Delay of game? Isn’t that what the added time is for? I’m always amazed at “tactics” intended to “waste time” (holding the ball, taking forever to get off the field for a substitution) when the whole point of added time is to, well, add time. Yes, the intent is to add time that elapsed while the game was stopped, but timing is at the discretion of the fourth official.
I’m not keen on the gamesmanship of Abby Wambach (counting aloud next to the referee), but what are you going to do? Had we been able to defend a corner kick, we might not have had to worry about bad/non-calls. Friends who follow EPL joked about it happening at Old Trafford. Questionable officiating and a penalty for the favoured team? You don’t say!
Yeah. Both ways. There were two or three non PK calls that could’ve cost Canada goals. That the thug Tancredi managed to avoid a red card is criminal.
The way McLeod was almost always holding onto the ball forever, she only has herself to blame that the ref finally called her on it. Unusual? Yes. The right call? Absolutely.
I love that one of the Canadian players is tweeting Sepp Blatter asking him to review the match. Even if there was a legitimate grievance, Blatter ain’t doing anything. But as rare as it is, the ref made a call according to the Laws, what is Sepp going to do about that? Be careful what you with for, Sepp may review it and decide to suspend Tancredi. (OK, that’s not going to happen either, but it’s more likely than Canada getting any help).
Its not about the 6 second rule, its about what Americans can do to win. At the beginning of the game, Americans were flopping on the ground like wounded cheesies, crying foul on most plays. They would do anything to win more Gold than the Chinese, that is what it’s all about and the judge takes a bribe for that. No wonder Americans are hated around the world, they should be ashame of themselves. Go Japan Go.
I don’t see any Canadians complaining about Tancredi not being sent off for head stomp of Carli Lloyd in the 55th minute. Canada should have played a good part of the match with 10 players.
Huh, I didn’t see that at all, and I’m Canadian. I thought the Americans and Canadians both sucked up a lot of punishment without any flopping. I didn’t see one dive in the entire match.
Ummmm… Japan won the game in the shoot-out not the US. That is why this year’s gold medal game is so anticipated. We’re playing Japan again and it is our chance to even things up.
For the 6-second rule, the complaints about it seem to be something like when people complain for getting a ticket for doing 60 in a 55 zone because cops normally don’t ticket people until they’re 10 over. If you don’t want to get called for the foul, don’t commit it–acknowledging that you committed the foul and then complaining about the ref calling it just sounds pretty stupid.
For the hand ball–I had the match on my second TV muted, so it’s possible I missed or misread something in the closed captioning, but I thought the commentators mentioned something about one of the Canadian players being known for “incidental” arm contacts on free kicks. If that’s the case, then perhaps it may be a matter of a player with a reputation no longer getting the benefit of the doubt.
(and that’s one of the problems with replays–you could never use it to fix incorrect no-calls)
I am not someone who regularly follows soccer, but I have been led to understand that awarding an indirect free kick for violating the six-second rule essentially never happens at this level. Is this correct? Does anyone know the last time it happened in a high-level soccer game?
I have no problem in general with refs following rules, but I do have a problem with selective enforcement. A tense moment in an Olympic semifinal seems hardly the right place to begin putting one’s foot down if it has essentially never happened in the last twenty years or whatever.
I’m very clear what call you’re referring to: a missed handball on Rapinoe. And I challenged you to back your claim of “terrible officiating” with more than a single example of a missed call.
Beyond that missed call, what in the match constituted “terrible officiating”?
True, but the “with the ball” I was referring to was the common interpretation of a goalie being “with the ball”: it is in his/her hands. So the old rules were three steps with the ball in the hands, now it is as many as you want but no more than a certain amount of time, the problem being that the certain amount of time rule sis rarely enforced and even more rarely away from the last few minutes of the game.
It only really happens at the end of the game. At the time this incident happened you’d be more likely to see the referee indicate with his/her hands that the goalie should play the ball (a common indication being a movement of both hands from around the buttocks to up in the air in front of the referee, in one round, swooping motion). If the goalie doesn’t respond to that then a free kick and booking may well happen.
It is one of those rules that constantly get broken and the referee overlooks as being picky about everything ruins the flow of the game. As another example: where a team takes a free kick, throw in etc. In theory it is supposed to be where the ball went out/incident happened but in practice it is just done somewhere vaguely near where it should be. Often it is nowhere close. A poor referee is insistent that it be taken at exactly the right place and would be criticised for being pedantic.
Oh, the throw-ins are the worst! And talk about time-wasters.
Ball goes out of play somewhere at the half line.
Player goes and picks up the ball, moving about 5 yards closer to the opponent’s goal, making a motion as if to throw it.
When really, he’s not the throw-in man; he’s just waiting for another teammate to come and get it.
Player sees his teammate approaching, so he drops the ball, about 2 or 3 yards closer to the opponent’s goal.
Teammate comes up, picks up the ball, side-shuffles up the line closer to the opponent’s goal, as he tries to find someone to throw it to.
Spots someone, then does a little run-up to get maximum distance on the throw.
Really, I’ve seen players move up 10-15 yards and waste about 30 seconds. That’s not counting Rory Delap from Stoke City (EPL), who is actually allowed to wipe down the ball with a towel and release the ball illegally.
As for the rest, I don’t think there was some grand conspiracy for the US to win that game. And I don’t agree with any Canadian player/coach writing in to Sepp Blatter. He was the one who suggested a way to improve women’s soccer was to get them to wear tighter shorts. He doesn’t give a shit, implying there is a shit to be given here. There were bad/missed calls on both sides. The IFK is getting all the talk because it is so unusual. I could not believe it when I saw it, and I watch about 60 games a season. I have seen handballs miscalled or not called. I have seen player infractions (the stomp, an elbow, etc.) not called. But I have never seen time-wasting called for an IFK. It was bizarre.
Fair enough, didn’t read it that way. And sure, I remember the old rules well – they sucked as they could kill a match for the last ten minutes or more depending on the score.
As for time wasting, keepers still get away with huge gobs of it when taking goal kicks. They act like golf-players getting ready for a championship putt – just “finding” and teeing-up the ball can take 5-10 seconds. The bookings-to-infractions ratio is ridiculous.
