FIFA World Cup 2010

[//\/\/]

Originally Posted by cured

I ran out of booze following the Lakers win over the Celtics in game 7 of the NBA finals last night.

too bad!

So what's the deal with game 3 for England and the US? If both tie, does the US advance based on goals scored if both teams play to, say 1-1?

something dreadful like if you draw 1-1 and we draw 2-2 then it'll come down to drawing lots interesting new way to go out of a tournament!

I'd say England should have an easier time with Slovenia; the US shredded them in the second half. It'd just be nice to see my country playing with a lead for once.

not if we play like that - slovenia look a far more technically accomplished team than algeria - we got away with a draw only because they have nothing up front - i think you'll take them apart.

Back to today's game: you're right. The passing was just awful, even when they had a play in mind. It was on set pieces that I felt they just didn't know what they wanted to do. I felt they were pressing towards the end, launching shots from 35 meters out and going away from trying to get through-balls to the guys standing at the 18. They had some decent chances but, most of the time, they held onto the ball too long.

I'm surprised a country as advanced in the game as England is playing the wait-and-see approach to attacking; I thought they'd be one-touch passing into the box with regularity. What the hell is up with that?

you're as baffled as all of us, believe me. playing heskey certainly robs rooney of the space he needs; but this wasn't about that - it was just rubbish. no excuses. booed off - and i've never heard that before at a world cup; but deservedly so.

Back to the US: we can cry and whine about getting jobbed by the refs but giving up those two goals so easily has those types of consequences.

not that you could do anything about the first - fantastic shot.

As far as officiating, it is surprising that in the showcase tournament, they're essentially using training referees when there are plenty of quality officials out there. Not to say this happened in any way but what's to stop a ref who knows he's only going to officiate one or two matches from taking a few coin to skew the result of one group match? When you don't go with proven commodities, all sorts of things can happen.

i still think that bribery intimations are wrong, whatever you might think. reffing really isn't easy - overhead views and replays are fine; but the ref isn't able to look everywhere. certainly the standards will vary in the early stages - we've seen over-officious, card-happy and a bit dozy at times. but again; it's part of the humanity of the sport. it's another uncertain element - it leads to us talking and arguing and gnashing teeth and being relieved and praising and swearing. it's like life again...

[cured]

Originally Posted by //\/\/

i still think that bribery intimations are wrong, whatever you might think. reffing really isn't easy - overhead views and replays are fine; but the ref isn't able to look everywhere. certainly the standards will vary in the early stages - we've seen over-officious, card-happy and a bit dozy at times. but again; it's part of the humanity of the sport. it's another uncertain element - it leads to us talking and arguing and gnashing teeth and being relieved and praising and swearing. it's like life again...

It isn't like us Americans don't have referees in our sports. Criticizing referees is part of our culture.

Plus, there's that whole Tim Donaghy thing. Ref who bet on games, even the ones he officiated, because he knew the culture of referees and how the league preferred them to call games.