Alhaji Righteous De Ambitious: World Cup 2006 Blog

Thursday, April 2, 2009

World Cup 2006 Blog

Link to World Cup Soccer - South Africa 2010

Wolfgang Stark Can Cross Italy Off His List of Holiday Destinations…

Posted: 02 Apr 2009 04:10 AM PDT

Because only the German referee himself knows why he gave Gianpaolo Pazzini this red card in the 4th minute of Italy’s World Cup qualifier vs Ireland yesterday.

I’ve watched the above video (spotted on - you guessed it - 101GG) a few times and all I see is a player jumping up for a header. But Stark imagined/saw something more sinister.

Yeah, Pazzini uses his arms for leverage. And he does accidentally catch John O’Shea. But emphasis is on the accidentally. There’s clearly no intent as Pazzini is looking at the ball the whole time.

Here’s how Italy WCB’s Julian saw it:

Pazzini's sending off? Harsh at the very least. Maybe a yellow, and that would've been worse than fair.

The game finished 1-1. Not a horrible result for either team, but Italy can definitely feel that playing 86 minutes with ten men may have denied them all three points.

A quick glance at Wolfgang Stark’s Wikipedia entry reveals a man with a taste for flashing plastic at players. The two red/seven yellow card combo he showed to Chile in the 2007 U-20 World Cup semi-final resulted in him needing a police escort to get off the field safely. Always the sign of a good referee.

UEFA World Cup qualifying Group 8 now looks like this:

Bad news for Italy is that if and when they get to South Africa, they could be meeting Stark again. His name is on the 38 man shortlist of referees for World Cup 2010 duty.

In Defence of International Week

Posted: 01 Apr 2009 06:40 AM PDT

I’ve heard a few complaints about the international break this week. Chris at Studs Up called it “a necessary evil”, while Travis at Arsenal Offside has branded it “the interlull.”

But me? I love it. I genuinely look forward to international week. Maybe not when it’s just friendlies, but when it’s World Cup qualifiers from all around the world… what’s not to like?

First and foremost, I love the feeling that the whole world is playing football. While domestic football leagues are on varying calendars, when World Cup qualifying happens, it happens all around the world. This past weekend saw World Cup qualifying games in Africa, Asia, Europe, North/Central/South America, the Caribbean and Oceania. So basically everywhere. International break underlines exactly why football is the world’s game.

And with the exception of the tragic events in Abidjan, this international week has thrown up some great stories so far. We’ve already had Togo’s surprise win over Cameroon, Diego Maradona winning his first competitive game 4-0, Artur Boruc’s howler, Craig Bellamy’s unmissable post-match interview and so on. And there’s still a whole round of games to come today.

More importantly, if you’re among the many many football fans who feel that club football is being slowly suffocated by money, then international games should be a welcome break. They play national anthems before these games, not the Champions League anthem.

And for the most part, players don’t represent their country for any financial gain. You think David Beckham needs to keep playing for England to put food on the table? Course not, the man’s got mega-millions. And Posh Spice doesn’t eat anyway.

Even better, though there are a few mismatches (eg Germany 4-0 Lechtenstein this weekend was Lechtenstein’s best ever result against Germany) you’re more likely to see an upset at international level, more likely to see Northern Ireland beating Spain or Scotland taking down France (twice!) because the techincally inferior players are playing for pride.

I know it’s frustrating to have to break for a week if your club team is on a good run and I know most people feel a closer affiliation to club than country. But it’s worth remembering that - though far from perfect - international football is still the pinnacle of the beautiful game.