World Cup and European leagues

[Mr. Ypsi]

I didn't turn on England/Germany until the 62nd minute; England down 2-1 but on relentless attack.  So I saw about 4 minutes of nail-biting soccer, 3 minutes of German blitzkrieg (two exceptional counter-attack goals virtually back-to-back), followed by 20+ minutes of mostly boredom, as Germany was mostly content to milk the clock.

Group D 2, Group C 0.

[Hoosier Titan]

Commentary from the BBC:

Chris Waddle:  "Why don't the FA look at other countries and say 'how do they keep producing this talent?' Where is our Plan B? We haven't got one. The back four can't control the ball, can't pass, we lack so many ideas it's frustrating."

Lee Dixon:  "That was the worst team performance and the worst back-four performance I've seen."

Alan Hansen:  "I thought England were abysmal against Algeria and they were four levels below that today. Germany made England look like a very, very, very poor side."

Jonathan Stevenson:  "Eins, zwei, drei your eyes, that's that at the Free State Stadium. I know it hurts, but this is not an England team anyone should be crying over. Congratulations to Germany, they were magnificent."

That's that, then.  At least the ridiculous non-goal didn't change the outcome.  England had a chance to get back in it and started the second half just as flat as they did the first.  The defense--particularly the centerbacks--was indeed dreadful.  Rooney never showed up, and John Terry was just as negative on the pitch as he was off it.  Happy to see the last of him in an England uniform.  I think Capello will have some questions to answer about the lineups and the substitutions.

[ECSUalum]

England goal being denied, another example of how technology could have corrected another error by officials. Probably would not have made a difference other than England would have most likely come out with more confidence in 2nd half.

Germany's young team looked superb and will go far in this tourney.  Not sure if they can win it vs the likes of Brazil, Argentina, but could upset both!!!

Feel sorry for W. Rooney, however, when you are a star and play with a bunch of "stars", not everyone can be the star.

PS, English goal keeping was really suspect for them this year!!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Yet another excellent game marred by the officiating - on Argentina's first goal, Tevez was clearly offside (by 6 or 7 feet; it was NOT even a close call).  Since they won by 2 (3-1) it could be argued that it didn't matter, but if Mexico had trailed the last 20 minutes by only one instead of two, who knows what might have happened.  Especially since Mexico could have scored a whole bunch of goals if they had ever caught a break (during one two minute stretch of the first half they banged one off the crossbar, one off the left post, and went wide of the right post by inches - and the keeper was well-beaten on all three).

And let there be no arguments that replay would slow down the game.  After Argentina's first goal, the ref and AR conferred for at least a couple of minutes while surrounded by players lobbying their cases.  But the conference was meaningless with no replay - a replay official could have corrected the call in about 10 seconds!

FIFA, if you refuse to join the 21st century, at least join the technology of 30 years ago!

[Ralph Turner]

Instant replay use began in the mid-1960's.

I believe that semaphore flags have been used in maritime applications since the 19th century.

[Ralph Turner]

In the summary wrap-up, Alexi Lalas was talking about what needed to be done by the coach in the future.

He made a comment about player preparation and the early goals that the US allowed.  He talked about the players being prepared by the coach to get ready for the game.  That makes absolutely no sense to me.

I am old school Tom Landry. It was Coach Landry's thought that a professional should get his/her head prepared. That is what it means to be professional.

Does a patient expect me to have my head "prepared" before I start the surgery?  The same goes for every other "profession".  The goals that we teach in athletics are those...preparation, teamwork, focus.

[Gray Fox]

The England result shows the US was in a mediocre group and has a LONG way to go.

[Mr. Ypsi]

In the summary wrap-up, Alexi Lalas was talking about what needed to be done by the coach in the future.

He made a comment about player preparation and the early goals that the US allowed.  He talked about the players being prepared by the coach to get ready for the game.  That makes absolutely no sense to me.

I am old school Tom Landry. It was Coach Landry's thought that a professional should get his/her head prepared. That is what it means to be professional.

Does a patient expect me to have my head "prepared" before I start the surgery?  The same goes for every other "profession".  The goals that we teach in athletics are those...preparation, teamwork, focus.

The problem, IMO, was not the players not being ready, but that Bradley had the wrong players starting the game.  Using two of his three substitutions by halftime indicates Bradley belatedly realized that Clark and Findley should not have been starters (AND it meant he could no longer bring fresh legs to OT).  Dempsey was moved to striker later in ALL FOUR GAMES - does that not indicate that perhaps he should have started there?!  To me, the fact that the US was consistently better in the second half than the first was not a matter of great halftime adjustments or speeches, it was having the right players on the field.

I think Bradley did an excellent job of ONE aspect of coaching - the team worked marvelously together as a unit, and had tremendous heart.  But I think he totally failed at another aspect of coaching - who should be on the field.  The former may be a harder task than overcoming the latter (e.g., Italy and France), so I lean towards retaining him, but I'm not strong either way.

The US has some excellent talent just reaching international status.  They should be stronger in 2014 than this year.  But it may be a long time before they have as clear a road to the semis as they had this year - next time they may have Brazil or Germany in the round of 16, or end up in a 'Group of Death' in the first place.

[Hoosier Titan]

The England result shows the US was in a mediocre group and has a LONG way to go.

Oh yes.  The same is and was true of England, although there has been more denial there.  They can't escape it now, with the aging of their team.

[Mr. Ypsi]

Following up on my last post, most observers have said the greatest weakness of the US was at striker (no striker has scored in the WC since McBride in 2002).  The return of Charlie Davis, and the development of Altidore, Buddle, and Gomez (perhaps even Findley, and almost certainly someone we've yet to even imagine - can Freddy Adu make it back up to his press-clippings?), should alleviate that.  I think (hope?) that by 2014 the US will have 1 or more world-class strikers.

My hope is that Landon Donovan can still be world-class by that time - he deserves a shot at the whole thing!  What a heart!!

[Mr. Ypsi]

Re: instant replay.

I have no desire to slow down the game.  Properly done, I see no reason instant replay would do so.  You have a 5th judge, with radio contact to the ref, who checks for obvious errors.  For most situations, if he doesn't say 'error' in 10 seconds, it is as called.  With goals or red cards, the celebrations/delays allow multiple replays!

I simply do not understand the objections.  Player errors - part of the game.  Coaching errors - part of the game.  Referee errors - should NOT be part of the game.  They are to be officiating - not part of the game.

This WC has simply had too many game-changing screw-ups - STOP IT!!

[Ralph Turner]

The Daily Mail reports on the "non-goal".

[ScotsFan]

Following up on my last post, most observers have said the greatest weakness of the US was at striker (no striker has scored in the WC since McBride in 2002).  The return of Charlie Davis, and the development of Altidore, Buddle, and Gomez (perhaps even Findley, and almost certainly someone we've yet to even imagine - can Freddy Adu make it back up to his press-clippings?), should alleviate that.  I think (hope?) that by 2014 the US will have 1 or more world-class strikers.

My hope is that Landon Donovan can still be world-class by that time - he deserves a shot at the whole thing!  What a heart!!

I am hopeful that Davies can return to the form he was showing before his accident and he will become a nice compliment to Jozy up front for years to come for the MNT.  And you also mentioned the development of Altidore.  He was the youngest striker in the World Cup this year so he is not even close to reaching his full potential IMO.  He should be real close to peak performance by the time 2014 roles around if he can stay healthy (knocking on wood).

As far as Buddle and Gomez are concerned, I'm not sure how much we can expect from them in 4 years.  They were both late bloomers as Buddle just turned 29 and Gomez just turned 28.  I was quite shocked when I heard their ages.  We shall see how they progress from here on out and if they can keep up the form they have displayed over the last year or so and carry that over as they push on for the next 4 years.

I think Donovan will still be playing a vital role for this team in 4 years.  He keeps himself so fit and he's still only 28.  Furthermore, over the last year or so you can just see the growth in his game.  His stint in the EPL helped him tremendously in building his confidence that he truly is a world-class player and he belonged on the pitch at Everton.  Hopefully he will get another shot at playing over in Europe and it would be even better if he got another shot at the EPL.  I really see no reason why he can't maintain this level for another 4 years but we shall see.

The US has some excellent talent just reaching international status.  They should be stronger in 2014 than this year.  But it may be a long time before they have as clear a road to the semis as they had this year - next time they may have Brazil or Germany in the round of 16, or end up in a 'Group of Death' in the first place.

I agree with you that this team should be stronger in 2014 than they were this year.  But your point about their path once they got to the knockout stage is spot on.  I told my wife that is the most frustrating part about their loss on Saturday and that is they may NEVER have and easier path to the semis than the one they were gifted for this World Cup! 

[ScotsFan]

Re: instant replay.

I have no desire to slow down the game.  Properly done, I see no reason instant replay would do so.  You have a 5th judge, with radio contact to the ref, who checks for obvious errors.  For most situations, if he doesn't say 'error' in 10 seconds, it is as called.  With goals or red cards, the celebrations/delays allow multiple replays!
I simply do not understand the objections.  Player errors - part of the game.  Coaching errors - part of the game.  Referee errors - should NOT be part of the game.  They are to be officiating - not part of the game.

This WC has simply had too many game-changing screw-ups - STOP IT!!

Totally agree.  The officials are already wearing freaking headsets.  What is so bad about putting a replay official in place and he can radio the head referee when he sees a replay that shows the call was clearly wrong on the field?!  My contention is that they should at the very least implement goal line technology, but it shouldn't stop there.  Offsides calls could be easily reversed as could handballs in the box as well. 

My biggest beef with FIFA is that they don't hold their officials accountable.  They do to an extent in that they review their performance and determine if they warrant officiating another high profile match.  But they don't hold them accountable by making them explain what they saw when they make a gaff of a call.  Using instant replay would hold them more accountable.  For example, when Coulibaly blew his whistle and disallowed what would have been the winning goal for the US, the replay official could have radioed down to the field and asked what Coulibaly's call was because from what they were watching, there was no visible foul or offsides or any call that could have gone against the Americans.  Coulibaly would have been forced to either tell us what he saw or admit is was a bad call and count the goal.

The problem I have is where do you draw the line.  I mean yesterday showed that replay clearly needs to be implemented for more than just the goal-line technology as Tevez's goal pointed out.  And knowing the incompetence that FIFA has shown throughout the years, are we to expect them to come up with a system that works without being too time consuming?  Hell, I will be surprised if FIFA does anything at all?!   

[Hoosier Titan]

The problem I have is where do you draw the line.  I mean yesterday showed that replay clearly needs to be implemented for more than just the goal-line technology as Tevez's goal pointed out.  And knowing the incompetence that FIFA has shown throughout the years, are we to expect them to come up with a system that works without being too time consuming?  Hell, I will be surprised if FIFA does anything at all?!   

Why, of course they're doing something!  They're censoring the replays in the stadium!

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/5335440/ce/us/fifa-censor-stadium-replays?cc=5901&ver=us

Seriously, it's a real problem, and "Where do you draw the line?" is a real issue.  I do understand the calls not to slow the game down, and reviewing the Tevez offside no-call--another howler--from yesterday would do that.  Putting a chip in the ball for goals wouldn't slow the game; they could at least go that far (or put extra officials on the end lines as UEFA did for the Europa Cup).  Clearly, this all needs to be addressed, as does holding the officials accountable.  And, to be fair, the good ones hold themselves accountable, as Graham Poll did after giving three yellow cards to one player before sending him off (even though the fourth official was equally culpable there).

One other type of call needs to be reviewed, as it is in the EPL:  red cards.  There has been entirely too much acting, diving, simulation, whatever in this World Cup.  It's always there to some extent, but there have been some ridiculous send-offs (Kaka's being the worst I can remember).  Incidental body contact, the other player falls down holding his face, and Kaka gets a second yellow and a match ban.  These could be reviewed after the matches and at least the ban for the following match might have a chance of being overturned.

I think it's not realistic to expect them to get all of these things exactly right at once...but FIFA needs to do something.