Quote from Kalev EST :

You broke my ****ing head!

Montoya :lovies3d:

I think a properly disciplined team will break down Argentina far more easily than most people think. We'll see what happens when they face Germany, but I'd be very shocked if Argentina win this World Cup. If Lahm plays better than he did against England (he was really the weak link in Germany's defence today, I think) and the team is able to disable Messi then it should be a very decisive victory for Germany. I could be very wrong though

Quote from rockclan :

Dunno if it's already posted.

But England CLEARLY missed that ball for real!

Just look at this:
http://i.imgur.com/QxJvh.jpg

http://www.lfsforum.net/showthread.php?p=1446726#post1446726

Of course Argentina is going to get the piss outta us and we have no chance against them coz our team is soooooooo bad...

I think something definately has to change after this WC regarding refereeing.. I think that one 'challenge' per team would be a good idea, BUT, there are tons of cons... For example, ball hits someone suposedly in the hand, referee says it's ok, the other team goes in counter attack (fast one, like Germans did today), and then the coach asks for 'challenge' cause of that hand play. Now, you have to stop the game, and, stop that counter attack and probably a goal.. You just can't do that, it would kill football as we know it. Let's say they got it wrong, referee was right, and there was no hand play, who will give that counter attack back to the other team? I just don't see how this could be handled, but something has to be done imo..

Yeah, in my opinion there's no place in football for judging actions that require the game to stop. Would be a pain to watch.

I guess that extra referee around the goal would be enough. But honestly those mistakes we're seeing are so awful it's hard to believe they didn't see it. Maybe they're just that bad.

Ironically at the start of the world cup i said that referees are awesome, there were some really good calls... but then, it just went down hill. I think that at least, there has to be a referee checking the replay right away, and giving a correct call to the main referee. It would last couple of seconds, at least for situations like this in Germany-England match, and not for offsides, handplay etc..

heard something interesting on BBC radio 5 this morning on way home from work.

due to a historical quirk, football rules are decided on by FIFA and England, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales.

when they were debating goal line technology, England and Scotland were in favour but FIFA, Nothern Ireland and Wales were against it. since a majority would have prevailed it's obviously either the Northern Irish or us Welsh that are responsible for England loosing

they jus need to show it on the tv stadium screen within 5 seconds of it happening and ref can lookup to screen and see it and blow before any other incident can happen

Quote from DeadWolfBones :

To broadly generalize, Americans like scoring. A setup like hockey would theoretically increase shots on goal. More specifically, it would take the ability to put an attacker offsides away from the defenders.

The blue line in hockey is a line about 25% of the way across the rink on both ends... if you're attacking, you can't be across the blue line before the puck is, or you're offsides. This way offsides is a fixed point rather than a moving point based on the positions of the defenders. In soccer, defenders can quickly step upfield to put an attacker offside. In hockey, there's a stationary line that determines it.

I think it's a stupid idea for soccer, since the game is much slower-moving by nature and depends on defensive tactics as much as offensive, but it works well for hockey.

There are some serious soccer fans that would like to see this change. It's not like hockey scores are much higher than soccer scores, so it wouldn't change the game much. What it would prevent is teams moving defenders up to near mid-field after a score or if in a tournament where a 0-0 draw allows a team to advance. It would force teams to play a clean game rather than exploit the offsides rule. From what I understand they've already changed the offsides rule slightly from what it was several years ago.

Quote from BreadC :

they jus need to show it on the tv stadium screen within 5 seconds of it happening and ref can lookup to screen and see it and blow before any other incident can happen

But the ref can't just ignore what is actually happening on the field at that time.

Quote from JeffR :

There are some serious soccer fans that would like to see this change. It's not like hockey scores are much higher than soccer scores, so it wouldn't change the game much. What it would prevent is teams moving defenders up to near mid-field after a score or if in a tournament where a 0-0 draw allows a team to advance. It would force teams to play a clean game rather than exploit the offsides rule. From what I understand they've already changed the offsides rule slightly from what it was several years ago.

But "exploiting" the offside rule is a big part of good defensive playing. And how is that "not playing a clean game"?

Quote from BreadC :

they jus need to show it on the tv stadium screen within 5 seconds of it happening and ref can lookup to screen and see it and blow before any other incident can happen

Happend during argentina-mexico game with the first goal, all players were ready to kick off again and suddenly they showed the off side on the big screen and you can see all the mexico players run to the ref.

Quote from Boris Lozac :

I think something definately has to change after this WC regarding refereeing.. I think that one 'challenge' per team would be a good idea, BUT, there are tons of cons... For example, ball hits someone suposedly in the hand, referee says it's ok, the other team goes in counter attack (fast one, like Germans did today), and then the coach asks for 'challenge' cause of that hand play. Now, you have to stop the game, and, stop that counter attack and probably a goal.. You just can't do that, it would kill football as we know it. Let's say they got it wrong, referee was right, and there was no hand play, who will give that counter attack back to the other team? I just don't see how this could be handled, but something has to be done imo..

In your example, the challenge takes place at the next dead ball situation a la substitutions,.

For instance if Germany have a handball and Argentina go on a counter attack and score, Germany can challenge the handball and the challenge would take place at the dead ball situation, i.e. after the ball was in the net.

How to penalize challenges? Well A. Loss of a substitution, B. Only ONE challenge per game, only the team captain and coach can call for a challenge.

Quote from de Souza :

I guess that extra referee around the goal would be enough. But honestly those mistakes we're seeing are so awful it's hard to believe they didn't see it. Maybe they're just that bad.

Or now we have about 30+ different camera angles showing every call in super slow motion over and over again, while the ref see it once at full speed and has to make a call.

I firmly believe that there has been no change in the standard of the referring over the years, however there is an increase of coverage meaning everything becomes more scrutinised.

Most of us have seen the calls and moaned and bithced about the refs, it's part of football, but how many of us have actually officiated a game? Until you run in the boots of the ref, most of us will never understand how exactly these simple calls can be missed, but trust me on this....the 3 officials can not see everything.

Case in point, Mexico only started to question the goal....AFTER the reply was shown on the screen (which should not have happened for obvious reasons), so not only did the officials miss it, but so did the majority of the Mexico team.

Also I'll like to add this. Never in the many many years of watching football, have I seen a team been relegated or knocked out on a single bad call from the ref. You get knocked /relegated because quite simply you where not good enough.

Hup Holland Hup

I hope they can surprise me today, unlike the other matches.

against slovakia today right?

well difficult but possible

Neanderthals 2 - Slolvakia 0

Is it just me or has refereeing at this years Soccer World Cup been terrible? Bad calls missed goals terrible cards? So much for World Class

We have no chance, but you know ... i was saying that when we were playing against italy too

Quote from zeugnimod :

But "exploiting" the offside rule is a big part of good defensive playing. And how is that "not playing a clean game"?

My thoughts exactly.

Quote from Mackie The Staggie :

stuff about refereeing mistakes

I agree on all those points, Mackie.
Maybe I exaggerated the way I said it... It's just that I thought England's goal was clear without any replays, and the position of the side line referee was pretty good to notice it. Maybe he wasn't looking there, we'll never know heh.


Edit: Holland scores! Nice goal.

What a pass by Sneijder, just perfect.


Edit 2: Is it just me or Robben looks a lot like Officer Alex Murphy (Robocop)?

ROBBEN!!!!!! Very good goal.

Holland still not convincing, but still advancing.

Hopefully their next match will be against us.

Penalty shouldn't have been given, it already was 93 minutes while there were given 2 extra minutes and the guy just fell down.

Quote from G!NhO :

Penalty shouldn't have been given, it already was 93 minutes while there were given 2 extra minutes and the guy just fell down.

The game ends when the ref blows his whistle. The added time is an approximation anyway and when there is a stoppage in play during the added time then the ref adds more time.

There was contact so it was a penalty.

Quote from G!NhO :

Penalty shouldn't have been given, it already was 93 minutes while there were given 2 extra minutes and the guy just fell down.

Whatever, they didn't win.