The Soccer Thread (IV)

The aptly-named League Two side Bury.

 

And MMII wins the prize*.

*Prize does not actually exist.

 

At the same time, it's completely bogus to pull that offside crap when the ball is flying at your goal. You deserve to get scored on for that nonsense.

 

What is this, 1900? Wales are going to be without midfielder Lewin Nyatanga while he recovers from mumps.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ukpress/article/ALeqM5jsKFeCPyCwCCXpgf_F_Uwx--63_A

 

The call on the Altidore "goal" was embarrassing. The Spanish-language announcers sounded like they were asking if that was a makeup call for the jailbreak on Dempsey's goal (I could be wrong; been a while since I took Spanish). The U.S. bench let the linesman have it, and he clearly gestured "No More!" to them.

So maybe he was pissed enough to be "clearly against the U.S.," but I've never understood why benches/players/coaches/fans scream at soccer refs. Never seen a ref, on any level, change his or her call, or have their future decisions affected positively by being yelled at.

I do think the call, while clearly wrong, was closer than people are saying. Altidore was a half-step behind the defender when the ball was played, but the linesman had an excellent angle to make the right call.

Other than that, pretty nondescript game. Not sure which was worse: Bornstein's attempted clearance, or the resulting flat-footed US defense, on the first goal. Donovan had some good moments, Howard did enough, and the U.S. won in a decidedly non-dominating fashion.

No big deal. On to Trinidad. Hope everyone's cable system gets ESPN Classic or Galavision.

 

The revoked goal was not offside. The referee called a foul on Dempsey as they made it clear on TV that the linesman never raised his flag. They showed one replay of Dempsey sliding as he passed the ball through to Altidore, and they kept the camera on Dempsey. As he stood up you could see the referee blowing his whistle.

 

Interesting. Didn't catch that.

Didn't affect the outcome anyway, but if that was the call, then no complaints.

 

That wasn't the call as the linesman had his flag up. The linesman called offsides. That was the call.

The reason the call was so egregious was precisely because the linesman had such a great view. There is no way that anyone with eyes would call Altidore offside. Yet, there it was.

 

No complaints?
It wasn't a foul. Dempsey slid in, played the ball forward to Jozy and the defender recklessly flew over Dempsey's legs.
You're that late to the ball and it gets legimately played forward to an attacking player, that is no freaking foul. Dempsey wasn't studs up, and he didn't strike the defender with his boots. It was a horrible call -- and it was made because the ref was so far behind the play. Embarrasing.

 

Just going by what Harkes and JPD said on ESPN Classic. They kept saying over and over that the linesman never raised his flag.

 

I couldn't hear the audio as the bar was too loud and singing.

I had read that one of the American players (can't recall at this time) asked the ref what the whistle was for and the ref couldn't answer him. Basically, it was a phantom call to deny the Americans a perfectly legitimate goal.

 

Sure, no complaints. Subjective call, maybe the wrong one. The game moves fast, refs miss similar foul calls pretty often. Didn't affect the outcome. Had the whistle been for offside, that wasn't a judgment call.

So few calls actually affect the outcome of a soccer game, unless a team just can't get past a bad break mentally. The people at FIFA and CONCACAF know when a ref has screwed up. I'm not gonna worry about it.

The U.S. scrapped and had some tense moments, yet won a game that should never have been in doubt. They did a nice job responding after El Salvador scored, but the whole "90-minute effort" thing continues to elude them in these CONCACAF games.

I'm more concerned about the team's ability to take a road match at this point. Because if a call goes against them away from the U.S. at the wrong time and they lack the poise to deal with it . . . look out. Gotta win at Trinidad, take the pressure off.