Archive: Refs
The Latest Nominee for "Worst Call of the Tournament"
Italy wins, 1-0, in injury time. Down a man, Italy's Fabio Grosso makes a great run down the flank, turns the corner and goes down as Lucas Neill makes a sliding challenge. Ref awards a PK, and Totti converts. Game over. Was is a bad call? Two desricptions from online minute-by-minute reports ... The Guardian: Lucas Neill looks gobsmacked - it was a soft enough penalty. Grosso was dribbling in from the left, Neill foolishly comitted himself to the tackle and the Italian committed himself to falling over in as extravagant a fashion as possible. The referee had no hesitation in pointing to the spot. Going so close only to be shted by a last-minute Italian winner - you'll get over it my Aussie friends. It's all part of the big learning curve in international football. The Times of London: 93mins: PENALTY! Unbelievable. Australia concede a penalty ten seconds from...
By Jon DeNunzio | June 26, 2006; 01:17 PM ET | Comments (70) | TrackBack (0)
Worst Card of the Tournament?
The second yellow shown to Sweden's Teddy Lucic was obviously unfair, right? Put aside your American bias for a second ... was it the least just card of the tournament? Accepting nominations now. (BTW, Germany won 2-0)...
By Jon DeNunzio | June 24, 2006; 02:52 PM ET | Comments (9) | TrackBack (0)
Cards, Cards, Cards
I just saw there are a decent number of comments on today's Post piece by Jason on the high number of cards at the Cup so far. Worth talking about here, perhaps? Here's what Bruce said: "I don't think there's any consistency in one game to the next," Arena said. "A Brazilian player fouled a player in Game 1, who is 20 yards out from the goal, from behind, no card. A U.S. player would probably be serving six months of hard labor. It's not consistent from every game. It's not that easy for players to adjust going into games, because they don't know how referees are going to call the game." Here's how FIFA is explaining things: "Certainly one aspect to [the increase in yellow and red cards] is the fact that referees received before the World Cup very clear instructions on which types of things to clamp down...
By Jon DeNunzio | June 20, 2006; 04:30 PM ET | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)
Morning Kick-About
My news reader may be down, but I'm not ... - Der Kaiser gets fired up over criticism, real or imagined. Asked what criticism he was referring to, Beckenbauer added: 'It's the ticketing or whatever else.' Beckenbauer was then pulled away from journalists by a press spokesman. Speaking of tickets, The Guardian (or is it the Observer?) launched a ticketing campaign this weekend ... One issue, though, will overshadow the event all the way through: the allocation of tickets for the 64 games. The system devised by Fifa and the 2006 Organising Committee will force many ticketless deserving fans to pay touts' exorbitant prices. Fifa's policy benefits sponsors and the wealthy but short-changes those fans who are the game's lifeblood. Today Observer Sport starts a campaign for change by exposing the full extent of the ticketing scandal. Again I ask ... anyone have any good ticket stories? - France/Barcelona MF...
By Jon DeNunzio | April 18, 2006; 09:40 AM ET | Comments (7) | TrackBack (0)
Morning Kick-About
- Rooney libel case settled. That's one distraction out of the way. The 700,000-pound gorilla lingers: The scale and voracity of Rooney's betting has shocked many observers. Although the player is paid nearly £3 million a year by United and earns about the same in endorsements, the debt represents a substantial slice of his annual income. It is more than a third of his salary after tax. - Sol Campbell hurt again. Is a spot in the English side realistic? (Please note my savvy use of prepositions) Well, Rio Ferdinand is on Sol's side. "Sol's been unfortunate, along with Jonathan Woodgate, with injuries in the last season. Maybe that will play against him or maybe he'll come back fresher, and the manager could see that as a good ingredient to add to the squad." - Trinidad & Tobago names its squad (provisionally). Players you might know thanks to their previous...
By Jon DeNunzio | April 13, 2006; 10:00 AM ET | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Mid-Morning Kick-About
Taking my place in the wall as the day lines up for another free kick ... - Nice piece on FIFAWorldCup.com on the "water-carriers" of World Cup history. I always loved Deschamps; love to see him get his due here. - Brazil's coach is " more relieved than worried" tha Ronaldo is hurt. Okay. But Parreira said that the rest could be just what Ronaldo needs to be at his best ahead of their FIFA World Cup defence. "He can recover and line out in his best physical form for Brazil," Parreira told the Brazil sports agency Placar. - Good old-fashioned begging might get you a spot on the national team. Twenty goals don't hurt, either. If this BBC.com piece I linked to yesterday is to be believed, Bent and Jermain Dafoe are the bubble boys for England's last forward spot. - One of England's top refs say the men...
By Jon DeNunzio | April 12, 2006; 10:30 AM ET | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)
Are You Blind, Ref?
This is great. We'll miss him this summer ......
By Jon DeNunzio | April 11, 2006; 11:15 AM ET | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)
Law 11
Ok, I'm probbaly not gonna post again til Monday, but here's a column to chew on over the weekend. As a guy who refs, I follow these issues with interest. Observers have generally said the officiating was horrible in Japan/South Korea. Did anyone disagree? Not sure what Law 11 is? Click the link. Have a great weekend ......
By Jon DeNunzio | April 8, 2006; 12:08 AM ET | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)
