by Sofia
Sunday the 27th June was the day England would play her last game in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. The team was sent home by victorious Germany, after they scored 4-1. However, even German fans would say the score should have been 4-2. One goal by Lampard was disallowed when the referee did not see it clearly land inside line.
“I believe that blunder destroyed the team’s morale and we (England) would have fought harder had that goal been counted. It was clearly in.” said a heartbroken fan as he took down the massive England flag outside his house after the loss.
Argentina sent Mexico packing in the evening game of the 27th, 3-1. Many angry fans on social networking sites such as Twitter and Facebook screamed in their posts, many heavily adorned with capital letters and expletives, the first Argentine goal was a mile offside. Mexico fought the Maradona-led team as if their life depended on it, but alas, it was adios Mexico.
Watching the game with a doubly-broken heart (I’m a Mexican-American living in England and the USA had been kicked off by Ghana the previous day), I turned to social networking to voice my dismay. I was amazed by the number of people angry at the antiquated way Fifa make calls. The whole world saw it, why didn’t the referee or his two assistants? They are there to follow the ball.
While the BBC stated Fifa has refused to comment on the mistakes made by officials on that crucial Sunday, their spokesman Nicolas Maingot said
“I don’t think football is very much different from other sports and not all sports have recourse to technology.”
Also according to the BBC, Fifa president Sepp Blatter is strongly to the introduction of goal-line and video technology to help referees, saying in a statement, “If play were to be stopped to take a decision, it would break up the rhythm of the game and possibly deny a team the opportunity to score a goal.
“It would also not make sense to stop play every two minutes to review a decision, as this would go against the natural dynamism of the game.”
Clearly, the game changed direction as a result of the failure by officials to acknowledge what was clearly a goal. Whether expensive technology is the only answer, I question. Simply having an official – a linesman, posted specifically to watch the goal-line, would have been sufficient monitoring to register that the ball crossed over the line. Why the referee was not alerted to his need to get a second opinion, we shall never know! Incompetence and inexperience comes to mind…
I think you are absolutely right! Someone official should guard the post. They already do have cameras on the goal posts, but they don’t use them to change any calls, such as the ones discussed in the post.