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.. or at least its soccer referees. :mad:
The Italians suffered at the hands of some bad refereeing decisions and now England too have gone out of Euro 2004 (soccer, for the unitiated) due to blatant fixing of the game by the referee in favour of the host nation.
Is it just us who produce "homer" referees, or do you have them in the States too?
Thought I\'d edit the title of this thread. After all you gutys are always discussing the football and baseball, why not soccer???
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I think they have done a pretty good job of taking refs out of the games here in the US but every now and again there is a blown call of monsterous proportions and everybody calls for their heads.
Instant replay has done a lot to take the refs out of the game. I don\'t think they use it in soccer do they ?
Me thinks it would be tough to halt a "football" match whilst the refs stare in to a monitor to make the call.
Also the nationalism that is displayed during big soccer tourneys has no rival in the states. Of course NY vs. Boston is close there just isn\'t the passion like the love of ones country vs. another -
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They have the monitors in rugby now - I can think of many occasions over the years when it would have been useful.
The worst case was about twenty years ago, our local 3rd Division soccer team won the Welsh Cup, which qualified them for the European Cup Winners\' Cup alongside all the big guns of Europe. We had a dream-like run and ended up in the quarter finals. The score was tied over the two legs when the ball went into the goal like a rocket and came out. We were behind the goal and could see it clearly, but neither referee nor linesman saw it and it was disallowed, knocking us out as we then lost in extra-time. The TV replay later that evening clearly showed the ball had crossed the line, struck the stanchion and come out, but nothing could be done.
As it stands after today\'s farce, any team playing Portugal have gained a new supporter and should the draw go according to the pundits, when it comes to the final - Vive La France!!! -
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Quote
Originally posted by boombox
.. or at least its soccer referees. :mad:
...now England too have gone out of Euro 2004 (soccer, for the unitiated) due to blatant fixing of the game by the referee in favour of the host nation.
Whoa whoa, we\'re a long, long way from anything that could be called a "fix" here.
1. First of all, Team Portugal carried the play the whole game. They played with a sense of urgency and desire that England didn\'t have until they went down 2-1 in extra time. Team England was content to sit on a 1-0 lead for the whole game, and totally had the game taken to them. The refs did not outshoot team England 34-13. The refs did not have a 59% time of posession. When you take 260% more shots than your opponent, and control the ball 60% of the game, you kicked that team\'s ass.
2. The foul call by the goal on England\'s score was the wrong call, but it was also a very difficult call. Anytime you make contact with the goalie and the goalie goes down, you\'re usually going to get called. Everyone knows that.
3. If you want to know the real reason why Team England lost, forget about the officials and look at your David Beckham poster. No ref made Team England\'s captain kick a penalty shot 50 feet over the net. No ref allowed his own team to think they had a game won in the first three minutes.
Team England was thoroughly whooped for 110 out of 120 minutes in the game. They were very lucky to make it to penalty kicks at all, and then lost that. They lost it in part due to their esteemed captain taking the worst penalty shot in the history of Euro competition. The refs have no control over penalty shots. So one debatable call didn\'t go Team Engalnd\'s way...if they had actually showed up for the game and played like they should have, they would have won 5-0. Give Team Portugal their props for playing a great game, and forgive your captain for letting your team down. -
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Might I also add that this was one of the very best soccer matches I have ever watched! What a game.
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we show uefa here at work. I watch it all the time. soccer is one of the most fixed games in the world. I\'ve seen games where someone will get the ball on a breakaway for what would be an easy shot on goal w/ no offence before on;y to have the ref call game over just before the ball goes in.
As long as the extra time is the discression of the ref, there will continue to be a problem with the ruling. I cheer for anyone except real (thats re-al, not real, say it with me) madrid.
valancia 05!!
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Sorry wolfman - hate to labour the point, but...
1) Beckham WAS crap - has been the whole tournament
2) Yes Portugal looked the better side for much of the game, but despite so much play, they were marshalled out of it by Campbell and Cole - a proportion of the statiticians\' "shots" were harmless punts to James\' hands, and the majority of those that remained occurred in extra time - which should not have been necessaery had the referee not called such a stupid, biased decision. It is often a given that a 50-50- ball with the goalkeeper is awarded in favour of the goalkeeper. However, as the referee gave the decision against Campbell, who was nowhere near the keeper, and indeed toering over the crossbar as he jumped, what else can you call it but a poor decision. No, it was not a difficult call, by anyone\'s standards.
Still. at least Henman is through at wimbledon.
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i\'d like to see coria win wimblton. Every major match I pick someone to win. I picked him for roland garos, and he went all the way to the finals before loosing! argh. Oh well, he\'s pretty arrogent off the court from what I\'ve seen. anyway, I havent seen anyone else recently that I like.
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it makes me so happy to see footy discussed intelligently, now if only I had seen the game
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It was certainly a lousy call, there\'s just not enough here for me to think the match was in any way fixed. All I know is that Portugal played 3 times harder. Look at the way England played after they went down 2-1, how come they didn\'t play with that passion the whole game?
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Talk about the England game?? Tonight\'s was better. Anyone catch Greece\'s dispatch of France? Great goal and some dogged defending - they never really let France get into it. Trezeguet and Henry were made to look ordinary - if that is possible. That\'s four of the historic giants (England, Germany, France, Italy) out now with only Portugal and Holland left - who knows what Sweden might do too.
I just wish I\'d put some
on Greece making it to the semi-finals - the odds must have been immense.
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Hey wolfman - misssed your post while I was typing! My call of fixed was due to some inconsistent, to say the least, treatment of fouls, particularly in the first half and of course the goal.
I do agree with you that the passion wasn\'t there - they let the disallowed goal get to them, and of course there was that little problem of losing their best player to injury, a psychological, as well as major tactical blow. It appears Rooney has fractured a metatarsal after Andrade (spelling??) stood on his foot. we all have to hope for England\'s sake that he recovers quickly.
This tournament is certainly upsetting the pundits - the bookies must also be losing millions. -
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Sweden 0 - Holland - 0
Holland won 5-4 after penalties - first penalty shoot-out win since god knows when.
Another good game tonight - no doubt of much more interest to those of you over there with your Northern European roots.
Got to feel sorry for Sweden - had their chances as well, but Holland were probably better on the night. (Still don\'t know how Van Nistleroy got away with his diving - sorry, "simulation" in the first half.) -