2006 WORLD CUP - Round of 16 - ITALY-AUSTRALIA/UKRAINE-SWISS

FIFAworldcup.com ^ | 6-26-06 | FIFAworldcup.com

[romanesq]

Everyone is unhappy with the FIFA refs. The Holland Portugal game was out of hand but one point was made that the coaches never tried to get their teams to settle down. That's very true.

Hopefully some sanity returns after a good job done by the Mexican ref in the Swiss-Ukraine match.

That's the closest to a normal match conducted by the ref all tournament.

I think there was one yellow card in the first half.

[Wyatt's Torch]

True. But if the umpire calls it a ball, the batter doesn't get to stand at second, toss the ball in the air and hit it for a home run with just a center fielder in play......

[romanesq]

Yes and what happens when the ump calls ball four with the bases loaded?

[Wyatt's Torch]

And how many times has that happened in the middle of the MLB playoffs? I can think of at least two controversial penalty kicks in this World Cup and I've paid attention to about 6 games, matches, whatever. Never mind that in baseball, to get to that point, someone had to achieve getting 3 men on base and the pitcher had at least 3 other pitches to throw a strike. The average baseball score is probably 5-4 with 100 pitches thrown by each side, the the likelyhood of one controvesrial pitch having a complete impact over who wins the game is remote.

Point is, the "penalty" for the foul is quite extreme. I can't think of a penalty in American sports (save the penalty shot on hockey which is extremely rare and much easier to defend) that is so extreme as to literally have a deciding impact on the outcome of a game.

[You Dirty Rats]

the outcome of such an important game coming down to seemingly complete referee's whim is not going to endear anyone to the sport

Didn't seem to hurt coll fb when the Buckeye's won the national championship after the pass interference call.

[You Dirty Rats]

Thanks for the pic! (I was flying to Europe when you posted it!)