[WL-law]

I did not see the match, but from the article, it appears to have been an inadvertant/unintentional handball. If so, it is not illegal and the referee was correct in not awarding a penalty kick. Just one of the breaks of the game.

Not true. The German's hand was away from his body, protecting more area of the goal face than his body could. He was standing ON THE GOAL LINE. The ball was passing him and just entering into the goal mouth, past his body. He had no chance to stop it, and the goalie was already beat. He then "let" the ball hit his hand, watching it all the way, AND MADE no effort to move his hand out of the way -- his hand clearly a foot away from his body. And his hand/arm was set firmly enough that the ball didn't merely graze it, the ball totally reversed direction -- rebounding out of the goal.

That HAS TO BE a hand ball and a penalty kick. The ref would have been right NOT to award a yellow/red for a DELIBERATE hand ball in the goal mouth, but he still owed US the penalty kick, because BUT FOR the actions of that german player the ball was IN THE GOAL!!!!

[longshadow]

That HAS TO BE a hand ball and a penalty kick.

No, it is at worst an unintentional handball, and the best the US could have had was an indirect kick award at the point of the infraction. See #69.

[connectthedots]

As I said in my post, I did not see the match, so my comments addressed only the possibility that it was unintentional or inadvertant. If it was as blatant as you seem to be indicating, a penalty kick would have been in order.

[jackliberty]

I agree totally with your indictment of the German player. Hand away from body, forceful enough to stop the ball, watching ball all the way are all indications of deliberately handling the ball. The only way in could be called unintentional would be if the ball was deflected close to the defender or hit the back of his arm.

I disagree that no card was warranted. FIFA's website says the following under "additional instructions".

Deliberately handling the ball (blah, blah, blah)
Preventing a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity
A player is sent off, however, if he prevents a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity by deliberately handling the ball. This punishment in Law arises not from the act of the player deliberately handling the ball but from the unacceptable and unfair intervention which prevented a goal being scored.

This is why Mexico should have been awarded a penalty kick with no ejection and the U.S. should have been awarded a penalty kick and Germany play a man down the last 30 minutes of the match. The Mexicans had no obvious goal scoring opportunity; the Germans stopped a sure goal.

And, too, the first Donavan breakaway (about 9 minutes into the game) was erroneously called offside.

Now I know how the Italians feel.