FIFA Considering Extra Officials, Not Video Review [Ger 4 ENG 1 Round-up 3.a]

Roundup Part 1.A
Round-up 2.a
Round-up 2.b

Round-up 3.a:

England In Total Shambles
What happened Fabio to the pre-tournament prediction that England would reach the World Cup final? While one can have sympathy for the England players themselves, it is hard indeed to reconcile with the morons (and there were many pundits who should have known better) who had the Three Lions winning this year's World Cup.

Such suggestions remain an insult to the intelligence and indeed the labeling of several England internationals as world class also takes some validating on the evidence of Sunday's Round of 16 contest in Bloemfontein.

England suffered the pain of German revenge and eating humble pie as Fabio Capello's men made a controversial World Cup exit. The Three Lions had hoped 44 years of hurt would end in South Africa. It did. German hurt.

When Frank Lampard's first-half shot crashed off the bar and bounced a clear two feet over the line, only for assistant Mauricio Espinosa to miss it, grainy images of England's controversial third at Wembley in 1966 immediately sprang to mind.

Bowed England go home
Dressed in their grey Marks & Spencer suits, a bowed England team left Rustenburg for OR Tambo international airport and home late yesterday afternoon.

In the team bus, surrounded by a police blue-light convoy, Tottenham Hotspur defender Michael Dawson could only manage a wan smile for the staff at their hotel, the Royal Bafokeng Sports Campus, who had gathered to wave them off.

Defeated England football team arrive home
The England football team have returned to the UK after being knocked out of the World Cup by Germany.

The players looked tired as they passed through security at Johannesburg's OR Tambo airport after a coach journey from their Rustenburg training base.

Eng home to frosty reception
London - England's footballers, who would have preferred to arrive to hordes of fans and a smiling press contingent, have arrived back in the UK to a much more low-key reception.

After exiting from their aircraft, the team was led through a small outbuilding arrivals terminal, presumably off-limits to the general public, and have thus far not given any press conferences or interviews.

Back to the money-making routine for England's band of toothless lions
Now they've been dumped out of the World Cup, England's under-achievers can get back to what they do best - making money.

Every one of the squad is a millionaire with a lifestyle of enviable comfort.

And as for Steven Gerrard and Wayne Rooney, they will soon be competing in another tournament in which they literally can't lose.

Six days after the cup final, the pair will appear at the O2 arena in South-East London.

In an event labelled 'theatre meets sport,' Gerrard and Rooney are said to be picking up a reported £500,000 each.

Manchester City Drop Interest In England Flop James Milner And Turn Attention To Toure, Silva And Edin Dzeko
Manchester City look set to drop their bid for Aston Villa midfielder James Milner after the player’s poor displays for England in the 2010 World Cup finals, while intensifying their pursuit of Yay Toure, David Silva and Edin Dzeko.

City began their summer with a bold bid of £18 million for Milner but the offer was turned down by Villa for being insufficient. The Eastlands club were contemplating a renewed bid of £28 million for the midfielder but coach Roberto Mancini appears to have lost interest after watching the England player struggle on the international stage against quality opposition.

Glad you're finding it funny: Players joke hours after England's humiliating exit
With their nation humiliated after England’s worst ever World Cup defeat, you might think looks of shame would be etched on the players’ faces.

Instead, just hours after the country’s dismal 4-1 defeat to Germany, Ashley Cole and Ledley King wore broad grins as they were spotted sharing a joke.

The infuriating scene came as the footballing flops, who are due to arrive back in Britain this morning, left the team plane at Pilanesburg, South Africa.

England are not World class any more, admits Joe Cole
Joe Cole admits the crushing defeat by Germany must spark an inquest into problems within the England setup which have undermined their World Cup.

Cole refused to reveal details but hinted at discontent in the camp after a disastrous tournament ended with a 4-1 defeat at the hands of Joachim Low's rampant team.

The Germans claimed Fabio Capello played into their hands with his gung-ho tactics and Frank Lampard confessed England were naive to chase the game so hard after an awful start.

Venables, Taylor, Shearer, Waddle and Coppell on England crisis
Two former England managers and three ex-players give their verdict on England's humiliating World Cup exit in South Africa at the hands of Germany.

Same Old Tired Excuses ; Don't Mention the Four
THE worry lines cracked into Fabio Capello's features as he came up with chronic fatigue syndrome as the cause of England's World Cup flop.

His excuse was as tired as he looked.

The Italian must have exhausted every option before delivering this answer to the pounds 6million question as to why his so-called golden generation performed like a spent force at South Africa 2010.

Capello reckons the rigours of a domestic and Champions League campaign led to his stars meek surrender in South Africa - but that just doesn't stack up.

Why Does England Lose?
I spent the last two weeks in England, a country I love very much, in part because its national character is so full of quirks. One such quirk is its majestically complicated relationship with its national football team.

In its first match in this year’s World Cup, a 1-1 draw with the U.S., the English goal-keeper made a horrible mistake and was subsequently treated as if he were French-born, or worse (and was promptly benched). After a desultory 0-0 draw with Algeria, the English team was pronounced total rubbish. Though the weather last week was divine, a cloud of self-disgust hung over the nation. But then, after thrashing Slovenia 1-0 and thereby advancing to the knockout round, the English team was declared fit for the Cup title, ready to roll over Germany and any other unlucky nation that might get in its way.

Players looked totally confused
NO ONE likes kicking a man when he is down but I have to admit that Fabio Capello has left me feeling utterly dejected.

This is the worst thing you can say about any football manager, yet it needs saying: It looked to me as if the England players did not want to play for him.

There was something fundamentally wrong inside that camp and only those who were there know the real problems and can tell the truth about what went on.

From the outside, though, it looked as if the squad were locked away in a boot camp and let out only on match days.

Once they were released, they looked ill-at-ease, under-prepared and totally confused.

Fewer chances for younger talent in a culture of fear
Imagine, for instance, that you are Sam Hutchinson. Nobody has heard of you but you are in your late teens and quite a talented defender. Been with Chelsea since you were a nipper. England Under-19s, England Under-21s. All good. A few injury problems over the last year or two but you are still part of the cream of the crop.

Nineteen years old and you have made just a couple of first team appearances. So should you be picking out your Ferarri? Should you be alerting MTV that they might want to be featuring your crib in a year or so? Will you place an ad in the personal columns of Wag Weekly ?

Probably not, because the downside of playing in the so-called greatest league in the world is that the debt-ridden corporation you turn out for is unlikely to take a chance on you when it has a shedload of expensively acquired foreign talent ahead of you in the queue. Look around you son. The last home-grown player to make it at Chelsea was John Terry.

JEFF POWELL: England were pathetic, greedy and worse than Sven...we need an Englishman
Never has the case for modern technology been so overwhelming.

It cried out through every humiliating minute of the World Cup campaign which, with the connivance of a strutting Italian martinet, has reduced this football nation to a basket case.

The controversy reignited by Frank Lampard’s disallowed goal will fumble to its own tortuous conclusion.

Who cares when English football is mired so deep in antiquity that — never mind a couple of cameras — nothing short of a blood-soaked revolution can drag our game out of the dark ages?

The debacle which unfolded in Bloemfontein was not only a betrayal of the country which gave birth to the game but a catastrophe which had been waiting to happen since the fools in charge of the Football Association threw a few million more at their latest half-baked notion of a trendy foreign manager.

A few days earlier, Fabio Capello was so irritated by the first hint of anything less than grovelling by journalists that he challenged the questioner to take over his job if he fancied he could do it better.

‘Mistakes?’ answered Capello rhetorically. ‘I make no mistakes.’

If it was not so pathetic it would be laughable.

Fabio Capello is cashing in on England failure! A broken team but under-fire boss is far from broke
Less than four weeks after removing the break clause in his contract and so committing themselves to Fabio Capello beyond this World Cup, the Football Association took what looked like a significant step in dropping the Italian yesterday.

It amounted to an extraordinary situation, and one that perfectly encapsulates all that has been wrong with England at this World Cup. Chaotic, listless, shambolic.

What went wrong at 'Camp Capello'?
As England's World Cup failures filed on to a coach carrying the discredited motto "Playing With Pride And Glory" to make the retreat from Bafokeng, the inquest was in full swing.

England coach Fabio Capello was first in the dock after the humiliating last-16 exit against Germany. He "absolutely" wants to stay on - but the Football Association will buy time before making a decision.

This may not be enough to keep the wolves, or indeed speculation, from Capello and the FA's door, but there is enough wreckage to sift through until his fate is finally decided.

Two faces of Fabio Capello
England arrived in South Africa with victory a formality, it seemed. Vuvezelas were at the ready to trumpet home the returning heroes. Yet somewhere, it all went catastrophically wrong and, with a nation eager for a scapegoat, the dissection of Fabio Capello has well and truly begun.

When things were going well, he was the tactical genius whom supporters claimed to have heralded for years. Yet, as the romance sours, there are calls for the removal of foreigners from the England set-up. Capello is undoubtedly an outstanding coach, but the debate as to whether he should – and indeed can – lead England to Poland and Ukraine in 2012 polarises opinion.

Capello left a dead man walking as FA refuses to pull the trigger
At least it was in keeping with the woeful performances of the England team in their forgettable World Cup campaign this month that yesterday the Football Association even managed to botch the sacking of their manager.

Fabio Capello's career as England manager is not officially over but it would be fair to say that it lies twitching in the dust.

Capello admits England must change to progress
With typical self confidence the former AC Milan, Juventus, Roma and Real Madrid manager feels he did everything right to prepare his team but was let down by his players, particularly in a 4-1 last-16 exit against Germany which was England?s biggest World Cup finals defeat.

Now, his own future aside, the biggest debate in England is which players should be dropped and who should be brought in to rescue English football from yet another low point.

Capello was, as expected, tight-lipped on the former of those two questions but happy to discuss the players who could potentially be drafted in for a new era next season.

"We talked about this with my staff," he said. "I think we will find two or three new players, probably, for the Euros.

After the World Cup debacle, other successful team sports should be promoted
England's footballers are mourning the loss of the game against Germany and analysing what went wrong. How many times have we heard this before?

The last time that England's footballers won anything of notable mention was in 1966. In the past 10 years, England's cricketers have won the Ashes twice – and can people not remember that famous kick from Jonny Wilkinson's boot in the Rugby World Cup?

We should encourage the young to play other sports. There is life after football.

England v Wales in a Welsh Baseball International on Saturday
The annual international Welsh Baseball game between England and Wales takes place this Saturday at Tredegar Park, Newport, Wales. ‘Kick off’ is scheduled for 2 p.m and a poster for the event can be found here.

Welsh baseball, also sometimes known as British baseball, is a hybrid of baseball, cricket and rounders

England wakes up to a new national sport: the blame game
They have become the predictable rituals of defeat – predictable that is to English football fans. For the eighth time since 1966, those unfortunate enough by dint of birth or otherwise to be associated with Fabio Capello's tarnished "Golden Generation" were left to ruminate on what might have been and work out whom to blame.

The brutal puncturing of over-inflated national expectations by a superior opponent was relieved only by indignation at being cheated by flawed officialdom. But such feelings can only be fleeting. For it was quickly the turn of the manager, the players, and then the blazer-wearing grandees who run the national game to feel the righteous wrath of a vengeful public and a furious media.

The choreography of failure began even before the under-performing millionaire players boarded the luxuriously appointed team bus – bearing the cruelly ironic slogan "Playing with Pride and Glory" – for the journey back from the cosseted boredom of their state-of-the-art preparation facility in the South African veld. The Sun had set up a "Rant Line" for angry fans; the Daily Mail's Richard Littlejohn invoked the spirit of 1940. "Thank Heaven The Few didn't defend as badly as England's footballers in Bloemfontein yesterday afternoon, otherwise we'd all be speaking German," he wrote.

Octopus Correctly Predicts Germany’s World Cup Matches
UPDATE 6/27: Germany won, so Paul is now 4 for 4.

There is no rational reason to oppose replay for goals. None.

And as JJ Adande said on ESPN, after the game they look to see if those yellow cards were really deserved.

A human Ref is part of the game - I’d rather they had a line referee at the goal line - else it’s all ok - it’s a game like life, there’s rules but you can’t always rely on them and they are bent some times. That’s the way it should be, it’s a pretty fair game but leaves room for instant human fairness and outrageous unfairness, keeping focused although you are against the odds and believe in your strength and/or god, setting fighting spirit against fate etc.

My comment to the english performance - after the strong and beautiful german start (that was football of champagne class) and the resulting 2:0 for the german team the limeys showed a hell of a fighting spirit - noone seems to grant them this - that’s just not fair.

The old men from the island had us there and who knows how the second half would have looked if they came back from the cabins with an equal score.

They probably would have been lions still.

We’ll have to agree to not agree.

Life isn’t fair.

This game should be as much as possible. The players can’t help but to make mistakes. The refs CAN help it, cause they can just take a minute to look at the damn video and see the same thing everyone watching on TV can see.

There have been WAAAAAAAY to many bad calls. Almost every other match had a goal disallowed or bad one allowed. And some of the flopping is ridiculous.

I don’t know if you follow our American baseball. But anyway they add a couple extra officials for the playoffs. One down each foul line. Their only job is to keep his eyes fixed on the foul lines. Last year one got a call wrong, he called a fair ball foul and the batting team went on to not score and lose the game.

These games have huge financial consequences. The correct calls must be made.

It all depends on personal priorities. Mine are different.

Fairness is an important value in sports and life - it’s not the most important one - keeping the faith in the own ability to win although it’s not been fair play on you in a few situation rather then just to turn on the foot and leave the game or to resist the impulse to go for the unfair way is worth some more.

The longer I think of it the more I guess Englands team earned a lot more respect then given to them. It’s probably a bit fair because in the past they f’d up big time and the tabloids bashed the referees for it.

I think England still would’ve lost even if that call was not blown. This is not their year.

football wise and playing the germans it isn’t their century :)

Virtually everyone in the stands and viewing across the world knew it was a goal. Adding yet another individual on the pitch to get wrong the actual score of the game is a farcical reponse by FIFA.

It is made even more ironic as fans travelling to airports for flights to the WC games have to worry about the ever present red-light cameras enroute. But not only no camera will be used for ecvent son the pitch, no replays will be allowed that might show what actually happened.

Why don’t they just play the game on a EA Sports simulation and report the results?

Classy email from you, thanks.

Germany played the better World cup. And I also think they were robbed against Serbia.

Do you really want to stop the game for a referee review? Sorry but it can’t work that way.

Unfortunately cup games in the world of soccer don’t mean that much for all the reasons that we are seeing. League play is much more compelling and not at all affected by a bad call here or there.

No reason to change.

Do you really want to stop the game for a referee review?

When you put it that way, yes. It doesn't have to take that much time. The game stops whenever the ball leaves the field and whenever someone pretends to be injured after incidental contact. So it can damn well stop for a minute to make sure whether a goal is valid or not. Goals are so precious, they need to get it right.

League play is much more compelling and not at all affected by a bad call here or there.

You have point there but the World Cup isn't league play. 1 bad call could alter the entire course of the tournament and lead to 4 years of unjust heartbreak for the shafted team.

So after the games is stopped, what’s the restart, an IFK? That’s a rhetorical question. There is no good restart and players will start playing to get the restart they want. There’s enough gamesmanship as it is. I see no good reason to interrupt the flow of the game.

I think I said this in another thread but I can see the argument for chips in the ball to indicate a goal, especially after the England game. I can’t see reviewing offside calls.