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

[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?