Posted on 06/25/2006 11:30:31 PM PDT by soccer_maniac
In two more days, only 8 teams will remain in the 2006 FIFA World Cup.
TODAY'S GAMES: Italy-Australia (11:00AM EST) followed by Swiss-Ukraine (3:00 PM EST).
(Excerpt) Read more at fifaworldcup.yahoo.com ...
FIFA has a big problem on their hands, the integrity of the World Cup is in serious doubt with these calls.
A sidleine to the excellent soccer we have seen to date is the equally excellent drama abilities..
The ref wanted to buy it. No way was a perennial power going to lose to a bunch of Aussie upstarts, FIFA wanted none of it.
Well, it's over now. One up didn't do it for the Aussies.
And thank you for your responses, all, to my 11-1 question.
It certainly gives the haters a lot of fodder. This tournament is setting soccer back 10 years.
Excellent. Who was the guy (SNL I think) who would sweep his hand and say "Acting!!"
If Italy goes on to win, I'd say FIFA has a serious problem.
Apart from the appalling refereeing decisions, the matches have been very exciting.
I still say introduce retrospective suspensions based on video evidence for diving.
FIFA won't have any of it though. Their solution to everything is to increase the pressure on the refs to get it right. As we've seen, relying on refs to get things right is a rather dubious strategy.
Other than that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?
As soon as you guys start referring to petrol as gasoline. :)
I think he means soccer in the USA and its struggle to gain acceptance. When you ask an American why he doesn't like the game you'll invariably hear it's because of all the diving and playacting. Well, that and the low scores.
Believe me, the word "soccer" makes me cringe too, but unfortunately "football" is already taken. We're working hard to take it back though...
I watched 3 different soccer games over the weekend with 4 friends who never played soccer but started watching at the beginning of the WC. They were appalled at the acting, the diving, and the bad officiating. They lost interest after every game. They were pretty excited before hand.
Probably should start referring to it as "diveball."
It certainly was unnecessary. If you're going to decide a game like that in the last minute of stoppage time he damn well better have seen a full-body three point takedown.
These referees seem to have it in their heads that billions of people are tuning in to watch them work.
“When you ask an American why he doesn't like the game you'll invariably hear it's because of all the diving and playacting.”
They're wrong about the low scores being bad but the fact is the Americans and Australians have a point when they cite the amount of diving. It winds me up too.
Couldn't tell, but that did look like Dwayne Wade taking the PK for Italy
There have been some great games in the World Cup so far - Argentina vs Serbia being the best and even poor old England were involved in an entertaining 2-2 draw with Sweden. I'll take the diving and red cards over the stop-start inaction and boring tactics of the American version of football.
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