Goal or no goal?

29.6.10

FIFA are responsible for this:


From my Tumblr in March of this year:

FIFA have ruled out introducing goal-line technology for good.

For: There are no natural stoppages in football like there are in cricket, tennis or NRL, we shouldn’t meddle with the beautiful game.

Against: Incidents like this one! Matches should be decided by the players’ skill not the officials’ mistakes.

There have no doubt been countless articles written and read about Lampard's goal since it bounced out of Neuer's goal (and I found this one particularly interesting). I have nothing really new to add to the literature surrounding this issue but:

1. You don't need a stoppage to review this. Put a little gadget in the referee's ear with your kid sister on the other end! "The ball just crossed the line, stop the play now for a kick-off." or "Tevez was a mile off-side, stop the play now for a free kick". Alternatively, why don't we borrow some pensioners from Wimbledon's lines? Sure, human error should always be part of the game... the glaring errors, though, could be so easily corrected. They don't add to the "romance", they blatantly destroy dreams and ruin the spectacle.
2. Germany's skills were far superior, anyway. Yes, 2-2 at half-time would've completely changed the course of the game. Yes, England might've played differently had they not had the psychological and physical burden of having to chase the game for the second 45. They didn't take their chances though, had looked lacklustre up until that point (the previous 270 minutes included) and the golden generation must now set their sights on Euro '12 - it is their last chance!

And I thought it was just my lowly park soccer games that were the victims of bad officiating! Asian refs who can't speak English; timid, female refs who don't look players in the eye; power-tripped old guy refs who can't tolerate backchat but fail to see the tackles from behind. Tim Cahill's sending off vs. the Ghanaian player's non-dismissal in the game against Australia; Harry Kewell's red vs. Luis Fabiano's goal; USA's disallowed goal against Slovenia - there are many examples of poor officiating we can take from South Africa '10.

I for one actually think the Kewell red was justified because he was the last defender and it shouldn't matter if it was deliberate or not as he made his body bigger and was so close to the goal-line, preventing a clear goal-scoring opportunity. Kirk thinks it wasn't a red simply because it wasn't deliberate. Does nobody know the rules anymore?! It is the lack of consistency that is damaging the teams, the tournament and the game the most.