World Cup News!

[grunewar]

Referees Learning English Swear Words -- Main FanHouse

"Refereeing is an impossible job, it's a difficult job, and emotions run high on both teams," U.S. goalie Tim Howard said. "So we've been warned to keep our emotions in check and watch our mouths, and I'm sure we're going to try to the best of our ability to do that. I don't think it will go 100 percent as planned.

[tjones1]

I'm not really a big soccer fan, but I've enjoyed watching a little bit of the World Cup off and on.

Personally, I think offsides is a little silly and should be removed to open up scoring.

[grunewar]

Originally Posted by tjones1

Personally, I think offsides is a little silly and should be removed to open up scoring.

I believe in hockey we used to call this "Blue Line Hanging."

[Adam]

So was it the correct call or not? I haven't seen it, and I'm not a soccer official anyway. Perhaps Nevada or another soccer official could weigh in?

[Nevadaref]

Originally Posted by Snaqwells

So was it the correct call or not? I haven't seen it, and I'm not a soccer official anyway. Perhaps Nevada or another soccer official could weigh in?

If you mean the canceling of the 3rd USA goal in the Slovenia match, then you know the answer by now. No one has been able to defend the call. There just isn't anything on the video which one can use to justify a whistle against the US on that play.
BTW that referee worked as the 4th official in Sunday's match between Italy and New Zealand. It was a 1-1 draw. It is now being reported that he will not work again in the tournament.

[MD Longhorn]

I'm not sure if this would have fixed the situation at all... but given that a soccer field is significantly bigger than a football field, and the entire field is in use at once, shouldn't there be MANY more on-field officials for games like this?

[grunewar]

"The duty of the referees is not to explain their decision ... (but to) try to do their best on the field of play," Garcia-Aranda said. "(Otherwise) they are not focused on the game, they are focused on the media."