World Cup 2010 Blog: “Liveblog: Netherlands vs Slovakia, Round of 16” plus 9 more |  |
- Liveblog: Netherlands vs Slovakia, Round of 16
- Preview: Brazil vs. Chile, Round of 16
- Preview: Netherlands vs. Slovakia, Round of 16
- Video games – Is it time for football to embrace technology?
- Match Review & Highlights: Argentina 3-1 Mexico
- Gabriel Heinze vs Cameraman
- Carlos Tevez’ Offside Goal vs Mexico
- Liveblog: Argentina 3-1 Mexico, Round of 16
- Match Review & Highlights: Germany 4 – England 1
- Conclusive Proof That Frank Lampard’s “Goal” for England Did Not Cross the Line…
| Liveblog: Netherlands vs Slovakia, Round of 16 Posted: 28 Jun 2010 04:00 AM PDT Welcome to the liveblog of Netherlands vs Slovakia in the World Cup Round of 16. Netherlands are the favourites, Slovakia are the underdogs. But this is World Cup 2010, where seemingly anything can happen. Read up on the match with our Netherlands vs Slovakia preview. Make your comments before, during and after the match in the liveblog window. Bet on Netherlands vs. Slovakia Don’t just take our word on the match. Check out match comments from carefully selected Twitter accounts: FAN RESOURCES
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| Preview: Brazil vs. Chile, Round of 16 Posted: 27 Jun 2010 05:28 PM PDT THE BIG PICTURE Chile played some nice passing football in Group H, but had serious trouble putting the ball in the back of the net. That was good enough for two 1-0 wins, and a 2-1 defeat to Spain. Good, but not good enough to win the group. Coach Marcelo Bielsa will almost certainly stick with his attacking and high pressure 3-3-1-3 formation, which will either panic Brazil or give them plenty of space to attack. WHAT’S AT STAKE KICKOFF OUR PREDICTION FAN RESOURCES
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| Preview: Netherlands vs. Slovakia, Round of 16 Posted: 27 Jun 2010 04:28 PM PDT THE BIG PICTURE Slovakia seem happy just to be in the last 16. Despite the attacking talents of Marek Hamsik and Miroslav Stoch, Slovakia started World Cup 2010 with a draw against unfancied New Zealand and then a defeat to Paraguay, but then came to life in the final game to beat Italy 3-2. WHAT’S AT STAKE That quote could be the precursor to a relaxed and inspired display by a Slovakian team just out to enjoy one more game. Or it could herald a Netherlands goalfest against a team that doesn’t really believe it should still be in the tournament. Either way, Netherlands has much more to lose than Slovakia. Bet on Netherlands vs. Slovakia KICKOFF OUR PREDICTION FAN RESOURCES
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| Video games – Is it time for football to embrace technology? Posted: 27 Jun 2010 02:28 PM PDT It’s impossible to tell when the tide turns when it comes to rule changes. Often it isn’t a single incident or season that leads to sporting alterations but an accumulation over time. However if there was going to be call for technology to be used, it was today with two high profile mistakes by officials. But the situation is a little more complex than may first appear.
The Free State Stadium, Bloemfontein, 16:38pm. With England in the ascendancy having pulled a goal back from 2-0 down against Germany, Frank Lampard hits a dipping shot from outside the area which clatters against the crossbar before bouncing down over the line. No official spots and the goal is not given. England go on to lose the game 4-1. Soccer City, Johannesburg, 20:55pm. Argentina’s Lionel Messi sends a throughball for Carlos Tevez to chase down but Mexican keeper Oscar Perez parries. Messi chips the loose ball back to Tevez who scores from an offside position. The linesman doesn’t flag and the referee gives a goal before massive screens in the stadium show Tevez’s infringement. Mexican players surround the officials but it is too late. The decision is final. It is from these two “crime scenes” that we must pick the bones from and every pundit going is screaming for FIFA to do something, anything with technology to stop this happening again. However, it would be nieve to suggest that Sepp Blatter and his cronies can simply sign a piece of paper allowing technology and that’s the matter close. What type of technology? And how will it work? For me, there are two types. Human controlled and non-human controlled. The first category includes introductions such as extra officials watching video replays and giving their verdict to the referee. Non-human controlled may refer to microchips in the ball to know if it has gone over the goal-line or out of play. My first concern is that the blame would immediately switch from blaming the officials on-field to blaming them off-field. True, Tevez’s offside was very clear but Fabio Quagliarella’s offside against Slovakia was very tight and even with replays, several (including myself) think its onside while many are convinced otherwise. The last thing we want to hear is an irate fan claiming that “if it hadn’t been for the sixth official’s interpretation of the video replay, our team would have won it”. Sometimes having less individuals involved is a good thing as it provides one consistent, undisputed judgement on events. Each referee has their individual style but technology would remove a lot of their power and put it in the hands of backroom staff not on the pitch and putting their faith in video evidence which may often be as unclear as the referee’s first viewing or even, due to the positioning of some cameras, worse. The other critical issue is when and how to stop play. We already know from statistics that the ball roughly spends about 20-30 minutes a game out of play with some of that made up by injury time. Just by adding in video replay analysis we could see that extended by 5-10 minutes which either means less time for the ball to be inplay or excessive stoppage time. A more pertinent factor is that there are limited occasions when the ball has gone out of play. The referee couldn’t stop play for Lampard’s goal as the ball didn’t go out (technically) and Germany countered. Had they scored, it would have been an utter farce to stop, wait, disallow a legitimate goal for one side before allowing a goal for the other side following video replay analysis. We might suddenly see players clearing the ball out of play on purpose after any contentious incident so that the extra unseen officials could cast judgement on it. Admittedly with offside goals, the ball has either gone out for a goal or for a foul. But with the competitive nature of the game, just as tennis players will now appeal any half-chance out call with the umpire now that hawkeye is in play, any slight suspicion of an offside or foul for the goal would cause the referee to stop play for 30 seconds to minute. And I would argue that there is at least some appeal from players for around 30-50% of goals. Not to mention that teams might just appeal anyway even if there appears to be no infringement on the offchance that there was an offense they hadn’t noticed. There is also the issue of cost – of course, for big World Cup stadia and massive clubs, installing technology at the cost of thousands is irrespective. But what about for the, larger in quantity terms, smaller teams who may not be able to stretch to installing video screens, goalposts with detector equipment in them or tele-communication systems between officials? Will national football associations be forced to pay, crippling the less wealthy ones, or will FIFA simply exclude clubs who don’t? One could argue that FIFA should shoulder the bill but with literally tens of thousands of professional teams globally, that is a huge investment of microchips and video technology. FIFA have used the argument that it would remove the exciting debates around matches – a point I partially agree with. But the bigger point for me is where technology is applied rigorously such as in Formula 1 to regulate teams and drivers, the sport has been dogged by controversy after controversy as complex manuals of sporting code are interpreted by lawyers and even a court of abritration exists, regularly used, in Paris for all the inevitable contestations of exclusions, punishments and rangles. Of course football is a much simpler sport than the mechanised world of motor racing but all the more reason for it not be adorned with technological innovations that may overcomplicate and confuse audiences as well as only being effective in clear cut situations, of which there are few when you consider the most obvious would be spotted by any official worth their salt. I’m not saying no to technology period but if it is to be introduced, we need to get down to the nitty gritty. What needs to be put in place, how should it work and why would it benefit the game? That’s why I would like to hear your suggestions. If it is to be mobilised fan power which petitions to get FIFA to change something, it will be far more effective if we can say “We want this specific alteration because it will change x” rather than desperate hollering to introduce something just to assauge our disappointment when our favourite side gets a bad decision once in a while.
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| Match Review & Highlights: Argentina 3-1 Mexico Posted: 27 Jun 2010 02:26 PM PDT Let’s be clear about this. Carlos Tevez was very much offside when receiving the pass from Leo Messi for Argentina’s first goal, and Argentina can consider themselves lucky it wasn’t disallowed.
So Mexico have every right to feel a little cheated. But – much like Germany did earlier – Argentina did the best thing a team can do after benefiting from a controversial refereeing decision, and extended their lead to make sure this game wasn’t decided by a bad call. Gonzalo Higuain scored his fourth of the tournament just seven minutes after the Tevez incident, and that includes the time it took for all the arguing. Ricardo Osorio was the Mexico defender who looked like he was trying to roll the ball and turn outside, but instead poked it to Higuain, who showed Osorio how to correctly roll a ball when he used the move to go around Mexico keeper Oscar Perez and make it 2-0. That’s Gabi Heinze ever so charmingly taking a swipe at the camera by the way. In some ways Carlos Tevez had been to blame for the controversy around the first goal. It’s possible that Messi’s shot would have gone in anyway – and perfectly legally – had Tevez just stayed out of the way. But the Man City man more than made up for that moment when he did this in the second half: Fantastiche tor, as the German commentator says. Goal of the tournament contender maybe? The one bright spot for Mexico was the consolation goal scored by young Javier Hernandez. There’d been quite the campaign for coach Javier Aguirre to finally start Hernandez instead of Guillermo Franco in this game, and Aguirre had finally relented. It wasn’t enough to win the game, but you can’t argue with a first touch and finish like this: If anyone is able to pinpoint Hernandez’ exact location, please pass that information onto Argentina #2 Martín Demichelis, who’s still looking for him. So, Mexico’s World Cup run ends in the Round of 16 for the fifth time in a row. But by the looks of some of the young talent wearing green in South Africa, Mexico can look forward to seeing how far the likes of Hernandez, Gio dos Santos and Andrés Guardado can take El Tri in 2014. As for Argentina… Remember when Maradona was clueless and his team was a shambles? That feels like it all happened in some sort of alternate reality that I can only just about remember being a part of. Now it’s on to the quarter-finals where Argentina will meet Germany in a game that already has me salivating. More at:
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| Posted: 27 Jun 2010 12:42 PM PDT The lesson for the cameraman here: Don’t get in Gabi Heinze’s way when he’s celebrating a teammate’s goal. You will get a slap. Hopefully the cameraman takes his revenge the best way a cameraman can: By filming Heinze from some very unflattering angles for the rest of the World Cup.
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| Carlos Tevez’ Offside Goal vs Mexico Posted: 27 Jun 2010 12:37 PM PDT I now declare June 27th, 2010 to be official World Cup we need video replay day. The referee and linesman somehow missed Frank Lampard’s strike for England crossing the line earlier today, and now Argentina’s Carlos Tevez has scored for Argentina from what’s very clearly an offside position. Don’t believe Tevez was offside? Hopefully this screen shot will convince you:
There was much protesting from Mexico’s players, and much protesting from Argentina’s players when the referee looked to be about to disallow the goal. Which he didn’t, in the end. The Guardian’s minute by minute report even suggested that the referees saw the video replay on the big screen, which rendered them powerless to disallow Tevez’ goal (because there’s a strict rule about not using replays for decisions).
Indeed it is. The more worrying this is that Lampard’s goal seemed to be over the line by about the same distance that Tevez was offside. Maybe the referees just need recalibrating by a yard or so?
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| Liveblog: Argentina 3-1 Mexico, Round of 16 Posted: 27 Jun 2010 09:50 AM PDT
Leave your comments in the liveblog window below, and if you like our liveblogs and want to help us spread the word, then give the social media buttons (above right) a firm click. Don’t just take our word on the match. Check out match comments from carefully selected Twitter accounts: FAN RESOURCES
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| Match Review & Highlights: Germany 4 – England 1 Posted: 27 Jun 2010 09:40 AM PDT This one had everything: goals, shoddy defending from both sides, controversial refereeing and then some more goals. A fitting rivalry game, even if the balance is mostly on one side. The talk going out is two fold: Germany is awfully good and the linesman was awfully bad. With the goal 2-0, England scored two goals in rapid succession, only one wasn’t given. In an act almost too lathered with irony to believe, Frank Lampard’s strike crossed the line – just as Geoff Hurst’s maybe, kinda, sorta didn’t against Germany in ‘66 – but bounced back out and no goal was given. It was a clear goal, one which would’ve made it 2-2, but it simply wasn’t. Fortunately Germany were simply that much better over the course of the game and deserved their win.
And then the inevitable happened: Lukas Podolski got the second. There’s something about Klose and Podolski, the two Polish-born strikers, that once they get into the German shirt they simply go bananas. This one was a bit less of a defensive shambles and more an indication of how silky smooth this young German team can be – and how good Podolski can be as well. A tremendous finish from the tightest of angles.
Two goals, twelve minutes. It would be an eternity compared to England’s “two goals”. The first, and technically only, came from Matthew Upson, who enjoyed some questionable German defense in kind.
Then came the controversy. Less than one minute later, Frank Lampard rattled the bar, and it bounced down, and it went well past the line, but the linesman was so far away he couldn’t see and no goal was given, with England then heading into the half down a goal rather than even. But it wouldn’t alter their game in the negative. In fact they came out brightly for the second half, as though nothing had happened, but simply couldn’t get near putting another one in the net. Germany could, and it was once again the young guns doing the damage, with Bastian Schweinsteiger eventually finding an entirely free Thomas Muller on the break. David James probably could’ve saved it, but it was not to be.
He certainly couldn’t stop Germany’s fourth, and Muller’s second, not long after. A brilliant swung ball for Mesut Ozil to run onto was hit out of the German defense and Mesut, who was once again magnificent, ran it into the box and found Muller for an easy tap-in. The game was over and England were out.
It’s England’s worst ever World Cup defeat and one which poses one question: would the goal have mattered? An eternal debate will rage, but with a defense like that, it’s hard to imagine Germany wouldn’t have found the third and fourth anyway. One team was simply better than the other, and the deserved team goes through. Where to rank the Germans? We may know soon enough: they’ll play the winner of Argentina v Mexico, with the world expecting Argentina to roll to a nice victory. If Germany can beat Messi & Co., their glittering future may be now.
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| Conclusive Proof That Frank Lampard’s “Goal” for England Did Not Cross the Line… Posted: 27 Jun 2010 06:00 AM PDT See? Not even close. - Spotter’s badge goes to Laurie, via Grant Wahl on Twitter. Original image here.
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