World Cup Final – Ugly, Ugly, Ugly

In a World Cup that has been beset by discussions and disputes about officiating, FIFA was not handed any favors by English official Howard Webb today.

And The Beautiful Game was not handed any favors by either side of the matchup.

A dozen or so yellow cards (along with 47 fouls, including some dives that would have contended in the Olympics), with three blatant foul-ups, will not help settle any of the disputes about officiating. And the mediocre display will likely not win any new fans to the game.

There’s no question that Netherlands was chippy. Spain was more aggressive, and the aggressive team often gets the benefit of calls because they get to the ball first. Netherlands seemed to be a half-step behind for a lot of the game.

Overall, the officiating wasn’t horrible. It was just that there were an awful lot of cautions, and three really strange calls.

A Netherlands player inexplicably received only a yellow card after a landing a studs-first blow into the chest of a Spaniard. It is hard to imagine what type of explanation other than “I didn’t see it” can justify only a yellow card there. But of course Webb saw it; he waved the yellow for it. It was dangerous. It was brutal. It was ugly. It was a red card offense.

Later, just minutes before the end of the game, Netherlands forward Robben was clearly impeded from behind on a breakaway to the goal. He tried to stay on his feet to save a scoring chance, which was blocked, due to a great play by Spain’s keeper combined with the defensive foul. The defender, Puyol, would have received a second yellow (possibly a straight red), consigning Spain to play a man down for the remainder of the match. But Webb waved the play on.

When you compare this play to the play that led to the second yellow for Netherlands Heitinga, it makes it even more curious. Heitinga’s foul from behind was clearly far less egregious than Puyol’s and Puyol’s was a desperation play to prevent a scoring chance on a dead breakaway.

Then in extra time, just before Spain’s goal, a goal kick was awarded to Spain, even though the ball clearly had been touched by Spain on its way off the pitch. Rather than a corner kick for a possible scoring chance, Spain received a goal kick that released the pressure and led to their goal.

Four years from now, it will be interesting to see what technological advances are incorporated into the World Cup. Chances are that it will not (and should not) change anything that happened today. Only keeping the card in the pocket, or showing an early red to calm things down, will do that.

The Netherlands lost because they failed to score, and they allowed a goal. They lost because they got chippy and did not play their game patiently. You can’t blame that on the men in blue shirts.

If you want to win, you gotta play better.

Okay, I Saw It

Last night on CBC, I finally saw the play near the end of the US-Slovenia game in which the goal was disallowed.

I am not a big fan of complaining about officiating. (I do it, of course; I am just not a big fan of it.)

But folks, that was atrocious. There was assault and battery going on in there. There was probable cause for no less than four arrests, if only the security had been effective.* It was a like a scrum. At the very least it looked the world had finally adopted American football.

This was far worse than Galaragga’s almost perfect game debacle of a few weeks ago because that did not affect the outcome of the game.

This did affect the outcome. What should have been a 3-2 victory was turned into a 2-2 draw.

So the US played a horrible first half, and the second half was not much better. But they did what they had to do, which is the pretty uncommon feat of scoring three goals in one half in a World Cup game.

There still has been no confirmation of what the call was. No one knows, probably not even the official who called it. One of the commentators used the word “bizarre” for it. It was appropriate.

If there was ever a place for a call to be overturned, this is it.

Of course, this will all be moot if the US beats Algeria in the final game of the first stage. And let’s be honest—tying Slovenia and not beating Algeria means you do not deserve to move on.

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*“There were also more questions about security at the World Cup after a disgruntled fan managed to barge his way into the England dressing room.

According to reports, the fan confronted David Beckham before being led away, prompting the England team to make an official complaint to FIFA about the security around the squad.”

As I Always Say …

Good things happen when you get the ball on net.

Shoot early; shoot often.

World Cup Soccer

Here’s a list of places you can watch the World Cup online. Should be helpful for those who live in the backwoods kind of places where the World Cup will only be shown on some third tier cable network.

On FIFA’s website, you can find times and locations for all the matches.