagine US sports fans being happy about "diving" as a method of play.
I think they just see it differently. Someone from Spain was posting about this yesterday. Cheating is sort of loaded word. The Spanish word is picardia. picardía (Spanish) pi·car·dí·a f. 1. (acción baja) - dirty trick 2. (travesura) - mischief It's seen as clever or "cheeky" or what we might call gamesmanship. They don't see diving, or flopping, or trying to deceive the ref, or feigning injury as "cheating." They see it as picardía, which is a part of the game just like any other. They just have a different way of looking at it that's developed in many of the soccer countries. It's just that the way this sport is officiated, it's not a part of the game plan you can forego and still succeed.
I'm glad that that article pissed all of you off as much as it did me. I have heard several of my fellow Earthquakes fans argue (at Spartan) basically the same thing. I was about ready to hurl. But that is not why I am writing at this moment. Right now I am in the process of watching "How Soccer Explains the World," on LINKTV. Most of the movie so far has been a series of vignettes from all over the world. Right now, Andrei S. Markovits (wrote the book: Offside: Soccer & American Exceptionalism) is being interviewed [I have the recording on pause]. Many of the film shorts are priceless and what Markovits is saying seems right on the mark [no pun intended] and in line with what Olson50 says in a post earlier in this thread. I hope every one of you gets to see this; it's that good.
I have little doubt that the definition is different. Even the idea of a "dirty trick" is different (many of us remember Richard Nixon). I might use the analogy of poker playing.....it is acceptable, actually incredibly important, to convincingly lie about your hand.
I disagree with this view in every way shape and form. The officiating at this cup has been extremely inconsistent. In some cases, biased. In some cases, just incompetent. But most of the time, the officials are reasonable. And as the USA, we need to expect that until we start behaving ourselves better as a nation, we're going to get crap from other teams and refs. (Sorry about injecting politics into this, but I think there's some truth to that.) FIFA needs to get a better grip on the officiating in every league. I think that this cup will actually make them try to do that. Some of these games have been a real black eye for FIFA. Cheating is never the road to success. Diving, hacking, deliberate hand-balls, jersey tugging, feigning injury and so on is evil crap. Watch some MFL games. The officiating there is very good and the players behave because they know they'll get tossed if they don't. They aren't perfect. I've seen a few bad calls here and there in MFL matches, but on the whole they are much better. French League matches are pretty good usually too. The EPL and Bundesliga officials allow way too much hacking for my taste. Hopefully, all of the officials will get a little bit better after this. QUAKES FOREVER!! GO SSV!! GO WOLFF!! fuaeg!! fumls!! - Mark
Agreed. At some point FIFA needs to decide where the line between "acceptable gamesmanship" and "cheating" is drawn, and enforce it. Has anyone received a yellow or warning even for diving during this WC?
There's not just some truth in that, Mark, there's a hell of a lot of truth in it. You cannot divorce the politics of what we do as a nation from the politics of the way that our national soccer team is viewed. The team symbolizes the nation to many of those people (while at the same time being an insignificant blip to the vast majority of Americans). My personal view, is that if it had been another country's team in the same situation, we would not have received those calls.
There have been 5, I believe. All of them correct. (I think I can list if you care the specifics) Only one had any real effect (Mex-Port). All the others achieved no effect. This is, of course, in stark contrast to the dives that brought the divers their game winning goals.
FIFA are partially responsible for the "black eye" of giving refs new directives on the eve of the major tourney but.... Sadly, Mark, "better officials" is living in a dream world. You can make it easier using technology like chips to tell them when the ball is out; but personnel-wise these really are the best in the world. Poulat is #2 for France, but France #1 pulled a Graham Poll level gaff in the CL and let Marcos Senna play on with a bleeding groin and blood-soaked shorts without sending him off for tx. And frankly he was awful anyway. CONCACAF #2 is out for injury so they sent Chiquidracula If it weren't Chiquidracula, it'd have been Stott and now he's probably in deep doo-doo since he was 5th for Poll. The CONCACAF guys who have a chance for 2010 are only Archundia, Rodriquez (young enough), Navarro, Stott and Vaughn. That's a good list I think....or feel free to name anybody else at the right level to be ready for 2010. The only other US guys I think are Prus and Salazar. This is the same the world over. There isn't a secret supply of perfect candidates that has gone uptapped because it doesn't exist. It's a thanksless job so people aren't in line looking to do it. One person cannot watch 22 guys when the game moves at this speed. So bad calls are going to always happen. In a season they even out. In a single game they almost never do and tournaments end up depending on single games. Also, even if you could remove the politics, bias exists, you can't fix officiating as a solution to picardia. I used to think that. Poll and Merk were the golden boys of UEFA, their favorite sons, and although Poll started brightly, they flamed out as Poll and Merk became "dumb and dumber." The alledged "best" did that. There's really nothing to grasp at in the realm of "better officials" to fix officating. You'll have to settle to eek out a little through technology maybe. And Archundia has aquitted himself well in everyone's mind. Rodriguez has as well IMO (including with the downpour game) although England certainly were pissed at him for requiring them to have both feet on the ground for throw-ins and for enforcing the rule against throwing water bottles on the field and many people consider him far too fussy. Mexico has 2 guys here and they are the only country with that due to the injury of CONCACAF #2 and chiquidracula getting the nod over Stott.
That is why I think instant replay is a must. They could give each team two "challenges" per half. Also should do post game reviews and punish diving/faking if it was missed during the game. IMO all this rolling around on the ground in fake agony is what really should be cracked down on. Games are decided on acting ability and not on individual skill and teamwork. It is making a mockery of the game.
I don't know if instant replay could be instituted fairly, which to me means that it can't be used only for WC games. The reality is that it can't be a situation where it is done only some of the time. Players must be subjected to it in all of their professional games for it to really be useful in any way. This is not the NFL, where the technology only has to be put into a handful of stadiums. Plus, even the NFL has a gaggle of "judgement calls" that are not affected by instant reply. Those include such things as "holding", which probably is the NFL equivilent to what we see in WC play. Holding in the NFL is the most widely practiced form of cheating in the league, and instant replay is not used to enforce it.
Plays like that which created the PK in yesterday's game and ones resulting in the sending off of a player in his retirement have got to be reviewed before a call stands. This aspect of the game MUST change. No one denies that that one call yesterday against the US changed the whole freakin game - doesn't matter if we won or lost - it changed the game. That's wrong. In situations like this I think soccer needs some sort of review of play on the spot before any call stands. They don't need to review all calls but anything that may result in a red/PK or anything that completely changes a game needs to be reviewed. It absolutely SUCKS that refs are so involved in ruining the game for the fans and the players. I'm sick of it.
Rather than instant replay, I would much rather see a couple of more officials, such as goal line referees (to judge goals and touch line calls), and that the referees consult with each other prior to penalties. The absolute power of a single official does bother me a great deal. However, I am still not convinced that instant replay would solve the issue. At the very least, I would like to see referees actually consult with other officials in those situations.
At the very least, a post game review needs to be pursued and a yellow card issued. Though it won't have an effect on the game in which the dive took place, but it will begin to train the players that feigning contact might cost them playing time in future. Multiple infractions would mean missing the following match. As it stands, it is nearly impossible to discern a dive beyond a reasonable doubt in the course of a match. Upon review, one could expect to capture a good portion of the dives, enough to discourage attempts from all in the future.
Given the fact that the referees are wearing microphones, I have to assume that FIFA has recognized that technology does exist in the context of the actual game. Using it to the advantage of the game is another story.
no matter how they spin it, this WC was an unmitigated disaster for us...Arena should be gone already, I don't care about '02...I can't get the foul taste of '06 out of my mouth. Arena also set the roster, and the roster was disastrously wrong. We had talent and desire in the wings...ready to go. Arena seemed incompetent, lacked vision and was afraid to take risks. I hope Gulati has the resources and wherewithal to make us competitive again.
I noticed that, too. These are almost the same mikes that they use in stage musicals. The question is, in what way are they using them? I don't understand that.
I think it was supposed to be so Poll's ARs and Stott could alert him he hadn't given a red to a guy with two yellows. And I suspect the technology was working but all those humans just collectively didn't notice the mistake.
Arena had done a great job, up until recently. This is an excellent argument for term limits. As I said elsewhere, no one should be on that job for eight years. He was the dean of national team football coaches, having served the longest of anyone, and I think it came back to bite us in the butt.
My guess is that there would be more - and larger - celebrations in the streets across the United States if Mexico were to win the World Cup than if the USA itself were to do so.
Oh, you guys know that's what would happen. Excited soccer fan: "We won the World Cup!!!" Typical American bystander: "What Cup?"
There are resources, Youth and Adult registered players pay fees via their league registration fees. There are more registered players in the US than any country in the world. The additional money that comes to the USSF is largely centered around the National Teams (advertising partnerships, TV revenue , gate recites , World Cup, Olympic Games, International tournament fees and so on). Based on the fact that America is the largest consumer marketplace in the World, National and International Companies are lining up to be the “official Supplier” or “Official Partner” of USSF. USSF has sold off some of these rights to a group called Soccer United Marketing which is owned by some of the owners of MLS. After the US World Cup success in 1994, USSF had $47 Million from the World Cup profits was set aside for the “Growth of the game” controlled by a group called the US Soccer Foundation. To this day not a penny has been spent, only the interest. This $47M is largely controlled by MLS power brokers consequently US Soccer Foundation is a sponsor of MLS and the payment of this sponsorship goes directly to MLS teams. Other monies are granted to youth soccer communities to help build fields and this work should be praised as good for the growth of the game. The question for the future is USSF going to help grow the game on all levels to insure a gradual improvement in our World cup effort over the next twelve years or are they going to be a stooge for MLS. I hope Mr. Gulati will be committed to the growth of the game, but realizing that he was a founding member of MLS and has been employed by MLS or it’s teams for the last 11 years I am not sure that the growth of the game at all levels will be his number one priority. I think he will put the Pro’s interest above the good of the game. San Jose is an example of MLS abuse. AEG’s plan to sell the Earthquakes to Club America and bring in Mexican players while firing American players who had won two championships can in no way be considered good for the growth of the game or the growth of the American player. California is the largest State Association in the Federation (and the largest fee paying Association to the US Federation) with continued growth at all levels. The US Federation understands that losing the longest serving professional Club in the Nation and a recent winner of two National Championships in three years is bad for the growth of the game but it turned a blind eye to the MLS agenda. The Landon, “international transfer/tapping” issue is another example of who is running the show. We missed a huge opportunity to sell the game to the average American Sports fan this World Cup. We cannot afford to miss another opportunity. We have made great strides in awareness and a dent in the media, but America wants winners or at least competitors. USSF has to get the finger out NOW.