2014 World Cup

Maybe there's is too much conspiracy talk, but should it be possible that they have bad refs at the World Cup. Realizing that every country in the world plays soccer and there are 4 leagues where pay is pretty good they should be able to have enough good refs.

 

There is conspiracy talk because the bribing of officials and the corruption to the highest levels of the sport is acknowledged and accepted by all, including those in the sport.

 

I'm glad people are starting to see unelected quasi-world governments such as FIFA, IOC and NCAA for the pigs they are.
Only all of these entities will continue to make billions off their events, so it's really all for naught.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/01/sports/soccer/fixed-matches-cast-shadow-over-world-cup.html?_r=0

 

Mexico should be winning this thing easily. The first disallowed goal was simply a good run. Then to top it off an elbow to the face from a Cameroon player draws no card.

 

Yeah that's one of the things I was thinking of. By now it's hardly even news though.

Also: Beckenbauer suspended 90 days for stonewalling the committee investigating the Qatar bid.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-06-13/beckenbauer-suspended-by-fifa-for-not-working-with-ethics-panel.html

Everybody's in on it and nobody seems to care.

 

Fair point. I realized after I posted that international soccer was perhaps the sport most marked by actual match-fixing at even the highest levels, and thus the worst case for what I intended as a more general musing on those who reflexively think every bad call, or just every call that goes against "their" team, is evidence of some conspiracy or "fix."

International football aside, I think in general across major professional sports, bad calls (or even questionable calls) are much, much more likely due to human fallibility on the part of the official rather than a fix/conspiracy.

Re: the quality of officials at the World Cup, I thought that has always been an issue in the early rounds especially, since every federation gets to have some refs in the pool, even the ones without major professional leagues (such as Africa and Asia). So while it would perhaps be best to entirely use refs from, say, the top 5 leagues in the world, that simply doesn't fly politically.

Same problem that crops up in the Olympics in basketball or hockey, for instance, where you might not have world-class refs to match the world-class players. That's a different issue then whether there's a fix (though perhaps not unrelated; maybe some of these refs from the middle of nowhere who don't officiate in a major pro league have both more to gain and less to lose from taking a bribe).

 

Spain is getting thumped. Embarrassingly so.

I'm not sure Spain can get out of the group with six points after starting minus-4 on goals.

 

Two thoughts:

A) Netherlands looked insanely good.
B) Iker Casillas is done.

 

They're lucky they didn't give up 6 or 7 or worse. A hit cross bar and two great saves in a row and then the Dutch whiffed on a point-blank shot in the final minutes. What an amazing performance on one side. Not so much by the defending champs.

 

We might need another couple of matches to see if Spain was that bad, the Netherlands are that good ... or something in between. Stay Tuned ...

 

Only negative for the Dutch is the thought of what could have been if they'd played that way in 2010, instead of opting for kicking anything that moved. Lightning starts at tournaments are nothing new for Holland, though. There's inevitably a flame-out at some point.

If Spain beat Chile, they'll be fine. If they can manage that, there's every chance the group goes 9-6-3-0, or 7-6-1-0 if the Dutch take their foot off the gas against Chile (given the first 25 minutes of the other game, Australia aren't beating anyone). But that game should be for a qualification spot, as the Dutch will basically have qualified after two games.

Also worth remembering: Second place in this group gets Brazil in the second round.