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[Drygioni]

Yeah, that was a pretty awesome match. I thought Germany would go home disappointed after those two MAJORLY unlucky hits on the crossbar, but that last goal was deserved. Poland were pretty solid but Germany look a really decent team this year. If there is an England vs. Germany match prepare for something awesome.

Also: there is nothing more beautiful than watching 10,000 grown German men in their country's colours jumping up and down with sheer tearful joy. The stands just explode!

[KeithHernandez]

Also: there is nothing more beautiful than watching 10,000 grown German men in their country's colours jumping up and down with sheer tearful joy. The stands just explode!

Beautiful, my friend, beautiful.  Those German flags everywhere was awesome.  Almost as awesome as the near 1,000 confiscated flares at the Brazil-Croatia game yesterday.

I am watching the Spain-Ukraine match replay.  2-0 in the 17th minute.

I bought the most bad ass Spain EUFA warm up jacket a couple years ago, but then found out they are horrible racists.  Whatever, I don't support that but it is a fuck*ng killer jacket.

[Drygioni]

I'm here to pester you all again, I'm afraid. I'm not sure how many of you are still following this after the USA's unfortunate exit, and it's not like there were many of you to start with; nonetheless, like an unswattable fly I will continue to bug you all.

England are slowly edging through. It says a lot about the English media when our national football team has won 3, drawn 1 and lost none out of 4 games and yet you'll find countless articles saying how crap our team is. I think we might do it with a bit of luck.

I was very sad to see the Australians go out, especially to the opportunistic diving many European teams are so fond of. Italy might have won (barely) but the Australians had more pluck than the rest of the teams left combined. Speaking of European tactics, Portugal did not deserve to go through after that awful game. Diving was present left, right and centre and Holland weren't much better. It might not have been so bad if it weren't for the referees, which leads me neatly to my next point.*

The standard of refereeing in this tournament has been shocking. Never before have I seen such fussy, officious yet somehow completely random decisions dished out. It really is making the tournament hella less enjoyable. You can't get caught up in the atmosphere of a game when a referee gives a player three yellow cards before sending him off.**

Also, the linesmen are calling off-sides without any kind of judgement. See, the standard of refereeing is causing pathetic blokes such as myself to complain about the tournament when I should be enjoying it! See how bad it is?

*After reading this through, I realise how much I sound like Pat. Oh dear.

**In football, a yellow card shown to player is a warning of sorts, and a red card shown means the player must leave the pitch. Two yellow cards in the same match means a player should be shown a red along with their second yellow. Basically:

1 Yellow = Warning
2 Yellow = Send off
1 Red = Send off (A red can be shown without any preceding yellow, if the player's conduct is that bad.)

However, in one match the referee gave a player his second yellow and forgot to send him off, which is pretty much unprecedented. It can call a whole match into doubt if a player is still on when he should be off.

[KeithHernandez]

That was in the Croatia Australia match as well, which was hell of important for both teams.

[Lister]

I have to preface this by saying that I have not watched any world cup games live.  I do, however, watch a great deal of sporting highlights and commentary, so some Important Events of the world cup have managed to work through my reality filter.

Observation one: The US team made defenses look good and goalkeepers look bored.  Four shots in three games is not a way to win in a tournament.  In fact it is a good way to lose!  We did not seem to have a plan to attack, and our best play came with a man down (when I think the players were not relying on their coach so much as their own instincts).

Observation two: The US team does not get the "friendly whistle" when playing in international competition.  I can understand this, and I do not think it should have affected us the way it did -- good athletes are able to observe how a game is being called and adjust, and we did not.  Of course, we weren't alone...

Observation three: Referees in all games seem to be making bad calls, but in an inconsistent manner.  Bad calls made in some semblance of a pattern can be adjusted to (This ref overreacts to contact, that ref is a stickler for offsides, etc), but this weirdness that's been going on fits no pattern and thus is worse by an order of magnitude.  FIFA's* defense of the refs is maddening.  We have video evidence of these games, FIFA.  All around the world, people are watching and professionals are critiquing the events within them.  At least give us some corporate "mistakes have been made and measures are being undertaken to address them" bullshit.

Observation four: It must be neat to be in a country where everyone loves the national team or at least cares.  Having national holidays declared because a sports team is playing in international competition must be fairly awesome.  Well, until your team loses and the whole country is in a bad mood for a week or two...

One thing brought up in analysis of our team as opposed to others is that the best athletes in our country all go to play (American) football or basketball.  It kind of makes me wonder what a Jordan or a Rice could have done if they'd had that same focus, intensity, and drive but translated it to a sport that's appreciated outside of their borders.

On the other hand, would it actually be possible for Michael Jordan to be more famous?

*Suggested spellings: Fifi's, Fife's, Fief's, Fifes, Fives, Fovea's, Fiat's, Ufa's, Fig's

[Drygioni]

Does anyone know of any sports where video replays are used during the game to help the ref make a particularly tricky/important decision? I think if the referee could consult an off-pitch official with access to replays, it would help eliminate unnecessary penalties, cards and free kicks while increasing the number of just decisions. Plus, if we'd had that previously Maradona would never have fuck*ng got away with The Hand Of God. In an event as important as the World Cup it seems naive to rely on three pairs of eyes being able to assess everything that happens without fault.

On the other hand, it might halt the fluency of the game and so forth. I could bear it.

[Tangle]

Plus, if we'd had that previously Maradona would never have fuck*ng got away with The Hand Of God.

it's been 20 years already

let it go man

 

[CortJstr]

Does anyone know of any sports where video replays are used during the game to help the ref make a particularly tricky/important decision?

The NFL. It was there for years, then it went away because it slowed down the game, then brought back because of all the situations where people said "if only we had instant replay!"

During regulation play either coach can throw a red hankie to signal he wants the replay consulted. If the call stands that coach is fined one time out for wasting everybody's time. During the last two minutes of a half, or during all of overtime the coaches can no longer throw the flags. During these times mysterious officials in a booth somewhere will tell the ref to review a questionable call.

But American football is a maddeningly slow game anyway, so IR fits. The average NFL game is over 3 hours long but the ball is only in play for about 16 minutes. There is already a metric crapton of down time and waiting so the 2 minutes allowed for an instant replay can't slow the game down any more. The game already includes commercial time-outs for gods' sake. If it were rugby the fans would go apeshit if they had to wait 2 minutes for the game to get going again.

[AugustWest]

 Observation four: It must be neat to be in a country where everyone loves the national team or at least cares.  Having national holidays declared because a sports team is playing in international competition must be fairly awesome.  Well, until your team loses and the whole country is in a bad mood for a week or two...

If you don't think Super Bowl Sunday is a de facto national holiday, you're kidding yourself.  Also, around here the first Thursday through Sunday of March Madness might as well be holidays.

[Carlos del Vaca]

The game already includes commercial time-outs for gods' sake.

Minor point of order:  During a football game, they go to commercial during the next regular stoppage of play (change of possession, scoring play).  They don't stop play specifically so they can go to a TV commercial (they do in the NBA, though).

This does, however, lead to the annoying practice of a team scoring, commercial, kickoff, another commercial.

Back to the World Cup:  We had a fun little exercise the other day, imagining what the US national team would be like if you could pick and choose athletes, then go back in time and make them soccer players.  Peyton Manning as central midfielder, Dwayne Wade and Terrell Owens as wingmen, Allen Iverson as a forward, Shaq or Randy Johnson as a goalie.

[KeithHernandez]

Does anyone know of any sports where video replays are used during the game to help the ref make a particularly tricky/important decision?

As mentioned they use them in American football, which was like a huge deal.

Also, Basketball and Baseball both use them in very small spots.  With Basketball, they only use it for end of the quarter shots, to see if the shot was off before the buzzer sounded.  In baseball, they will use them if people interfer with a ball that was not a homerun but the fans caught it and brought it over the fench. 

Overall, baseball is very weird with their replay, but generally they only use it on homeruns to tell if it is fair or the previously mentioned stuff.  I know in basketball they are not allowed to use instant replay at any other time than at the end of quarters.  I THINK baseball is more laid back and they just use it when they need it, which is about 5 times per season (not alot considering it is like 30 teams that play 162 games each year).

I didn't read the previous poster who talked about football, but the instant replay rules are very strict, and, basically, only some non-opinion calls can be replayed.  If the ref makes a dumb call it can not always be reversed.


Edit:  A HUGE moment that it was used in baseball was in the 2004 ALCS (A series before the world series that decides who advances there), between the New York Yankees and Boston red Sox, when Alex Rodrigues slapped the ball out of Bronson Arroyo's glove while he was running to first.  I don't know what you know about baseball, but basically if someone tags you, you are out, but if they drop the ball you are safe.  You aren't allowed to slap it though, only like run into them real hard.  The umps called him safe, watched video replay, then reversed the call.  Still, it is very rare.  You don't really need it at all in baseball.

[Carlos del Vaca]

Still, it is very rare.  You don't really need it at all in baseball.

Oh, I beg to differ.  Remember Jeffrey Maier?  Fuck that kid, fuck him.

For the non-sporting:  playoff game, Orioles vs. Yankees.  Jeter, I think it was, hit a fly ball to the warning track.  The O's outfielder was camped under it, back to the wall, and a kid reached over the fence and caught it.  They called it a home run.  Replays showed he was clearly leaning over the fence, and the outfielder was clearly lined up to catch it.  But noooooooooooooooooooooooo.

[KeithHernandez]

Yea, that is basically what I was trying to say.  The only time that you need it in baseball are on pretty rare homerun calls (fan interference and fair/foul) and EXTREMLY rarely otherwise.  Is there a play besides that A-Rod thing that they have used IR for that you know of, not on a homerun of course?

[Carlos del Vaca]

OK, I think we're in agreement then.  Not many plays in baseball when replays are necessary, but when they are it's high-impact, as in the home run cases you mentioned.  I don't know of any other particular uses--they're not going to get into it on balls and strikes, or judgment fair-or-safe calls.  I could see it on "Was he hit by that pitch?" calls, but the time wasted looking at replay probably doesn't merit the impact of the play.

[KeithHernandez]

The cool thing about the baseball instant replay is that there was no big deal about it.  They just used it and no one did anything about it.