With just 81 days until the start of the FIFA 2010 World Cup, national team coaches and managers are making their final decisions on the national team lineups that will compete in South Africa. Scouters are busy putting together strategies and game plans to match up players against their opponents. However, with all the planning and preparation, it all comes down to how the team performs on game day. Or does it?
As we have seen, games are not always determined by the players' performances. Unfortunately, the outcome of games can be determined much more subjectively-- that is, of course, by the referees' deciding call. Games can and have been won and lost by the referee's and officials ruling the games. So what does this mean for the upcoming World Cup--the world's biggest stage for sports?
The U.S. perspective can be quite negative. After beating #1 Spain and nearly coming away with the win against the resulting #1 Brazil last summer in the FIFA Confederations Cup tournament, a lot of fans are expecting a good performance out of the US team in this years World Cup. But the same could be said of the 2006 US team who entered the tournament as the #4 team in the World and didn't even advance out of the group stages. In fact, their first round exit with a 0-2-1 performance ranked as one of the worst World Cup performances in history. Yet it could have easily turned out much different. Controversial calls by the referee's in the game against Italy (the eventual World Cup Champions) resulted in two red cards given out to US players, forcing team USA to play with only nine players on the field. They nearly pulled out a win, but finished in a tie at 1-1. However, because they were unable to get the result, team USA had to win against Ghana. However, because of the two red cards handed out in the Italy game, team USA had to play without two of their starters. Another controversial call resulted in a Ghana goal off a penalty kick-- a penalty kick that, according to the replay, should not have been awarded. After all was said and done, the US went home without a single win.
While comments have been made by FIFA officials suggesting that changes might be made in the future to include video replay, they made it clear that such changes would not be in effect for the World Cup in South Africa. Should the US have a chance to advance in the tournament, they may have to have luck on their side, hoping that the referees' calls go their way.
I still wonder with soccer how it could happen. It really is the only sport that doesn't really stop. Even in hockey you have face-offs that are a natural stop that are more often. You have half time, injuries, and 3 subs per team, but throw ins are most often very fast and when penalties happen the ball is kicked almost right away unless it is close to the goal and then there isn't much to do as far as replay goes anyway. Would they take that penalty kick away and go to a drop ball or something? Nobody likes those. I love the idea but since there would never be a good time for it I just don't see it happening.
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