World Cup 2006

[darkwingaa]

Don't know what he was thinking, but that's one way to be remembered. Not that he needed it.

http://zidaneowned.ytmnd.com/

[Kiss7]

DAMNIT ITALIA!! I like Zidane..although what he did today was really unexpected and disappointing coming from one of the greatest class act professionals to have ever graced the football field. But he just lost it - he could've handled it in a more professional way but I heard from others that Materazzi was hurling racial slurs and disses about his wife and kids.

Who would've guessed ZZ ended such a great career as one of the game's greats and classiest acts on a sour note. Anyways GO Zidane!

[lilazinprincess]

THAT WAS ONE HELL OF A GAME!!! I was so shocked Zidane did that!!! It was kinda sad to see him end his career like that.

[Sunlight_zero36]

Go ITALY

[Kiss7]

Why Zidane snapped is revealed :

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/liv...n_page_id=1770

[yittz]

Overall, I didnt like this world cup.

[strife_au]

was a shit world cup I must say.

[Kiss7]

agreed completely this world cup sucks - too much red cards and crap

[Moinllieon]

agreed completely this world cup sucks - too much red cards and crap

You either have too much dirty play or too many cards. I much rather go with more cards than dirty play. Punish those bastards who cheat I say.

[Long]

You either have too much dirty play or too many cards. I much rather go with more cards than dirty play. Punish those bastards who cheat I say.

Well in my books this World Cup is the worst I have seen since Italy 90 which was plagued by penalty shoot-outs, referee contraversies, and blantant diving.

If FIFA are serious about trying to fix the problem this is what they should do.

1. Introduce "real time" like in basketball. If 90 minutes is to be played then 90 minutes is all there is to be played. Each stadium should have a giant clock and a time keeper. The time keeper will be responsible for blowing for the start of the match, half-time, start of the second half, and full-time et... Time is stopped when the ball goes out of play or when the referee blows his whistle to signal a free-kick. Time only comes on when the ball is kicked or thrown back into play or the free kick is taken. That way it will stop players and keepers from wasting time by delaying the taking of free kicks, corner kicks, and goal kicks. It will also stop time wasting from players rolling on the ground pretending they are injured.

I know at present there is this "added time" rubbish that is supposed to take these matters into account. However this is very subjective and is wrongly applied. For instance I timed the finals using methods described above and there were an additional 10 minutes to be played in the 2nd half of the final but using the existing FIFA method only 3 extra minutes were added - this can be a huge difference. Also there is time wasting in extra time that is not taken into account. Also sometimes referees blow the whilstle at before or even after extra time is played. Real time solves this problem.

The end of the game results from when the time keeper blows the hooter, like basketball. THis eliminates referee's subjective calls. For instance in the Australia v Croatia game, John Aloisi scored a goal that would have made the score 3-2. But this was not awarded - one can only wonder why? Given 4 minutes of extra time was added and when Aloisi scored the clock was showing 93 mins...

2. Use Video Referee to decide the outcome of penalty box incidents. FIFA cannot step away from this. Anytime something happens inside the penalty box for which a referee is uncertain - he should be given express powers to refer the matter upstairs to a video referee. That way you can catch cheating players and punish them on the spot - people will be able to tell from replays whether it is a dive or a genuine penalty. You cannot avoid this given games can be won and lost at the penalty spot. Plus the game stops most often during penalty box incidences.

3. An independent committee should be able to review each game and punish players who dive during the game - ie instances outside of the penalty box - where it is too difficult for a referee to see, stop the match and punish a player. For example the Rivaldo saga at 2002 would be punished by this group. This includes players faking the fact that they have recieved an elbow to the head, ala Henry versus Spain at 2006. This committee should be able to award yellow and red cards retrospectivly after viewing the footage. This will stop players from play acting and diving - when they know thier activities will be captured and reviewed after the match.

My two cents worth. What do you guys think??

[yittz]

Agree.

Sure, one aspect of soccer that people enjoy is that it's flowy, unlike rugby, basketball etc. But this time wasting and incorrect decisions totally counteract that (esp when wrong decisions mean so damn much ie Ita vs Aus).

Soccer is the beautiful game, but it's becoming boring to watch, say compared to basketball and rugby.

[Moinllieon]

What's up with the random serious post after months of tongue-in-cheekness?

[c13:4567]

agreed completely this world cup sucks - too much red cards and crap

too many red cards doesn't always suck, the travesty that was the por-ned match was entertaining in a weird sort of way. i would rather watch that than the rather clean but totally boring match bewteen ukr and swiss.

we all have to accept that diving, time wasting, provoking opponents are engrained in football and are here to stay