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Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results - Albert Einstein

World Cup Football, er Soccer...
June 28, 2010 - 8:07 am

I enjoy watching Soccer on the national level. I like the flow of the game. I like the buildup of pressure as one side or the other begins to pick at the defense. I like the quick counterattack when that pressure breaks down. I like, no love, that there are no commercial breaks.

What I don't like is the, in my view, terrible "tradition" argument for not at least trying to fix some of the glaring problems. The ref simply can't get the calls right. Just can't. Too much territory to cover. Games moving too fast. Players dive and exaggerate too much.

I think it's really the players diving that irks me the most. Instead of having the view that it's lying/stealing/dishonest to beg and plead and act to get a call... it's viewed as the... uhm, "professional" thing to do. Rather reminds me of the kid in school who didn't show for all the group project meetings.. didn't really contribute much.. and then whines and bitches to the prof when the group gives each other grades.

That may not make sense to you, but it does to me.

But, FIFA can't do much about dives, unless they really willing to hand out yellow cards. That's a tricky thing since the ref has only a split second to decide if something was embellished or not. At the very least, they need to start calling free kicks on it a time or two early in the match/tourny to set the tone.

But things like Ireland not qualifying due to handball... the English goal yesterday that wasn't... I'm sure there's more, perhaps even better, examples. I'm most familiar with the disallowed goals the USA has had. It almost seems that every game I sit and watch there's one or two simply egregious calls that there's no way to fix.

I don't want to see instant replay in soccer.. that takes time and totally disrupts the flow of the game. But still, something needs done. At the very least.. at the goals. Why not have a ref who can review if something was a goal or not?

It would have worked simply yesterday in the England/Germany game. Play happens, keeper grabs the ball.. and boots it down field (or did he throw it? I forget.) No more than a 5 second review is needed to see the ball was a goal... the Ref on field gets a message that it was a goal, he blows the whistle and calls "goal". No real impact to the game. A bit disconcerting, perhaps, but really for the best.

An easier way to tweak things would be to add something like RIFD sensors to the ball, so that when it crosses the line, a big ass light/buzzer goes off (stealing that from Hockey) to declare a goal. Might need to tweak the rules to say that if any part of the ball goes over the line then it's a goal. I think it has to be the whole ball now. Still, that's a small change.

I'd also like to see two refs on the field. Something like... one in charge of each half. They'd both run back and forth, wouldn't need to run as far or as fast. Say they keep... 40 yards (more or less) apart. The offensive ref could get deeper while the defensive ref is still high and in better position when the counterattack breakaway happens.

On a set piece like a corner, the offensive ref could be quite deep -- nearly to the endline to see from that view out what's happening while the defensive ref is looking in towards the goal. The offensive ref would always be the ref in charge of the half should there be a dispute. Refs can already conference with the side official, so this really isn't much of a change.

I suppose the human element is nice, people aren't perfect, so neither are the matches... but there's an awful lot at risk to these errors. I mean, Ireland really should have been there and England not. England may still be in the tourny if that 2nd goal had been correctly called. While Germany was playing much better and, I think, they'd have gone on to win regardless... The impact of England making the match level would have been huge. There's just no way to know what would have happened.

Anyway, to say that this or that can't change due to tradition is weak. Tradition changes all the time. They are broken and new ones made. I'd like to see a new Soccer tradition that focuses on getting the major calls, like goals, right. Let the subjectivity of the ref linger in fouls and what not, but goals need to be called right.