your daily recap

[rone]

First off, you should friend michael_davies, TV producer ("Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?") and soccer fan.  His World Cup reports are fun reading (even if he recycles a non-trivial amount of material).  Click on the Archive link and work your way to today from the beginning (or, heck, read his `02 Cup stuff, too).

Portugal 2 - Iran 0: Iran didn't play as well as they did against Mexico, but Portugal's finishing was crap.  Pauleta was a zero.  Figo's dive that provoked the penalty that led to the second goal was top notch, though.

Ghana 2 - Czechia 0: The Ghanians should by all rights have scored at least another goal.  They ran the Czechs off the field, starting with that early goal that was a superb pass and a superb finishing touch.  The Czechs finished a man down after a defender took down, in the box, a Ghanian that was breaking away towards the goal; textbook red card offense.  The Ghanian shooter shot too early and earned a yellow card; when he tried again, he hit the post.

USA 1 - Italy 1: The US still hasn't scored in this Cup; their goal was thanks to what Michael Davies called "the crappest own goal of all time."  It is bewildering, and by all accounts this was one of the most bewildering soccer games ever.  I missed it while i went to Kim's graduation, but i hope to catch it with palecur sometime in the next week.  The US still have a hope to qualify; they'll have to beat Ghana and the Italians will have to beat the Czechs (an Italy-Czechia tie means the US would have to beat Ghana by four goals... right).

Comments

[khrister.livejournal.com]

And if Czechia wins by one, USA needs to beat Ghana by five to be certain. I doubt that's going to happen. I think it'll be Ghana and Italy.

I think the US team deserved to win up until they got the red cards, but getting those was really stupid when they're one man up on the Italians.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

I was goinbg to say "what, no mention of the US-Italy red cards?" but someone else has already mentioned them. It sounds like McBride may be doubtful for the final game: he has to have stitches around his eye after the incident that led to Di Rossi's red.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

The US-Italy game yesterday was bewildering. For a national team that's supposed to be improving with each competition, they were playing like junior varsity yesterday. The only thing keeping them from being stomped flat was Italy's inclination to play like petulant children. And the officiating was crap. Sheer crap. If there is a review process available, I hope Italy and the US pursue it because they were both screwed by a referee more interested in ensuring everybody respects his auth-or-ee-tay than in doing his job.

The G-C game was the best game yesterday, and a good game by most standards. Portugal didn't play like a team at all -- they had no excuse for being held to only two goals.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

I didn't see most of the US-Italy game (heard it on the radio), but I did watch the brief highlights video on the BBC website. Based on that, I have to say that the ref got it right on the four biggest decisions in the game (the two straight red cards (one a deliberate elbow in the face; the other a dreadful, two-footed challenge on Pirlo, which missed the ball by miles), the second yellow for Pope (more clumsy than malicious, perhaps, but still a bad foul), and the disallowed goal (offside)). He may well have sucked big ones for the rest of the match, but he got it right when it mattered most.

A control freak ref would be the one who booked the Ghana player for taking a penalty before the ref wanted him to.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

My major complaint was that he kept interrupting the game; there may have been fewer deliberate penalties committed if the game wasn't stopped for every no-harm involuntary foul. The red card on Mastroeni was uncalled for; ref turned it red purely for personal reasons.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Mastroeni's red card was deserved for that tackle alone. He didn't get anywhere near the ball, went through Pirlo with both feet, and took both of Pirlo's legs. It could also be argued that he hit Pirlo from behind. To be fair to Mastroeni, he slid in from a long way out, so he may have been trying for the ball, but he was very late and the result was an appalling foul. I used to referee games, and I would have had no hesitation in giving a straight red card for that tackle; I reckon it was merited on at least two counts by the rule book.

[talus21.livejournal.com]

It has been a while since I played, but that second Pope yellow looked like fair tackle to me. I thought he played the ball first and barely clipped the guy. So since you refreed could you clear up for me what the ruling is on that? I didn't see the game, but caught some of the highlights. Listened to the TV coverage though, and from that it sounded like the US was getting the short end of the stick from the ref.

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

That was the closest to a marginal decision, and I have to admit that it's the only one where the stuff on the BBC website didn't come with a wonderfully clear image. From what I saw, he got the player and the ball. These days, if you make a sliding tackle from the side or behind and make any contact with the player, they call it a foul and usually give out a card. Given that, the second yellow seemed consistent with the way the laws are now interpreted. I think it's dumb--soccer was never meant to be a non-contact sport (see icon for evidence)--but the decision didn't strike me as remarkable, given the way the rules are currently applied.

I notice that the Italian apologised to McBride for the elbow

[eejitalmuppet.livejournal.com]

Oops, forgot to complete that second bit, which began with the Italian apologising to McBride after the game. I was also going to mention that the Italian coach was planning to have words with Di Rossi as well, to the effect of, "You might get away with that shit in Italy but you can't do it in international football." These days, that also seems to apply to sliding tackles (which some of the US players seem quite fond of), unless they are timed to absolute perfection.

Playing to the referee is a required skill in international football (and the intercontinental nature of the ref list means it has to be learned for every game). It used to be that football in the UK was quite a bit more openly physical than in some other parts of Europe, and UK teams (and commentators) would always complain about getting the worst of the referee in European club competitions and international tournaments. These days, that's less true, as British attackers have learned the arts of going down after minimal contact, and defenders have learned to beware the sliding tackle, and to favour the subtle nudge or the sly tug on the shirt instead. Now that the US has a healthy domestic professional league (I notice that far more of the US squad are actually based in the States these days), I wonder if it is starting to suffer from the same problems that we used to have?

[fbxxx.livejournal.com]

> Italy's inclination to play like petulant children.

Hardly a surprise. They are, in fact, petulant children.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

...and I'm watching the Croatia-Japan game right now. Ten minutes in and Croatia's players are falling down and clutching their shins at every foul, no matter how slight and to which part of the body. This should be comical once a Japanese player manages real damage against a team that looks about twice as large. So far the referee doesn't look too gullible.

[wisn.livejournal.com]

[much later] Okay, they tightened up shortly after I posted that. Not a game to be proud of but both sides tried hard.

[benchilada.livejournal.com]

Hell, by the end they were all hobbling around like 60 year old men...so tired that it almost hurt to watch...

[coldsleep.livejournal.com]

Meant to watch US-Italy, but got distracted by other stuff. I'll have to try to see some of it later.

Thanks for the ongoing reporting. I spent some time yesterday hunting the internets for information, but your consice summaries are generally better reading.

[kawgirl.livejournal.com]

Much earlier this morning when I was in Mexico D.F., a sports reporter told me that in any other game, that second US goal would have been counted despite the offsides. I did not quite understand why as my Spanish is especially poor at 4 AM. I wish I could have understood because this would be a much more interesting comment.

[khrister.livejournal.com]

Well, as I understand the rule, it isn't offside if the player doesn't have any effect on the game. As it was, it looked like he at least obstructed the view of the goalkeeper.