Controversy Comes in Twos: World Cup Round Two, Day Two

I wasn’t too upset over England losing 4-1 to Germany.

I hoped that’d we’d win, but after inept performances leading up to and during the World Cup, I wasn’t surprised when the country’s second round campaign ended abruptly. We were awful.

But what got me upset was that the game was changed by not one, but two awful linesman and refereeing decisions.

FIRST REFEREEING DECISION: Frank Lampard hammers the ‘equalising goal’ off the underside of the bar to make it 2-2. England supporters in and outside the ground celebrate. Despite the fact we didn’t bloody deserve it, we had equalized, and the Germans were suddenly there for the taking. But it wasn’t a goal. The goal WAS NEVER GIVEN. It was blatant.

The German goalkeeper knew it. The ground knew it. But apparently, the Uruguayan linesman didn’t. Yes, the FIFA-appointed, international linesman didn’t see something that most of the ground did. The ball was over the line.

The rest is a sad and horrible history. England put on the pressure in the second half, but the lions became lambs to the slaughter as the Germans showed 20 million people how to finish.

But sadly, we were all thinking: “What if?”

Then again, the Mexicans can’t have been feeling much better, either.

SECOND REFEREEING DECISION

With the game tightly poised at 0-0 with the chaps in Green proving they could play a bit of football against their arch-rivals Argentina, Lionel Messi’s ball came out to Carlos Tevez, who scored.

The only problem? Everyone could again see it was off-side. In fact, even the linesman could see he had made an incorrect decision after it was flashed on the replay screen. He tried talking to the ref, but the ref could do nothing but motion towards the centre spot.

What would have happened if the goal had never scored? Maybe Mexico would have scored. Or maybe Argentina would have got four.

But why bother with the controversy when the technology is there to have a replay and make sure that fair goals stand and unfair goals don’t?