All-Purpose, Never-Ending Soccer Thread

[Birdscribe]

Zizzer, the first goal was a tough play.  Eto'o had space -- ideally the keeper would have come out a little more a cut off the near post, but Eto'o gave a look to the far post and took advantage when the keeper moved.  

The second non-save was David James worthy.

Beat me to it.

Eto'o was the beneficiary of a nice play and converted the chance. Yes, Alumnia was a bit welded and should have come out a bit more, but there was too much space for someone with Eto'o's talent to work with.

The second goal? My 12-year-old makes that save in his sleep.

 

[Bubbler]

Favorite sporting nickname: Calamity James.

Wasn't he thinking about giving the NFL a try?

 

[Webster]

Favorite sporting nickname: Calamity James.

Wasn't he thinking about giving the NFL a try?

I think that he tried out as a punter with the Dolphins -- basically a publicity stunt.

 

[zizzer]

Ziz, if you allow the goal, how do you justify sending off the keeper?
It wasn't an ugly foul. It was a last-man foul. Well, if you play the advantage, and allow the goal, it's no longer necessary to send off Lehman, is it?

You give the red because it's a foul that stops a clear goal-scoring opportunity.  I'll use the language of the laws of the game to show why I think that should have been the proper handling of the situation.

Law 12, regarding fouls and misconduct

A player is sent off and shown the red card if he commits any of the following seven offences:

5. denies an obvious goalscoring opportunity to an opponent moving towards the player's goal by an offence punishable by a free kick or a penalty kick

Okay, so that's the red card.  I don't think there's any argument there.

Law 5 stipulates that the referee

allows play to continue when the team against which an offence has been committed will benefit from such an advantage and penalises the original offence if the anticipated advantage does not ensue at that time;

and

takes disciplinary action against players guilty of cautionable and sending-off offences. He is not obliged to take this action immediately but must do so when the ball next goes out of play;

Yes, a foul was committed.  Which was more advantageous to Barcalona: the "advantage" clause, which they scored a goal on, or the free kick, which went wide of the goal?  You can't say that because you invoke advantage the foul didn't happen; it did, and it needs to be penalized with the proper sanction, in this case, the sending off of Lehmann.

In terms of Eto'o's goal, that was soft.  He was caught leaning toward the far post, which was why Eto'o went near on him.  As a goalkeeper, you NEVER get beat near post.  Eto'o had time to two-touch that pass, which should have been time for Alumnia to close on him.

 

[zizzer]

ESPN has announced the broadcast teams for the World Cup....

Play-by-play, Analyst - Location
Dave O'Brien, Marcelo Balboa - Germany
JP Dellacamera, John Harkes - Germany
Rob Stone, Robin Fraser - Germany
Glenn Davis, Shep Messing - ESPN HQ
Adrian Healey, Tommy Smyth - ESPN HQ

In addition to the five teams above, Eric Wynalda, Alexi Lalas and Julie Foudy will serve as studio analysts from the United States.

Damn, I HATE Tommy Smyth....  disappointed in no Derek Rae, as he was about the only redeeming quality to the Champions League broadcasts..... And I'm shocked (SHOCKED, I tell ya!) to not see Jack Edwards' name on that list ;D

 

[Webster]

As ridiculous as some of the calls were that Edwards made (it's four years later and I'm still cringing), he knows the sports and showed some passion. Balboa is an awful choice as a number 1 analyst.

 

[zizzer]

not sure if you saw this....

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story?id=368318&cc=5901

Yeah, I saw that.... I also saw in the same article where the communications director told the BBC that what the official did was correct.

I'm a licensed referee myself (paid my way thought college by refereeing high school games), and I've talked with a half dozen other referees who saw the match. To a man, they've all said they would have allowed the goal and given the red. Now, I realize what they say now and what they would have done in that place are probably two different things, but still....

Giving a yellow would have been the chickenshirt way out. It'd be like admitting you recognize he committed the foul, but don't have the balls to issue the proper punishment. That would have only served to turn the match into a bloodbath because the players would have picked up on the fact he wasn't issuing a red that day.

Be swift, be decisive, and you don't get a lot of questions. Hesitation and leniency are signs of weakness, and at that level, will be disastrous.

 

[Twoback]

OK, so if what Lehman did was worthy of a red and the continuation via advantage, why isn't he being absolutely stone-cold ripped for making one of the biggest blunders ever?
Why isn't he Jackie Smith? All Smith did was drop a touchdown pass. This guy got himself tossed and left his team a man down for 75 minutes.

 

[Eagles1 in London]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/arsenal/4996270.stm

Henry staying with Arsenal for 4 more....

 

[zizzer]

Frankly, I don't know why he isn't being ripped more.  My guess is because it wasn't a stupid thing - it was in the heat of play, and it wasn't like the 94 WC when Tab Ramos got elbowed in the dome by the Brazilian guy.

Plus, if you're an Arsenal fan, it's far, far easier to blame the official than to admit that their side wasn't as good as Barca was.

I don't get the line of thought that you don't throw someone out of a major match like that.  I'm of the opinion that those are the matches that you must referee to the letter of the law more than any other.

 

[Twoback]

Yeah, but I'm not sure they weren't as good. Maybe not on paper, but the Steelers weren't as good as the Colts on paper.
Henry had 2 good chances in the first four minutes. That game was going well for them.
In the heat of battle, the keeper's job is to stop the play without getting his behind kicked out of the game. It wasn't an easy play, but he's got to know that he's in danger of getting booted with as recklessly as he went in there -- and he still was in the clear until he stuck out his hand and grabbed/slapped the foot of Eto'o. I'd say that's about as severe a blunder as I've seen in sports, and he's getting a pass. I'm amazed.

 

[Webster]

I think that Jens isn't getting blamed for a few reasons:

-- He has been great for them all year, especially in the CL

-- He was faced with a situation in which one of the best strikers in the world was 1 on 1 with him.

-- He took a positive step to try and save the goal

-- He didn't miss the ball by that much

-- They didn't score on that play