2006 FIFA World Cup

[sohotrightnow]

I agree, however, the calls against the US were "made-up" calls...any impartial fan could have determined that. It was a travesty.

[Brendan Barry]

See my problem is that I can't understand the announcers and I defiantly don't know enough about soccer to make any judgements. Im sure the Italians that I was wacthing the game with were kind of partial as well....

[jessexy]

It was plain to see Bruce Arena so livid when Pablo was red-carded, and a few minutes later, Univision was showing a FIFA guy trying to tell Bruce to cool off and even patted him on the back. I can imagine Bruce spewing some expletives at that time. I agree with jessexy and JosueSays about the terrible officating. The linesmen did a good job of calling appropriate offsides. Man, I sure missed that goal taken back when my son was telling me about that when I woke up from my 15 minutes nap. I had to watch Univision because ESPN and ESPN2 were showing something else, but it was fun figuring out Spanish when reading captioned Spanish.

FTR, the FIFA guy is the 4th official. A 4th official is assigned to every game to handle the sidelines and substitutions. he also is the person in line in case the referee gets injured. they often wear jackets on the sidelines so the players dont get confused on the field by the referee uniform on the sideline.

Here is my take on the US chances on Thrusday.
we absolutely have to win on Thursday against Ghana. if we dont win and get 3 points, we dont have a chance at all. if we do win, then we need Italy to beat the Czech Republic. then we'll have 4 points (win and tie) and Czech will have only 3. US will get the 2nd place from Group E and face Brazil in the round of 16.

Ghana is a good team, as expressed by there domination of Czech. Ghana was better, faster, more agressive in the attack. we match up well with Ghana because of our speed and we dont back down.

Ghana will be missing their two goal scorers because of yellow card accumulation (if you get 2 yellow cards in the pool rounds, then you sit out a game) Gyan and Muntari. US will be missing DF Eddie Pope (replaced by Bocanegra probably) and MF Mastroeni (replaced by John O'Brien).

Czech's will have a long road because they are missing their top 3 strikers, 2 from injury and one from yellow card suspension, and they will be missing a central defender because of a red card against Ghana. The Italians are strong and they will run and attack, so Czechs have a long road to defeat Italy. A tie is a possibility, and that would destroy the US.

This is an excellent situation for the USA because they Italians have something to play for as they have not clinched a spot in the round of 16. so they must come out and play and care about this game against the Czechs. this is good for the US because the Italians will try and win, giving us a chance if we beat Ghana.

[Brent Burns]

Did anyone see or hear about FIFA's current stance on the number of yellow cards being issued especially those of so-called aggressive tackling, etc? I missed reading about that in Yahoo! since that headline is no longer there. I did check the whole June 19 sports headlines and may have overlooked that somehow.

Just did a quick read of an Australian player who would be coming before the FIFA Disciplinary Panel for his finger-pointing/tirade against a ref or a linesman.

Is FIFA being beholden to a lot of perennial powerhouses to make sure their star prizes don't get hurt, etc? Is that a wild assumption that FIFA is cracking down hard by issuing sooooooo many yellow cards/yellow-reds?

Have you noticed that all of the refs now have that mouthpiece? Is that FIFA's way to make sure all of them speak English as required when they announced several months ago that they would pick refs who can converse in English? Just wondering about that. I know someone did bring that up in this discussion a long time ago.

[FLAK]

This is an excellent situation for the USA because they Italians have something to play for as they have not clinched a spot in the round of 16. so they must come out and play and care about this game against the Czechs. this is good for the US because the Italians will try and win, giving us a chance if we beat Ghana.

The only thing that really worries me about our situation is the Italians and their infamous history of fixing matches and playing for draws. They can go through with a draw, unless ghana wins. But it has happened before or at least there was speculation behind it, I believe in either Euro 2004 or 2000. Add in the fact that quite a few of their top clubs teams are being investigated for match fixing and we may have a dillema on our hands.

Luckily both matches will be played at the same time so hopefully it puts the pressure on Italy to go out and get the win. This point is moot however if the U.S. doesnt go out there with the same intensity and passion that we saw on saturday. Its gonna take quite a bit for us to go through, but after watching how we played against Italy, I know we can do it.

[StrykerFSU]

Admittedly, I don't watch a lot of soccer but I'm starting to get the feeling that traditionally powerful teams seem to get the majority of calls. I noticed it particularly in the Aussi/Brasil match. Is this my imagination?

And I'm glad this only happens every four years. The stress of these games is starting to wear me out. That USA/Italy game nearly killed me.

[horn17]

The only thing that really worries me about our situation is the Italians and their infamous history of fixing matches and playing for draws. They can go through with a draw, unless ghana wins. But it has happened before or at least there was speculation behind it, I believe in either Euro 2004 or 2000. Add in the fact that quite a few of their top clubs teams are being investigated for match fixing and we may have a dillema on our hands.
Luckily both matches will be played at the same time so hopefully it puts the pressure on Italy to go out and get the win. This point is moot however if the U.S. doesnt go out there with the same intensity and passion that we saw on saturday. Its gonna take quite a bit for us to go through, but after watching how we played against Italy, I know we can do it.[/quote

How about this for pressure, second place in the group opens up the second round against Brazil...if Italy doesnt want to play them, they must win......

[horn17]

stupid quote button...

[Brent Burns]

Wonder if JosueSays is doing flips as Spain is going to advance.

[Sonny]

I was sitting in a bar watching Italy/USA with a guy who played varsity soccer at U of Memphis on Saturday. He said (at the international level) the very first call after a red card often is another red card (regardless of how hard the foul is) just to "even things up." The refs don't want to field the criticism that they decided things by tossing a player from one side and not the other.

I'm hesitant to criticize the officials (as a current lax official and fomer youth/H.S. soccer official) and I was cheering loud and hard for Sam's Army... But the red card call on Pablo (sp.) was pretty tough to swallow. It's like they are going straight to the cards on plenty of fouls that guys were just going to play the ball hard.

I don't fault the officials discounting the second US goal for offsides. But the red card on Pablo was too tough to swallow and basically killed any chance we had for the upset.

We have a great chance against Ghana with their two top players out. Hopefully the boys will come out fired up. Italy, needing a win, and playing at the same time helps.

[TheBearcatHimself]

The only thing that really worries me about our situation is the Italians and their infamous history of fixing matches and playing for draws. They can go through with a draw, unless ghana wins. But it has happened before or at least there was speculation behind it, I believe in either Euro 2004 or 2000. Add in the fact that quite a few of their top clubs teams are being investigated for match fixing and we may have a dillema on our hands.
Luckily both matches will be played at the same time so hopefully it puts the pressure on Italy to go out and get the win. This point is moot however if the U.S. doesnt go out there with the same intensity and passion that we saw on saturday. Its gonna take quite a bit for us to go through, but after watching how we played against Italy, I know we can do it.[/quote

How about this for pressure, second place in the group opens up the second round against Brazil...if Italy doesnt want to play them, they must win......

The match fixing is quite an issue, I was just in Greece for a month and even there it was top headline news for the entire time I was there. I know many of the Italians play for Juventus and AC Milan and other Italian league teams involved in this mess but I wonder if match fixing would even come into play at this level.

They most likely want to just win, but right now Italy is the team in the driver's seat in this group regardless. The only thing that hurts Italy is a loss, if they tie the Czechs they still head the group off goal differential (+2 as opposed to the Czechs' +1 and US -3) so a tie would still have them ahead in the standings, plus they would have 5 points to the Czech's 4 in that scenario. If Italy and the Czechs tie, the US is in trouble as they would have to beat Ghana by 5 to get the better goal differential, only Argentina has won a game by 5 this cup.

[JosueSays]

Reply with quote
Wonder if JosueSays is doing flips as Spain is going to advance. Laughing

haha I can assure you many a flip was done, especially when Raul scored... After a scoring drought since october, it was fitting that he scored the equalizer against Tunisia! What a great game.

Did Ghana appeal the suspension? I heard that even Czech's goalie thought he had heard the whistle before the real was one was blown... Anyone know?

[StrykerFSU]

Yellow, Red Are a Go for Refs
Number of Disciplinary Cards Has Increased in the World Cup

By Jason La Canfora
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 20, 2006; Page E01

COLOGNE, Germany, June 19 -- Bruce Arena appeared to be on the verge of bursting from his blue U.S. Soccer polo shirt as he raced toward the sideline time after time Saturday night, his arms flailing wildly and his jaw open wide, screaming his opposition to officiating decisions made against his players. Two American players were expelled, as was Italian midfielder Daniele De Rossi, in a game that finished 1-1 and highlighted the furor over the flurry of red and yellow cards issued by referees at this World Cup.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/19/AR2006061901634.html

[Brent Burns]

Yellow, Red Are a Go for Refs
Number of Disciplinary Cards Has Increased in the World Cup

By Jason La Canfora
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, June 20, 2006; Page E01

COLOGNE, Germany, June 19 -- Bruce Arena appeared to be on the verge of bursting from his blue U.S. Soccer polo shirt as he raced toward the sideline time after time Saturday night, his arms flailing wildly and his jaw open wide, screaming his opposition to officiating decisions made against his players. Two American players were expelled, as was Italian midfielder Daniele De Rossi, in a game that finished 1-1 and highlighted the furor over the flurry of red and yellow cards issued by referees at this World Cup.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/19/AR2006061901634.html

A very interesting and thought-provoking article. That pretty much sums up what we have been discussing and observing. The most interesting part of the article is clicking on those venues and seeing those stadium designs in Germany. There is one especially at Kaiserslautern.

[horn17]

The only thing that really worries me about our situation is the Italians and their infamous history of fixing matches and playing for draws. They can go through with a draw, unless ghana wins. But it has happened before or at least there was speculation behind it, I believe in either Euro 2004 or 2000. Add in the fact that quite a few of their top clubs teams are being investigated for match fixing and we may have a dillema on our hands.
Luckily both matches will be played at the same time so hopefully it puts the pressure on Italy to go out and get the win. This point is moot however if the U.S. doesnt go out there with the same intensity and passion that we saw on saturday. Its gonna take quite a bit for us to go through, but after watching how we played against Italy, I know we can do it.[/quote

How about this for pressure, second place in the group opens up the second round against Brazil...if Italy doesnt want to play them, they must win......

The match fixing is quite an issue, I was just in Greece for a month and even there it was top headline news for the entire time I was there. I know many of the Italians play for Juventus and AC Milan and other Italian league teams involved in this mess but I wonder if match fixing would even come into play at this level.

They most likely want to just win, but right now Italy is the team in the driver's seat in this group regardless. The only thing that hurts Italy is a loss, if they tie the Czechs they still head the group off goal differential (+2 as opposed to the Czechs' +1 and US -3) so a tie would still have them ahead in the standings, plus they would have 5 points to the Czech's 4 in that scenario. If Italy and the Czechs tie, the US is in trouble as they would have to beat Ghana by 5 to get the better goal differential, only Argentina has won a game by 5 this cup.

I dont disagree, but which one of these teams wants to play Brazil??? Or better yet, if the Czechs tie, and Ghana wins, doesnt Ghana go??? Italy doesnt want to risk an loss to the Czechs and open up against Brazil...no one does... except maybe the US.....