Foo - Oh give me a BREAK already (World Cup)!!

Geez.

First France qualifies for the Cup by Thierry Henry handling the ball not once but twice before passing the winning goal against Ireland. This was in November 2009. Fast forward to yesterday, where England is denied a clear, undisputable goal against Germany. A couple of hours after that, Argentina scores against Mexico by a player who was apparently born offside and left there.

That's only for starters, earlier Cup rounds saw a bunch other refereeing failures. I'm sure Sepp Blatter of FIFA has been happy to view this parade of "human element" from his coffin err... I mean the VIP stand. Nobody should accuse FIFA for not being responsive though. In a classic red herring move they confirmed today they'll start an "investigation" with Adidas regarding the design of the official and much flamed Jabulani World Cup ball.

How difficult was it to adopt technical measures to help referees in other sports? Hockey and tennis, or even freakin' ski jumping come to mind. Has anyone complained about the loss of human element (i.e. umpire mistakes) there?

--J

when will FIFA adopt video playback?
maybe when the current board members change.

Yeah, it's been pretty ridiculous all around. Maybe they figure the number of wrongly disallowed goals and the number of wrongly allowed offside goals average out in the end.

are they waiting for the right brown envelopes to arrive?

it will take the "incorrect" team winning to get a change made.

Most of the USA stopped caring about 40 hours ago.

it will take the "incorrect" team winning to get a change made.That might be the case now, not that Germany is an "incorrect" team. Most likely they would have beaten England anyway. But England's FA has traditionally been one of the strongest opponents of this new-fangled technology, cameras capturing moving images and what have you.

--J

How difficult was it to adopt technical measures to help referees in other sports? Hockey and tennis, or even freakin' ski jumping come to mind. Has anyone complained about the loss of human element (i.e. umpire mistakes) there?

--J

Major League Baseball--Only technical advancements (save steroids) have been stadium lights, and maybe the Jumbo-Tron TV.

You mean all soccer games don't benefit from this level of refereeing? I thought disallowed goals, blown calls, etc., were an everyday part of the game.

You mean all soccer games don't benefit from this level of refereeing? I thought disallowed goals, blown calls, etc., were an everyday part of the game.

No. Mostly it's only games with very experienced referees that have problems like this. :D

You think coach and player selection is political? You ain't seen nothin'.

I don't watch the world cup but good news is; the Tour de France is starting in 5 days :D

Well, the US in the World Cup is like a weekend in vegas.

Just happy to be there.

And you know you're going home Monday.

That might be the case now, not that Germany is an "incorrect" team. Most likely they would have beaten England anyway. But England's FA has traditionally been one of the strongest opponents of this new-fangled technology, cameras capturing moving images and what have you.

--J

Germany/England gives a perfect example of a good first step and also serves to provide caution about excessive replay. Reviewing issues of 'did the ball cross the line' are both rare and high impact. Perfect as they will not be disruptive. Review of every offside call means 4 hour games and impacts the result. Germany in part beat England because they were more fit and had better speed in the second half. Take that away with massive stopages and the impact might have been just as big as the one goal. (Hmm come to think of it many gaols seem to be the result of ongoing presure, give stopages to review things and give a leaking defense a changce to regroup and it might decrease scoring, a bad thing).

In the U.S. game against Algeria that final goal would have been less likely if there had been just one or 2 stopages to review in the second half. Also the disallowed Goal in hte earlier match would still have been disallowed with any replay system in place as the whistle was clearly blown well before the disallowed goal.

I'm not surewhat would be good. I thnik the ref having th option of looking at a replay sounds good on hte surface, but I have seen that become a slippery slope where refs use it far too often and teams would scream even louder if a ref does not look.

Perhaps somethign based on the flags from the NFL or booth reviews from American College football.

It has finally sunk into Blatter's head. Now...is there any hope for Selig?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jun/29/sepp-blatter-goalline-technology
http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Football/Clubs/Club_Home/2010/6/29/1277806591960/Sepp-blatter-006.jpg

It has finally sunk into Blatter's head. Now...is there any hope for Selig?
...

You guys recognize Selig as Commissioner? I never have. The guy usurped the position - self-appointed. Ignore him, and move on.

I assumed Selig was anointed by those with the most money (Steinbrenner, etc). All they want is a puppet. Besides, MLB has been dead to me since Yount retired. If they ever install an effective salary cap, then I'll be back.