By Mark Vincent Lincir
Do you really think the United States will ever catch a break from the referees in this World Cup? After pulling off a heart-stopping victory deep into stoppage time with a Landon Donovan (yes, it’s dramatic, but stop with the crying) game winner, the United States will now face African nation Ghana in Africa.
Good luck!
But see, that’s the problem. The U.S. and its fans shouldn’t have to worry about how hard they’ll be hosed by the referees in the second round. In fact, the U.S. shouldn’t have to worry about anything, you’d think the refs would be tired of hosing the United States by now. Two huge games, two massive goals called back that should have counted.
I’m not a huge Bob Bradley fan, but I will give him credit for being as diplomatic as he’s been about the referees’ poor decisions in the last two U.S. games. But maybe that’s the problem. Maybe the U.S. staff is making it too easy for the refs to hose them. Coach Bob needs to take a new tact and go on the offensive and demand that his team get a fair shake on Saturday and is treated with the same respect as any other nation.
He needs to make the referees on Saturday SCARED to make a bad call against the U.S., because it seems like so far nobody is scared to do such a thing. We never got any answer from the referee (I don’t name them, because they don’t deserve the publicity) in the Slovenia game and on replay the offside call made today on Clint Dempsey was wrong too. These games are too important for refs to keep screwing them up.
Do I think it’s a conspiracy against the United States? NO…I think it’s just horrible refereeing. Something we are treated to way too often. If the play is too close to call, don’t call it, the advantage should always go to the attacker. Even in the Serbia game there was a call late in the game that would have enabled Serbia to advance had the play continued and they scored but it was called offside.
Give the advantage to the attacker on both ends of the field and you won’t have complaints from anybody…least of all the fans. But if you aren’t sure and it’s not clear cut…KEEP YOUR STUPID FLAG DOWN. Nobody is paying great money or ditching work to watch you raise that stupid little flag all day…get over yourself…you’re an assistant AR…just like Dwight from The Office…you’re the Assistant TO the Referee.
Give credit to the U.S. for never giving up and grinding it out against a team in Algeria that look happy to sit back and play for the tie even though that wouldn’t have done them any good. Clint Dempsey was sooo unlucky when he hit the post and is the best player the United States has. Nice reffing for not catching the punch Clint took in the second half either that bloodied his lip! Landon Donovan didn’t do anything for 90 minutes but came up with the huge game winner, so what can I say except that it always seems to work out for that little guy.
Coach Bob needs to have Benny Feilhaber on the field all the time. The game changed when he came on. And Edson Buddle needs to get more time as well…we ALL KNOW he’s gonna score if Coach Bob would just give him minutes.
I don’t know about you…but I’m using the name Jozy with the word overrated quite a bit nowadays. He should have had a goal today and yeah, he set up the winner. But he needs to score goals…that’s what he’s paid to do and he hasn’t done that yet. In fact, the U.S. hasn’t gotten a goal from a striker yet in this World Cup (Dempsey midfielder, Landon midfielder, Bradley midfielder).
ENGLAND pulled the points when it mattered, but with the group going to the United States (I love it mates!)…England faces a very tough foe on Sunday when they’ll take on Germany, who looked very beatable at times today if Ghana could finish any of the golden opportunities that they were given.
SERBIA made a mess of this World Cup just like they did the last one…and many people were picking them as the surprise team of the tournament. Yeah, I was surprised too at how they let it all slip away. But this World Cup has had more than its fair share of surprises and I’m sure that we’re not done yet.
PREDICTIONS – Italy ties Slovakia 1-1…Paraguay pummels New Zealand 2-0 while Japan squeaks by Denmark 1-0 and the Netherlands strolls past Cameroon 3-1.
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