The official World Cup 2010 thread...

[Ragnar]

I would crack up if Slovania draws with England and the US does not draw with Algeria.

[bwburke94]

USA got screwed.

[bababui]

.

[phightin]

As far as the third goal goes as well it's becoming very apparent that FIFA is europe's tool to spew antiamerican sentiment. If you look over everything since 2006 it's becoming pretty blatant.

[Jason]

After coming back from Africa, I had a mild interest in soccer after despising it for years. After watching today's antics, I'm back in the "soccer sucks" camp. I wouldn't be surprised if this set back soccer in the US for a while too.

I honestly don't care about the US not winning the match...my issue is with the lack of accountability for the referee in the match. FIFA doesn't have to explain his call, he doesn't have to explain it and everyone's supposed to act like it didn't happen. Sorry. I don't think any referee should have a blanket free pass to do whatever they want to do without accountability for it.

Edit to add:

This from ESPN only makes it worse...this guy's made terrible calls in the past:

Originally Posted by espn

It would be different if Coulibaly had a spotless record, but he doesn't. This is the same official who assessed Egypt a controversial time-stoppage penalty during its final 2006 World Cup qualifier against Cameroon.

[Charlie Hough]

There will be accountability eventually. The media will force this, as it often does. I'm surprised that FIFA has not decided to send this referee home for the rest of the tournament, but that may still happen.

The calls were so lopsided in this match that I honestly believe that the only explanation is that the referee was deliberately biased. I've never had occasion to say this before for any World Cup match that I've watched over the past 20 years or so.

There were several fouls that should have been clear yellow cards for obstructing a player from pursuing the ball. And there were numerous routine fouls that were called against the U.S. under suspicious circumstances. Even without the free kick decision, the game was horribly officiated.

But this entire tournament has been the worst display of officiating I've ever seen at this level. FIFA has got to rethink its approach to selecting officials and stop bringing in referees from obscure places like Mali, Uzbekistan, etc. While these officials may have some experience in tournaments like the African Cup of Nations or the AFC Asian Cup, they lack the necessary quality, competence and experience to officiate matches involving the best squads in the world. I even question why they're used in any FIFA sanctioned event. Leave them to their lowly domestic leagues and keep them out of international competition.

FIFA should limit its selection of officials to those from top leagues with the highest UEFA coefficiencts or other relevant regional rankings. Bring experienced officials from places like Brazil, Argentina, England, Germany, France, Italy, USA, Mexico, Japan, and Korea. Any official from a country that does not have a financially stable or truly legitimate top professional league should never be allowed to officiate in the final stages of a FIFA sanctioned tournament.

[bababui]

Originally Posted by Autism Speaks

After coming back from Africa, I had a mild interest in soccer after despising it for years. After watching today's antics, I'm back in the "soccer sucks" camp. I wouldn't be surprised if this set back soccer in the US for a while too.

I honestly don't care about the US not winning the match...my issue is with the lack of accountability for the referee in the match. FIFA doesn't have to explain his call, he doesn't have to explain it and everyone's supposed to act like it didn't happen. Sorry. I don't think any referee should have a blanket free pass to do whatever they want to do without accountability for it.

Edit to add:

This from ESPN only makes it worse...this guy's made terrible calls in the past:

This is the same reason why I now hate baseball. After Galarraga was robbed of his perfect game and the MLB did nothing to rectify the situation like suspending the umpire or giving the man credit for the mistake i can no longer trust in the integrity of baseball.

Same goes for the NBA. Obviously the league office directed the refs to skew fouls against the team they didnt want to win. Look at the free throw totals!!

And. lets not even get started with US elections.

FIFA does have accountability for bad refs. They dont get more games. FIFA tries to have regional diversity in officials. It might not be a great system, but to say the sport or the event sucks because of a missed call is over the top IMO.

[bababui]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

There will be accountability eventually. The media will force this, as it often does. I'm surprised that FIFA has not decided to send this referee home for the rest of the tournament, but that may still happen.

The calls were so lopsided in this match that I honestly believe that the only explanation is that the referee was deliberately biased. I've never had occasion to say this before for any World Cup match that I've watched over the past 20 years or so.

There were several fouls that should have been clear yellow cards for obstructing a player from pursuing the ball. And there were numerous routine fouls that were called against the U.S. under suspicious circumstances. Even without the free kick decision, the game was horribly officiated.

But this entire tournament has been the worst display of officiating I've ever seen at this level. FIFA has got to rethink its approach to selecting officials and stop bringing in referees from obscure places like Mali, Uzbekistan, etc. While these officials may have some experience in tournaments like the African Cup of Nations or the AFC Asian Cup, they lack the necessary quality, competence and experience to officiate matches involving the best squads in the world. I even question why they're used in any FIFA sanctioned event. Leave them to their lowly domestic leagues and keep them out of international competition.

FIFA should limit its selection of officials to those from top leagues with the highest UEFA coefficiencts or other relevant regional rankings. Bring experienced officials from places like Brazil, Argentina, England, Germany, France, Italy, USA, Mexico, Japan, and Korea. Any official from a country that does not have a financially stable or truly legitimate top professional league should never be allowed to officiate in the final stages of a FIFA sanctioned tournament.

Overall, the officiating has been better than 2006..the Uzbek ref has done two excellent matches.

Remember the English ref who handed out 3 yellows to a player in the 2006 cup?

Remember the Spanish Norwegian ref who through the Chelsea v Barcelona match in last years Champions League?

Remember the bribery scandals in Italy?

[ukhotstove]

Lets be honest if we all stopped watching sports because of some bad calls then none of us, in fact nobody in the world would ever watch any sports.

[bababui]

Folks, the reason the USA didnt win this match is because our coaching and defense sucked in the first half. We werent ready to play yet again. You cant blame the officiating for either of those goals.

Oh, by the way, Dempsey should have been given a straight red card for that nasty elbow he threw in the first minute. Would a truly biased ref not have sent him off?

[Jason]

Originally Posted by bababui

This is the same reason why I now hate baseball. After Galarraga was robbed of his perfect game and the MLB did nothing to rectify the situation like suspending the umpire or giving the man credit for the mistake i can no longer trust in the integrity of baseball.

Actually, I've questioned Bud Selig's integrity for a long time now.

[rudel.dietrich]

Good comeback win by the USA but they are still two games with two points. I will state the obvious and say that they need a win over Algeria and really need to go all out and crush them for goal difference.


As far as the disallowed goal. How is a ref from Mali officiating a match in Africa promoting antiamericanism???

The officiating in this cup is light years ahead of 2006. 2006 was the year of the yellow. There were so many light fouls called and yellows given out that it drug down the entire cup to halt and go molasses affair.

Dissallowed goals happen too often unfortunatly. The USA still fell behind by two goals in the first half and had to climb back to tie. If it had been tied 0-0 the disallowed goal would have hurt more and meant more.

I don't see it as losing three point. I see them as gaining a point with a spiritied second half comeback.

[rudel.dietrich]

The Germany-Serbia match was ugly. Klose being sent off was a disgrace and things did not look good from that point on. There were some hard nasty fouls in the game and some well deserved yellows.
Germany needs to come back strong and put a total beat down on Ghana in the next match and just focus on getting through the group. After there first game I had high hopes this year but after today I feel sort of dejected. That was a awful game in every way.
Now we have to bring in Gomez who is a good player but internationally has not shown up to his promise.


Finally, I have no idea why Podolski is being so hard on himself. He was quoted and saying that he 'missed the shot'. What did he do wrong? (besides not score)
He was technically perfect and clean in his follow through and hit a powerful low shot to one side of the goal.
The keeper was just a man better and choose the right side to dive too and showed good reflexes and a good punching move to clear the ball to a very acute angle and no hope for a solid rebound.
Lukas did nothing wrong. He hit the target with a powerful effort that was not limp or right at the keeper and did not blaze the ball over the entire goal.
The keeper just did everything right and won the game for them.
I went back and looked at the pre shot to see if I saw even the slightest flinch or muscle movement or body angle that would indicate he was trying for the left. I saw nothing. Even if there was he hit the ball sweetly enough and with enough force to see it past most keeper. Serbias keeper got the dive right and was agile and swift enough in his movement to punch it clear.

[rudel.dietrich]

Finally I will briefly comment on the England game. It was a stale spiritless game. Lampard looked like he came to play but the rest of the team looked like they would rather he doing pre season friendless and checking the latest transfer rumors. No one else seemed interested in the procedings or scroing a goal. That is all it would have taken. Algeria showed no threat at all on offense. Their defense was solid and stayed in passing lanes.

England are in the exact same position as the US. They have to go into the final game and grab and win and smash their way to it. Throw it all to the win. leve two central defenders back and play your fullbacks all the way up to where they overlap your midfield and then flood the box and bend in every pass you can through the air.

Hell we could even had the shock of Algeria beating the US and Slovenia beating England or even those games tying too. Now you have a nightmare tiebreaking scenario.

[rudel.dietrich]

Now my final wrap up on the night on the tournament so far.

France looks dead in the water and I think they are about to see a serious housecleaning at all levels of he club.

Spain's loss is funny and embarrassing but not a serious hindrance. Their GD is only -1 and they can easily take the next two in style.

Argentina are looking food too and so are the Dutch after a single game.

Italy also looks to be in trouble. Age looks to be always with them and now the marble pillars that they hung the net on is toppled and broken.
The best GK in the world had a herniated disc and could possibly miss the rest of the tournament



I also find myself deeply fascinated by the NK side. I want to meet them and live with them for a week and see their world and show them some of mine. Nothing political. I just want to see how the worlds last great closed society operates in a modern world and when they are shoved out into that world I bet they have the most interesting conversations. I would give anything to be able to spend a day with them.

[Erik W.]

Originally Posted by rudel.dietrich

I will state the obvious and say that they need a win over Algeria and really need to go all out and crush them for goal difference.

They don't need to run up the score. 1-0 would do. They simply need to win.

Win over Algeria would give US 5 points.

England wins their match: 5 points, Slovenia 4, Algeria 1.

Slovenia wins: 7 points, England 2, Algeria 1.

England/Slovenia draw: Slovenia 5, England 3, Algeria 1.

There's no scenario where the US could win and not advance. Of course, if US and Algeria draw, which doesn't seem like an unlikely scenario, all bets are off. England would have to lose or draw, and in the case of a draw goals scored would come into play, where US currently holds the edge by 2.

[mlyons]

Originally Posted by Charlie Hough

But this entire tournament has been the worst display of officiating I've ever seen at this level. FIFA has got to rethink its approach to selecting officials and stop bringing in referees from obscure places like Mali, Uzbekistan, etc. While these officials may have some experience in tournaments like the African Cup of Nations or the AFC Asian Cup, they lack the necessary quality, competence and experience to officiate matches involving the best squads in the world. I even question why they're used in any FIFA sanctioned event. Leave them to their lowly domestic leagues and keep them out of international competition.

Utterly ridiculous. The first two matches yesterday were poorly officiated, but before that the refereeing had been great -- the only really bad call I remember from the first week of matches was Tim Cahill's red card, and even that was a matter of degree (it was obviously a foul, and probably should have been a yellow). They've done brilliantly apart from that, starting right with the goal correctly ruled offside in the Mexico/South Africa match. Much, much better than the last World Cup or the European Championships, and lightyears better than your average Premier League or Serie A weekend.

[rudel.dietrich]

Originally Posted by Erik W.

They don't need to run up the score. 1-0 would do. They simply need to win.

Win over Algeria would give US 5 points.

England wins their match: 5 points, Slovenia 4, Algeria 1.

Slovenia wins: 7 points, England 2, Algeria 1.

England/Slovenia draw: Slovenia 5, England 3, Algeria 1.

There's no scenario where the US could win and not advance. Of course, if US and Algeria draw, which doesn't seem like an unlikely scenario, all bets are off. England would have to lose or draw, and in the case of a draw goals scored would come into play, where US currently holds the edge by 2.

Thank you, you are correct.
Does goal difference count in who is first or second out of the group?

[bababui]

The Africans deserve to lose a place or two in Brazil 2014. They have been horrific.

Although if I were head of FIFA I would change qualifying into something like this.

Traditional Regional Qualifying:

Euro 8
SA 3
AFR 2
NA 2
Asia 2

So thats 17 auto qualifiers and 15 more places (30 teams) to fill.

Euro..2nd and 6 best 3rd place teams from the 8 groups 14 teams
S Ame the 4th through 6th place teams 3 teams
Africa havent figured out the method but 6 teams
CONCACAF 3rd and 4th plave teams 2 teams
Asia 4 teams
Oceana 1 team

Now either throw em into a pot and draw or seed them by FIFA rankings and play and home and away playoff for the final 15 places.

[Bobbuttons]

Gah. The crowd is doing the wave at the Cameroon/Denmark match....