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I am figuring Argentina is the team to beat at the moment...they stomped the Mexican team.

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haha

<a href="http://i.imgur.com/Yd4xq.png" target="_blank">http://i.imgur.com/Yd4xq.png</a>

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Hilarious

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haha

<a href="http://i.imgur.com/Yd4xq.png" target="_blank">http://i.imgur.com/Yd4xq.png</a>

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LOL

Think England could have made a match of it if that second goal had been awarded? I still thought Germany was far better than the English and kept ripping the defence apart....

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I saw the "no-goal" replay and even if they had given it to them, England still would have lost by 2.

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Quote: FIFA’s position on technology in football by Sepp Blatter Thursday 11th March 2010 At the 124th Annual General meeting of the International Football Association Board (IFAB) in Zurich on 6 March 2010, which, as is the case with every FIFA World Cup™ year, was chaired by myself on behalf of FIFA, the IFAB decided not to implement technology in football. FIFA supports this decision, based on the following points: The universality of the game: one of the main objectives of FIFA is to protect the universality of the game of association football. This means that the game must be played in the same way no matter where you are in the world. If you are coaching a group of teenagers in any small town around the world, they will be playing with the same rules as the professional players they see on TV. The simplicity and universality of the game of association football is one of the reasons for its success. Men, women, children, amateurs and professionals all play the same game all over the world. The human aspect: no matter which technology is applied, at the end of the day a decision will have to be taken by a human being. This being the case, why remove the responsibility from the referee to give it to someone else? It is often the case that, even after a slow-motion replay, ten different experts will have ten different opinions on what the decision should have been. Fans love to debate any given incident in a game. It is part of the human nature of our sport. FIFA’s goal is to improve the quality of refereeing, making referees more professional and better prepared, and to assist referees as much as possible. This is also the reason why refereeing experiments (such as with additional referees or the role of the fourth official) will continue to be analysed, to see how referees can be supported. The financial aspect: the application of modern technologies can be very costly, and therefore not applicable on a global level. Many matches, even at the highest level, are not even televised. For example, we have close to 900 preliminary matches for the FIFA World Cup™, and the same rules need to be applied in all matches of the same competition. The rules need to be the same for all association football matches worldwide. The experiments conducted by companies on technology in football are also expensive. The decision of the IFAB, after careful consideration and examination of studies conducted in recent years, to give a clear answer on technology in football is also positive in this regard as these companies will now not spend significant amounts of money on projects which in the end will not be implemented. The extended use of technology: the question has already been raised: if the IFAB had approved goal-line technology, what would prevent the approval of technology for other aspects of the game? Every decision in every area of the pitch would soon be questioned. The nature of the game: association football is a dynamic game that cannot be stopped in order to review a decision. 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.

Quote: FIFA to ban big-screen replays June 28, 2010 FIFA has reacted to the controversy in the game between Argentina and Mexico - by censoring match action shown on giant screens inside stadiums. On Sunday, replays of Argentina's disputed first goal against Mexico triggered arguments on the pitch as Mexico's players protested when Carlos Tevez was shown as being clearly offside. FIFA spokesman Nicolas Maingot said replaying the incident was "a clear mistake." He continued: "This will be corrected and we will have a closer look into that. We will work on this and be a bit more, I would say, tight on this for the games to be played." Maingot said FIFA had yet to receive feedback from match officials about the protests, or a fracas behind the dug-outs as the teams left the field at half-time. Jermaine Craig of the South Africa Organising Committee said he had spoken to the broadcasting team about the incident. "The goal was awarded and it happened relatively quickly," he said. "In retrospect, maybe it shouldn't have been shown. It was shown and unfortunately there is nothing we can do about that." http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/803404/ce/uk/?cc=3436&ver=global

Quote: Hiddink challenges FIFA over technology By Graham Dunbar Former Socceroos coach Guus Hiddink challenged FIFA President Sepp Blatter on Monday to introduce video technology for football or immediately resign, as the fallout spread from two refereeing blunders at the World Cup. But FIFA stood firm in its refusal to be drawn on the controversial issue, and didn't send officials with responsibility for referees to its daily briefing in South Africa, despite the furore over Sunday's blatantly wrong decisions that contributed to the elimination of England and Mexico. "Sepp Blatter should announce tomorrow that video replay will be implemented or he needs to resign," said Hiddink, one of the world's most respected coaches. The organisation which represents players around the world also demanded that referees be given the most modern tools to do their job. "We can do it, the football world wants it and yet it is still being thwarted. That is unacceptable," said FIFPro spokesman Tijs Tummers. Blatter has offered no public comment - not even on his much publicised Twitter feed - since attending both teams' games Sunday, where he witnessed the errors of judgment by two referees and their assistants. Television replays immediately showed that England was denied a legitimate goal against Germany when Frank Lampard's shot bounced down from the crossbar and over the goal line. Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda waved away the 38th-minute effort, which would have levelled the game at 2-2. Germany went on to win 4-1. Four hours later, Argentina's first goal in a 3-1 win against Mexico was scored by Carlos Tevez from an offside position but was allowed by Italian referee Roberto Rosetti. Mexico players protested to the match officials after seeing replays accidentally replayed on a giant screen inside the stadium seconds later. Blatter has repeatedly rejected video technology, arguing it would slow the game down and remove the romance and tradition of the game. As a result, match officials are denied access to images seen within seconds by hundreds of millions of television viewers, and most stadium spectators via replays broadcast on giant screens. Technically, the referee in the Mexico-Argentina match would not have been allowed to base his decision on even a glimpse of the footage on the giant screen. "Let it be as it is and let's leave football with errors," Blatter said in 2008 when experiments with goal-line technology and video replay were halted by FIFA's rules panel, the International Football Association Board. However, FIFA found a defender in Brazil coach Dunga, on the grounds that all publicity is good for the game. "I would leave it the way it is," Dunga told reporters. "If there is no controversy in football, you wouldn't be there and I wouldn't be here." The debate is undoubtedly unwelcome to FIFA which hoped it had dealt with the technology issue in March, when IFAB declined to restart technology experiments. FIFA had no desire to revive the discussion Monday, midway through its showpiece event. Under hostile questioning at a briefing which attracted double the usual number of reporters, spokesman Nicolas Maingot said he was not in a position to discuss decisions by referees or the rules panel. "We obviously will not open any debate," Maingot said. "This is obviously not the place for this." FIFPro's Tummers said Rosetti had no choice but to wrongly allow the Argentina goal because he could not be seen to rely on video replays. "You could see the doubt in his eyes. Technology does not undermine the authority of referees, it only helps them," Tummers said. That view was shared by the inventor of Hawkeye, a system used in tennis to judge line calls but spurned by FIFA in 2008. "Referees want goal-line technology. It would be there to help them, not to replace them," Paul Hawkins told the British agency PA on Monday. Hawkins believes his system, which uses a number of cameras positioned around the stadium to calculate the ball's position, could have transmitted a message to Larrionda, the Germany-England referee, within a half-second. http://wwos.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=1077773

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In the long run this might be a good thing; the next time a referee needs to make an important decision, he has two options: one, ignore replay, make a wrong decision and be sent home, or two, use replay make the right decision and be sent home. I think in this case a referee will take choice two, at least they won't receive death threats.

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