Time For a Change

There's no other way to put it than disappointing. I understand that referees cannot be perfect, but some of the calls that they have missed in the 2010 FIFA World Cup haven't even been close. This World Cup has lived up to the hype, as we witnessed the event's first penalty kicks earlier today when Paraguay advanced to its first ever quarterfinals after defeating Japan. But the quality of the referees has not been what viewers have hoped, most notably starting with the disallowed goal that would have given the United States a 3-2 come from behind victory against Slovenia. Even the FIFA president Sepp Blatter admitted the mistakes, as he offered apologies to both Mexico and England for blown calls on June 27.

The earlier game was the England/Germany matchup. Germany scored the first two goals, but after England scored, Frank Lampard's shot hit the crossbar and bounced down into the goal. German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer caught it after the second bounce and proceeded as if it wasn't a goal. Sure enough, the refs had not called it and Lampard was left disappointed. In the later game, Carlos Tevez of Argentina scored the first goal of the Argentina-Mexico game, but after watching the replay, he was clearly offside. Other notable misses were Clint Dempsey's goal in the 21st minute of their final group game that was called off, Luis Fabiano's handball just before his 2nd goal in Brazil's 3-1 victory over Ivory Coast and Kaka's questionable red card in the same game.

Both games on June 27 were multi-goal victories so those extra goals wouldn't have made a difference, but the mindset of the players definitely would have been different. Lampard's goal would have tied up the game, and England would have had more momentum after two consecutive goals. In the Argentina game, Mexico's approach may have been different if they were only down by at halftime. Blatter says that the question of whether or not goal line technology should be used will be reopened once the event ends on July 11. The fact of the matter is that these misses have impacted the tournament, whether they've changed the outcome or the mindset. Let's hope the next two weeks don't have any big misses because one blown call could cost a country their chance at winning it all.