For anyone who wants a go at recreating Suarez’s antics for themselves: The Hungry Suarez 2 Flash game.
I kept waiting for the Croatian supporter to turn around and shank her Mexican neighbour but it never happened…
What a heartbreaker for the Ivory Coast. Hopefully Costa Rica’s dream run continues and they send the Greeks home.
I had the sound off at the time of the foul that led to the Greek PK and didn’t really get to see it. Can anyone tell me what was worth the yellow and the game-changing PK?
So post mortem on the day. This is from a VERY part-time soccer fan, but this my third or fourth World Cup with an Olympics or two scattered in, so not a complete tyro.
I was totally rooting for Uruguay until “The Bite”. Now I hope they go out next game. As I mentioned earlier, Italy was the archetype of everything I hate about club soccer. “I got touched on the pinkie! I’m going to fall down and writhe on the ground for five minutes before hopping up and playing full speed.” FIFA (and the Euro leagues) really need to take a firm hand to that fucking bullshit.
I hated hated the end of the Greece/Côte d’Ivoire game. That was crap call with that much on the line. Seriously, if these refs are the best soccer’s got, ya’ll can keep it. The replay clearly shows that the Greek fell down because he stubbed his own foot into the ground. There was NO contact.
So overall not a great day for this sports-loving American who wants to feel the passion the rest of the world does.
Yeah I’m not big on BIG sports and fairly new to WC soccer but I noticed right away these grown men throwing themselves on the ground and crying in agony. “He touched me!” Wah.
Watch it again. It’s not clear from every angle, but there was most certainly contact. Samaras was pulling his leg back for a shot, when the defender stepped in, placing his own leg in front of Samaras’ shooting foot. Samaras then caught his foot on the defender’s leg. That’s an obstructed goal scoring opportunity. It’s a penalty.
You can’t not call a penalty just because it happens to be the final seconds of a match and a lot is at stake.
I will disagree with this part, but none of the rest of your post. The Greek player was in the open in the penalty box, lining up the shot, when the Cote d’Ivoire player took his shooting leg out. It wasn’t like he was aiming for it, but he clearly disrupted what would have been a very good chance on goal.
Just my opinion.
Double edit: it’s funny that we both clipped the exact same part out of his post.
The Italy-Uruguay game is a fine example of what the casual fan in America (by which I mean watches maybe some World Cup games every four years) hates about soccer. Not to say that soccer fans liked the game either. But the diving and the flopping and general bad sportsmanship is what you see the most complaints about and this game had that in spades.
Please post a link that shows the contact. This is an honest request. I’ll be glad to admit I’m wrong. Either way, the reffing has sucked overall.
I just looked at this:
Look at the 45-48 second mark. I can’t see any contact between the foot of the defender and the striker. I do see the striker slamming his foot into the ground.
Well, then I’m not sure what to say. There’s clearly contact in that clip, at the 46 second mark.
If you still don’t see it, try this (if the link works).
Despite the incredibly histrionic language on the attached page, it’s pretty clear if you hit the full-screen view on this his leg gets hooked on the way through to hit the ball.
ETA: Bigfoot ninja’d!
Yeah, sorry Zakalwe, but you’re simply wrong. Whatever other problems you might have with the officiating, this was a clear and unambiguous foul inside the penalty area. Absolutely the correct call by the official.
As Samaras’ left leg comes up to strike the ball, Sio runs into him, hitting the left leg and knocking it into his right foot as he attempts to make the kick. The striker does slam his foot into the ground, but the reason he does this is because the Ivorian defender ran into him.
I’ve taken four quick screen grabs from the Univision feed and put them on my photo site. You can see them, in chronological order, here. Also, until it gets taken down by FIFA, you can see a standard-def, slow-motion video of the foul here.
What’s the point of it? Are the refs a bunch of soft-hearts who dole out yellow cards based on the best Oscar-level dying scene performances?
I think it’s easy to miss the foul, since it happens earlier in the sequence than might be expected, and because the Greek player so obviously stubs his foot into the ground. But once you see the contact it’s pretty clearly a foul.
It’s funny how much a difference getting the right clip from the right angle can make. In a few post, I’d say this one went from “that was no penalty!”, through “might have been a penalty” and “it’s a penalty, and here’s why” to mhendo’s post, which settles the matter at “obvious penalty, no question, let’s move on”.
Yep. I was wrong and borschevsky nailed the reason. I was looking for contact too late in the sequence. Thanks all, ignorance fought.
Still not rooting for Greece though. And you CAN’T MAKE ME! ;)*
And…just got an email. Our office is having a brown bag lunch viewing party for the US/Germany match on Thursday! I hope it’s the most boring 0-0 draw in WC history! 
- How oddly appropriate is the color of that smiley?
At 12 seconds: “He inched them closer and closer until the damn wall finally broke.”
Not to be the biggest party pooper in the room, but I think you’ll find, if you watch that clip again (from the right angle, in slo-mo), that he actually says “**dam **wall”. 
I can’t believe there are no repercussions for the biting incident. Also, I’d like to see refs give out gold card to players (for best performance).