World Cup Analysis: Two poor refereeing decisions cost two countries?

The game I follow the most is Rugby League, when a match is televised the referee has the option to go to the 'video ref' - this doesn't hamper the game but just makes life (generally) a lot fairer. I think that it is inevitable that technology will be introduced into in football some point. I just don't understand why football seems so reluctant to let the help of technology be introduced into the modern game. Everyone wants to see fairer and more accurate games. None of the entertainment or excitement value will be lost by allowing it, it happens in so many other sports now!

The reactions to both of these mishaps will probably be underwhelming in the long run. Since both Germany and Argentina won by such large margins, most will say it doesn't matter anyway, it was just a mistake, and it's part of the human element of sports. Unfortunately, both calls were terrible (though the call on England was much worse, I mean, it went over the line, and very clearly at that). In light of that, some replay system must be enforced. Replays for offsides, like in the Tevez incident, will probably never happen, given that the number of offsides in a game can be plentiful. Sure, on TV, the replay can be brought up within seconds, but in the game, the referee would either have to stop play to go check himself or stop play for a fifth referee checking replays to confirm the call. Either way, soccer does not need any more stoppages than it already has. A solution may be to add two more refs so that each covers half the field instead. As for goal line technology, I feel that's a must. It's simple, and for a goal, it would be easy to check for. Besides, there are not many goals scored in a typical game, and most of the goals are extremely obvious ones. With that said, in a situation like the one yesterday, the technology is necessary, and could solve something quickly, in the rare situation that it occurs.

I think both England and Mexico got hosed on these calls but they both would have lost anyway, Germany was the better team and Argentina is a machine!I think if England had ties the game , they Still would have lost by 2. and if that one goal was disallowed for Argentina they would have said Damn! and then went out and scored another that would count, In fact The Argentines would have played even better. Beig pi$$ed off can make a real team play even better. With all this said I think there Has to be instant replay.FiFA think s it is a King and can rule over everything Wrong. All that is needed is for one prominent team to say We aren't coming because the officials will steal a game away and FIFA Will Have to change.

Hi ram, I think it was a very shame mistake done by referees and his assistants in both games. Lampard shot was too far inside the goal post and Tevez was too far from the last defense and the whole world saw it except for the official in-charged. FIFA has introduce an extra official posted at the back of the goal post before to determine whether the ball past the goal line or not and I do not know why they did not use it in their most prestigious competition where every detail is very important. The result for the games is hard to determine but at least England would not has much pressure to find an equalizer at the second half and left their defense with only a player while they were taking corners or free kick. They usually left at least 2 players (full backs) when they took those kick. But that is why football is very interesting and always talked about. The controversies. And that's why it is become the most popular sport in the world. Using a technology would decrease its attraction and it would someday become just like tennis where every decision can be argued. Yesterday was the day for England and Mexico suffer from the officials action and I believe it was not the last controversy.

Hi ram_cv, I watched the game between Germany and England. It is a sbsolutely wrong refereeing decision. But I have different with you that the result if the correct decision had been made. In my opinion, if the goad was been scored and the result in the that time would be 2 vs 2. And that most of england players may not played on the forward, and Germany may not got the good anti-offside opportunities to kick the last two goals. Then thing may have some changes.

Lets be honest, do you think if that goal from Lampard had stand, the result would be any different? England is simply atrocious, not only for the match but in the entire tournament. They are truly and clearly spanked by the Germans. The only positive, England players are brought down to earth and it is drilled into them that they are not as good as they think they are or what the media make them out to be, World Beater. As for the other decision, I would think it would make a difference. Mexico was doing really well until then. Thought they lost their focus after such injustice.

It's a disgrace that there are more contraversal decisions made now than there were 50 years ago. Technology has improved and I don't understand why we are not using it. When a mistake like that happens quite early on in a game there's no doubt it's going to affect the player's preformance for the rest of it. The World Cup is the biggest stage in football. Out of the millions of people watching only 2 didn't spot those mistakes, and unfortunately it's what they see that matters and I think that's a ridiculous rule. Especially when we have cameras showing CLEARLY what happened. That's not even the point, both of these mistakes were OBVIOUS from all angles, if players sitting on the England bench could have seen Lampard's goal cross the line then what's the ref's excuse! Same with the Argentina game, everyone in the stadium saw Tevez was more than a tad offside so what's the referee's excuse? Things like this can change a game dramatically and when two stupid mistakes happen within hours of eachother which result in two teams being sent home then you really have to question why FIFA have such a one sided view against technology. It's time to use it.

I think these incidents (and don't forget the disallowed goal in the US-Slovenia match as well) have exposed the need for technology. Refs are only human and nowadays people watching at home have a better view of things than they do in some cases. It's only right to let the officials review difficult decisions using the wonders of modern technology. It puts the whole game into disrepute when incidents like this occur. You might say, "Well, at the end of the day it didn't affect the result" but who knows what would have happened if England had tied 2-2. That might've changed the whole momentum of the match. These bad calls definitely have an impact.

You are right it is really a shame, and not only that in the group stage we had some poor decisions too, the Luis Fabiano goal when he touch the ball with his arm 2 times, the USA goal against Algeria are some examples. Soonner or later Fifa will ned to finda a way to solve that problem using technology, because that kind of thing is really bad for the sport.

England's Defence was in Disarray and even Awarding the Goal for the Lampard Shot would not have spruced them up . England could not match the agility and speed of Germany's trio of Klose,Podolski and Mueller . I am on the whole against technology intruding into the Refree's job . I Agree , there was a poor judgment on the part of Refrees yesterday , but mind you , They are also humans like us and are prone to mistakes . They have done their part exceedingly well over the years and i don't see any need to introduce technology to replace them albeit a few mistakes. Football is a Human Game and Mistakes are prone to happen (Players and Officials Included) and that's what keeps the game interesting . Technology is meant only to assist and supplement your tactics and game and not intio interfere into some others job. Please note that technological decisions that were tested in cricket were not wholeheartedly accepted and that's why it is still in it's testing stage. But Iam not against it totally , May be Refree could be given a handheld device and demand for a video feed (Which is easily available nowadays) and could check upon it if he is unsure. But the decision should still be in refree's hand. Once it goes out of it , then there will be no respect for a refree in the field and everyone would start asking for it. Already there are umpteen acts done in the field and we don't want anything more.

We could not perfectly guarantee that referees make right calls all the time because it is difficult to closely monitor such a physical game, especially a big tournament like this. It may help if FIFA comes up with new measures to ensure that referees make good judgments and monitor the game accurately. Referees should also be allowed to change their previous decisions after watching replays of the action, which could help them know what really happened. Bad refereeing could gravely hurt a team's campaign in such a competition so the authorities will really have to do something to ensure fairness in every game.

ref is either blinded or being bribed. I guess FIFA was involved in this or they manipulate all of this stuff