Rugby is a much better candidate for showing how an off-field referee can be used, due to the similar free-flowing nature.
As far as I remember, they are a lot more open to using video evidence to punish a player after a game as well. A further thing that football should take from rugby is that when a player is down injured the physio can come on the field, but the game continues around them.
This…It is not a problem to have a “citing” commission to look into any incident being it diving or reversing on-field punishment. The fact that it can’t happen at every level of football is immaterial, there are already vast differences between grass-roots and the professional game that such an additional measure is hardly going to make a difference.
I feel very sorry for the referees. They have one look, through one set of eyes from one angle and have to make a game-changing decision (and get hammered when it is inevitably wrong) or they choose not to make a game-changing decision (and get hammered for it when it is inevitably wrong).
Even the incident upthread is forgivable, for all the ire being heaped on the officials in that case it is perfectly reasonable that they didn’t have a clear view and had to make a snap-decision. Now either they mistook what they saw and made an honest error or they saw it perfectly clearly and made a corrupt decision to book him, in the clear knowledge that multiple camera angles would damn that decision after the fact. I suspect the former.
No-one, either this thread or in the media can say with any confidence whether the ref made the right decision on the evidence available to him because no-one else is in his shoes at the time.
Everyone in the game has to get used to the fact that refs are fallible, it is part of the game until such time as FIFA allow real-time video reviews of contentious decisions.
I have a list of simple suggestions that, if the authorities have the balls to back them, will rid the professional game of cheating and tone down the contempt for authority that poisons it all.
Thing is, you have to do all these things at once to make a meaningful cultural change. 1 & 2 if properly enforced would clean up and speed up the game within a few weeks meaning the extra time needed to implement 3 is negligible.
Agreed. Blatter is a moron, and that’s putting it mildly. Unfortunately, I’m not convinced Platini is any better.
Even as an England fan, I can’t agree with this. Disappointing as the decision was, you can’t expect the German team to do anything else. What are they meant to do, score a deliberate own goal? Protest to the referee that it was a goal? In either case they would be (rightly) castigated by their management and fans. You have to accept the decision of the on-field officials under the current system, good or bad. If the roles had been reversed, I would have been furious if the England team had done anything other than what happened in reality. Also, for England to stage a unilateral boycott now would just look petty, and would almost certainly be ineffectual. We get enough hate from other countries as it is.
There was a similar, but even more egregious case a few years ago involving then Manchester United goalkeeper Roy Carroll. A long-distance shot had caught him well off his line. He scrambled back and scooped the ball out of the net when it was about 2 yards over the goal line. Of course, it was obviously a goal on replay, but in real time I can believe his (and the officials’) defence that it all happened too quickly to be certain of the outcome without a replay. I don’t think it’s fair to describe that as cheating.
Yes, Hodgson is probably just what the England team has been looking for - an English coach not afraid of pragmatism when required. No an England team under Keegan or Hoddle would have gone out there, played free-flowing attacking football, and lost 3-2. Most England fans should be satisfied with our situation. Hodgson knows what he’s doing.
Rugby is usually significantly less “free-flowing” than football - there tend to be many more natural stoppages in play. I agree with you in general, but not about the physios coming on to the field - the area of play tends to change in football much more quickly than in rugby, and in rugby the team in possession can change their tactics slightly to avoid the injured player without damaging their overall chances, which is not necessarily the case in football where you tend to want to use a much larger area of pitch in a short space of time.
But it does happen. Just last month:
And then back in 1999 (it sticks in my head as my Dad is a Blades fan), Arsenal had a replay with Sheffield United after they won due to a goal that was not against the rules, it was just unsporting.
I disagree on the stoppages, footie has a fair few as well. And distance kicking is pretty damn common as well. But without actual stats we won’t get anywhere.
I find your post to be highly seditious:p
In all honesty, I hate this attitude: England have had some very good teams since 1966, several of which have had a fairly good chance of winning the World Cup, even if we haven’t been outright favourites since 1970.
Okay I’ll admit that the current team are far from vintage and if we were to win next years World Cup it would be a fairly big upset. However that’s no excuse to play against teams that we can beat with a total lack of ambition and imagination. We need to push the team forward. The result wasn’t that bad, but the manner we played was and the only real saving grace for having no plan to score goals was that we were without our 3 best forwards.
My Dad and I watched the 1966 World Cup final live.
I’ve followed the England team ever since but it’s hard to get your hopes up when there have been 11 consecutive World Cup Finals and 12 consecutive European Championship Finals without England playing.
The English Football Assocation is better at arguing and sex scandals than running the game.
Our young players run around on full-size pitches and play long balls to a tall striker. Spain, Brazil (and others) use small areas with emphasis on ball control.
Our wealthy clubs prefer not to release players to the English team if they have ket matches coming up.
Sure, I know it does happen - I was going to mention Paolo Di Canio catching the ball, and was it Robbie Fowler deliberately missing a penalty agains Arsenal? But not in this situation - even the German goalkeeper could hardly have been certain it was over the line. They’re different situations, IMHO.
Italy, Switzerland Belgium have all qualified for the World Cup today.
England fairly strong with a 4-1 win against Montenegro with an excellent debut by Andros Townsend who scored a peach of a goal. Unfortunately we still have to win our next match against Poland to avoid the 2nd place play-offs (we currently lead the group, but 2nd place Ukraine have a virtually guaranteed win against San Marino in their last game). I’m pretty confident though that England will win at home against a Poland team with nothing to play for.
Sorry, that should be Germany, not Italy (who have already qualified).
Mexico beats Panama on an 85th minute bicycle kick that was spectacular. The video highlights are here, with the bicycle kick at about the 1 minute mark.
Holy Crap!
Panama 2 USA 1 and Costa Rica 2 Mexico 1 both in stoppage time. If the scores hold Panama is in Brazil and Mexico stays home for the first time since 1982.
The USA scores twice, crushing Panama and their fans and sending their arch-rival Mexico to the World Cup (pending a playoff with New Zealand.) I’ve seen reports that there were some very strange noises in Los Angeles as the Mexican fans exploded until they realized they were cheering for the US.
If I were the US, I’d send that bus straight to the airport. Panama City has a very high murder rate.
I’m a USA fan and I feel like I was punched in the gut.
I wondered what all the shouting was about outside a little while ago.
The murder rate isn’t that high, but the city has now gone very, very quiet.
Mexican TV coverage of the last minutes:
:eek:
I don’t even know what to say, except that that right there is why we love sports…
…unless you’re from Panama tonight, in which case you probably can’t really appreciate what just happened.
It was a miracle for Mexico, a miracle made by the USA.
I saw many comments that noticed the funny situation, many fans appeared to not root for their own teams. There were USA fans rooting for Panama, Mexicans rooting for USA and hating their own team.
So, Mexico will have a chance and the record shows that on recent encounters Mexico did beat New Zealand, but with this current Mexican team that is not so certain.
Mexico should beat New Zealand comfortably, but they’ve struggled against so many crappy CONCACAF in important matches recently nothing is certain.
Mexico are obviously under-performing, but I don’t them very highly anyway. When we (England) played them in 2010 in a friendly it was one of our weakest recent home performances, but it was still one of our easiest wins.
Here is the epic transalation of the Mexican announcers, praising the USA and destroying Mexico:
That was insane. There was definitely a part of me that was happy with a U.S. loss. But it’s also pretty cool that we’re responsible for Mexico staying alive. You’re welcome Mexico.
My God that’s hilarious. I never thought I’d hear a Mexican announcer screaming “We love you! We love you forever and ever! God bless America!” about a US team - in English yet. That’s a bigger miracle than the comeback itself.
Given how happy it would have made some of my friends, I wouldn’t have minded a Panama victory since it wouldn’t have affected the US much.