The New Sudoku Players' Forum

[lunababy_moonchild]

As you can see I wasn't watching the game........................

The referee was undoubtedly wrong and will face the consequences, from FIFA, later (I would think).

Luna

[Crazy Girl]

Thanks Crazy Girl's explanation. Didn't know the referee was English. Now that explains it...

In all fairness, the referee did appear to act impartially, but made a small error with the Croatian player. How do they assign referee's to matches, is it a lottery where one get's picked out the hat, or is it by a different method and can the playing teams object

Pity one can't change an injured player, a bit of a disadvantage I think, and who need's three England goalie's in the first place (Sven)

[udosuk]

I think it's an official requirement for a team to have a total of 23 players including 3 goalies and 20 field players... Of course, in bizarre circumstances sometimes a defender could act in as a goalie too...

I wasn't saying the ref was biased towards Croatia, I'm sure the Croatians weren't happy with him either. It's just that we have a long history of suffering in sports because of the English, not necessary because they beat us fair and square on the field... The bodyline tour was another example...

Also, it was strange in the first place to assign an English ref for the match... I thought refs from the same continent of either team cannot officiate the match, and given the relationship between Eng and Aus it also seemed not appropriate...

[ab]

for some reason Graham Poll is highly regarded by Fifa. Maybe it's because most fans in England hate him. he's a bit of a jobsworth. i think many football fans will be glad to see his demise

[Cec]

Whilst I'm a passionate supporter of Australian (AFL) football I've become more interested in watching the soccer and appreciating the skills of this game. Being human, I'm sure Australia's performances to date have helped to kindle this enthusiasm. I particularly like the rules which provide far greater protection to players which contrasts to AFL football where there are far too many serious injuries where players with the ball can be tackled and forcibly thrown, even leading to head contact with the ground.

This probably seems a strange question coming from one not previously taking much interest in soccer but has there been a "push" for the goal to be widened which would increase the scoring opportunity for players?

I've watched some games which result in a Nil-Nil draw after 90 minutes or so and it seems a "hollow" way for a game to finish.

Any thoughts?

Cec

[udosuk]

Glad you've developed some interest to this game Cec. As fellow Aussies we need all the support for our national team to get past the next big hurdle - the dreaded Italians!

This probably seems a strange question coming from one not previously taking much interest in soccer but has there been a "push" for the goal to be widened which would increase the scoring opportunity for players?

I've watched some games which result in a Nil-Nil draw after 90 minutes or so and it seems a "hollow" way for a game to finish.

I think part of the game's excitement comes from the difficulty to score a goal, which makes each of them so valuable and important. If the goal were to be made larger then there's a possibility that the defensive-minded teams will just crowd most of their players back in front of the goal, making it even more boring...

Also, this wikipedia article about Graham Poll has more info about what happened in the Australia-Croatia match... And very detailed info about the man himself...

Within half an hour of the game ending, U.K. bookmaker Coral offered odds of 10-1 against Poll refereeing another match at the tournament.

Given FIFA's history of employing incompetent refs, anyone dares to bet on this?

[Hud]

I watched a bit of the Germany/Sweden game today but it was already 2-0 when I turned it on. The Swedish goal keeper made a very good save and really got in his team's faces for letting the shot go uncontested. It must have worked since Germany didn't score any more goals.
I'll read the link udosuk posted tomorrow; it's a little late now.

[Cec]

"...I think part of the game's excitement comes from the difficulty to score a goal, which makes each of them so valuable and important.."

Yes..your point is acknowledged but then again, if no goals are scored then less excitement

"... If the goal were to be made larger then there's a possibility that the defensive-minded teams will just crowd most of their players back in front of the goal, making it even more boring..."

If the goals were "excessively" widened then I can see this might happen although the number of players is still the same...I was thinking more of a "minor" increase which could only be determined over an extensive trial period.

Also, thanks for the wikipedia article about Graham Poll. I'd noted this umpire's performance on TV and in the papers..pretty ordinary alright ..

Cec

[Hud]

Re: Graham Poll, I've always felt that if a sports official is doing a good job, you shouldn't know his name.

I was watching an Arizona Diamondbacks Baseball game last summer when The batter, Craig Counsell of the D-backs got 4 balls during an at bat. The plate umpire, Las Diaz, insisted that only 3 balls had been issued. I can rewind live TV and saw that indeed there were 4 balls. Counsell and the manager made mild protests and the umpire wouldn't change his mind, and the other umpires wouldn't set him straight. Counsell then got ball 5.

[Pi]

If there's anyone who didn't understand how yellow and red cards work then they should have watched Portugal Vs Holland where there were enough examples for en entire refereeing course

16 Yellows and 4 Reds, a new world cup record

My world cup prediction is still what it was at the start, Spain

[Cec]

I'm surprized udosuk hasn't posted in yet I've just watched some replays of the penalty awarded to Italy for the winning goal. How come in this game you get a gift "free" kick when you fall over your opponent's legs making out it was a trip. If the Cup has Oscar nominations for best actor this guy's got it wrapped up now

Cec

[Hud]

Even our local paper, "The Arizona Republic", had an article about the terrible refereeing that cost a team the game. The article made some tongue-in-cheek references to why Americans dislike soccer.
The last paragraph reads:
Soccer just doesn't make the cut. And when U.S. soccer apologists read this, they'll probably fall to the ground and writhe in pain, get sprayed with something, then come back to the Sports Section a few minutes later - perfectly healthy.

The article also stated:
"Bad calls are part of sports. Obviously, they are. But, while bad calls can swing the momentum in more traditional U.S. sports of football (the good kind), baseball and basketball, they don't virtually award the victory to one team."

I don't think the writer liked soccer (or good sentence structure).

[tarek]

I finally returned home from Germany.... Fantastic experience....

It was really tough for Australia to exit after such a good effort, but that is football, you can't predict what's coming next..... That was clearly evident in the Prtugal vs. Holland match.......

The German TV made a nice clip showing the the referee booking the players in slow motion with "From Russia with Love" in the background............That made my day following a VERY wet night in Stuttgart.

No one can bend it like Beckham.........I was in the stands & the guy went from ZERO to HERO in seconds.......I found an article about the game saying that "it was one of those redemption moments that he specialises in" quite accurate. As long as Redemption=Winning everyone is happy.

I can feel that the semifinal would be Brazil vs England & Italy vs the winner of the match of the tournament so far between Germany & Argentina....

To me, This world cup really stands out & The heat is on...

Tarek

[udosuk]

It took me a couple days to recover... Just kidding... The boys put up a great fight but lost to a careless mistake... But they should not be at that situation in the first place if they had capitalized even one of the many scoring opportunities after the Italians were down to 10 men... It seems without Kewell they didn't have anybody else to finish a goal... And at this level a team certainly need somebody with that ability to win a match, which is why I think Germany & Brazil, with their world-class forwards, are hot favourite now...

With 8 teams remaining, we have 6 past champions (the only remaining one, Uraguay, was eliminated by Australia in the qualifying stage)... So to many this must be one of the most special tournament in the history...

[lunababy_moonchild]

Sorry to see England go out. I hope that's not the end of this thread!

Luna