Damn Them!
In today’s installment, we must give begrudging respect to the Germans while also questioning the men in charge…
Three Days, Four Red Cards
It would seem like discipline is the word of the tournament, with several low-scoring games yet plenty of referees dishing out the cards. Four guys have been dismissed thus far, but what’s interesting is that three of them were for 2nd yellows, something that isn’t too common in the modern game.
Making it stranger is the fact that two of the dismissals were substitutes on the pitch for less than twenty minutes yet accumulating two cautions at lightning speed (Uruguay’s Nicolas Lodeiro was cautioned less than 2 minutes after coming on and getting his second 16 mins later, while Algeria’s Abdelkader Ghezzal was booked in less than 60 seconds, leaving the pitch for a ridiculous handball 14 mins later).
To be fair, the refereeing has been strong to date, save for the weird 5 minute period in the Germany/Australia game where Tim Cahill received a straight red card for a zesty challenge and Carl Valeri was then booked for not much in particular. That said, something to watch in the coming days. Will the first round of FIFA evaluations lead to revised mandates for their referees, or will the trends of yellow card/red card continue?
The Jabulani Ball is Awful
Turns out that the players were right! This ball is terrible and less consistent than Howard Webb. Slovenia picked up a crucial win over Algeria late on by whacking a fairly innocuous low shot on goal that keeper Faouzi Chaouchi completely mishandled.
I’m thinking all coaches will begin advising their players to shoot often from distance just to see what the ball does next, such is the nature of two vital goals in Group C thus far (Dempsey’s speculative effort that Robert Green totally botched, and then Koren-on-Chaouchi this morning).
This ball has plenty of goals in it, regardless of what the players do.
Germany Destroyed All Our Pre-Tournament Concerns
Young squad, injuries to Ballack and Adler, inconsistent strikers (Podolski, Klose) coming off poor domestic seasons… and yet they romp to an impressive, comfortable 4-0 win over the hapless Aussies. This is what the Germans are, much to our chagrin, so damn good at: taking expectations and adversity and still translating them into stylish success. I guess Lineker’s quote about soccer being a game of 90 minutes and at the end, Germany wins is kinda true.
For me at least, I’m waiting to see how the Serbs bounce back from a disappointing, disjointed opener against Ghana — the vogue dark horse pick falls! Stop the presses — to halt the German juggernaut.
Can someone quickly go through the rules about yellow card accumulation, how many you need to miss a game, etc? I’m stupid.
(Not that 2 in a game = red, but accumulating between games, etc.)
I dissent from 2/3rds of this post:
(1) The cards have been deserved and well-awarded as far as I’m concerned, including the straight red and the yellow referred to in the post as part of the “weird 5 minute period.”
(2) There’s no way you can attribute two massive GK blunders on the ball. Both were unremarkable shots, and there’s no evidence that the ball did anything that balls shouldn’t or don’t normally do. The problem in both cases was lulzy GKing. In fact, I haven’t seen anything unusual from the ball at all. The only aspect that is, to me, possibly attributable to the ball is the overhitting we’ve seen by several teams (although not all teams seemed plagued by it). Given that they’ve had a month with the damned thing, I’m not even prepared to blame the overhits on the ball.
Things I learned:
(A) Ghana is a more physically aggressive team than I had thought.
(B) Serbia’s offense = pants.
(C) Algeria and Slovenia both suck.
(D) Deutschland, Deutschland über alles, über alles in der Welt! Or at least Australia.
Pretty sure its two yellows you miss the next game, but if you only had one in the group stage it resets for the knockout rounds.
From Simon Burnton’s MBM of the Algeria-Slovenia match:
That sums it up nicely.
Nah, Anon… Even if you despise Tim Cahill (which probably even his mother does) you’d be nuts to think that was a legit straight red. Did think both of the cards for diving to the Germans were warranted and was glad to see them given.
@Anonsters
That’s fine, you can dissent. We’re a loose democracy.
1. Thought the red was harsh. Also thought in general the ref lost control of the game a bit in the middle third, but that’s just me.
2. Weird to see so many GKing errors in such a short space of time. The ball is genuinely troubling GKs beyond the obvious shots taken. Flies off the foot, takes weird bounces off the turf, and generally behaves in an unpredictable fashion. Just my take.
I join Anonsters in his dissent on point 2, and issue my own dissent on point 3. It’s one match, against a crap team playing with no real strikers. I’m not quite ready to crown them uber alles just yet.
I also learned that Serbia has been hard at work on the training ground, I really liked what they tried on some of their set pieces.
Joining Pupsters and Ryan in dissent- that was awful keeping by the Algerian. TIMMAY!, the Bafana keeper, and Nigeria’s keeper have all seemed to adjust quite well indeed to whatever foibles the Jaibu provides.
A little more seriously on Germany, I agree that you can’t take this one match against Australia as a sign of what they’ll do against much better sides. Nevertheless, it wasn’t just Australia bumbling around that scored Germany 4 goals. They played some nice, flowing football. They had style. They attacked from everywhere. How un-German.
the sending off of Cahill was a little much; at most, that challenge would have earned him a yellow. apart from that, the referee, Marco Rodríguez, and his linesmen did a good job. unsurprisingly, back in Mexico – where the he’s from – his performance is polarizing the local media.
PS: does anyone here think he looks a bit like Dracula? or at least a guy playing Dracula in a B-movie or haunted house or something? widow’s peak, slicked back hair, menacing face… his nickname in Mexico is actually “Lil’ Dracula”.
What’s interesting on #2 is the howlers have all come on bouncing balls – not direct shots. Again, terrible goalkeeping but the ball seems to be coming off the turf in a way they’re not used to.
Sure, get your body behind the ball, but if it seems routine and you react as such and then it isn’t, you’re going to get headlines.
I still haven’t learned how the hell I got back to my hotel last night. If anyone knows, feel free to enlighten me…
Oh – and anyone who watches the EPL regularly won’t say that Cahill deserved a red unless they hate the man individually. Didn’t go studs up and pulled out of the tackle. Clear yellow and an overreaction.
@bergkamp: but who watches the EPL regularly and doesn’t hate Cahill individually?
jjf3 – fair point.
@berg: I don’t even know what that means.
Joe – I came back from the ATM and you were gone. Ced put you in a cab, as I understand it.
Hearing James Richardson trying to do an American accent on today’s World Cup Daily podcast = gold.
Thanks, Georger. I just remember doing shots (curse you, EF), and then waking up in the hotel this morning.
That would also explain the cash I was short this morning. Makes sense…
I also dissent. I like Tim Cahill.
@Marcamps: Absolutely The first thing I said to my friend who I watched the game with was that the ref looked like a Mexican Dracula.
I guess South African stewards learned today that the riot police are not to be messed with.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jun/14/durban-world-cup-stadium-protest
And apparently, they’re talking about banning vuvuzelas. Now. Three days in.
I can’t stand those things, but I think that would be bulls**t, to change things after the tournament starts.
http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/5282269/ce/us/organizers-consider-silencing-vuvuzelas?cc=5901&ver=us
I learned that watching soccer at a soccer pub is pretty great. Brit’s Pub in Minneapolis is probably the best place ever.
Teek, you should walk down the block to The Local. No lawn bowling, but far superior to Brit’s.
@WSR I’ll have to do that, but sitting on the lawn bowling pitch and watching the match on the big screen is really cool.
@teeknuts: Next thing we hear, you’ll be playing pétanque and eating snails.
/because lawn bowling is for aristocrats, and everything French is aristocratic
I’d be quite happy to have Tim Cahill on any of the teams I follow worldwide. I can understand the hate, though. He’s one of those types.
I learned I can follow a UF liveblog via my ‘Berry whilst reading Hirshey/Bennett’s companion guide to WC on a bus.
@EF: That is so bizarre to me, that buses have wifi. Awesome, but bizarre. I <3 modernity.
Tired of hearing all the whining about the Jabulani. Stop making excuses and just stop the football. Jiminy Crickets!
It’s not the ball. It’s definitely NOT the ball, ask Tim Howard or any other competent keeper – the Brit GKs were known to be inferior long before the Jabu ball.
It may be the fake grass:
http://g.sports.yahoo.com/soccer/world-cup/news/artificial-turf-not-natural-for-some–fbintl_ap-wcup-notebook.html
See, when you talk about the ‘wacky bounces’ off the turf and blame the ball, you’re ignoring 50% of the problem at a minimum.