12/21/24
June 24, 2002
Business as usual.: It seems that football's "great powers" always seem to blame anyone but themselves for losing (France being the solitary, laudable exception). As BBC's Andy Gray points out everyone needs a bit of luck to win the World Cup, but at least the Koreans have played honestly, and with integrity, unlike some other teams.
Korea has made it this far thanks to shitty ass refereeing...
posted by StarFucker at 11:19 AM on June 24, 2002
Look, SF, that's just complete bollocks. They've made it this far because they've never given up and they've played good football. To quote CNNSI.com's Grant Wahl: "... the style of the South Korean team. Not only are they relentless, but they're also skilled and tough, and they know how to come back. (Ask the U.S. and Italy.) Have they gotten some breaks from the referees? Maybe, but guess what that's called? Home-field advantage, folks. The Koreans deserve to be in the semis, and all the whining Europeans should sit down and shut up. "(Does anyone think Duke doesn't deserve to win so much just because the Blue Devils get a lot of calls? No. I rest my case.) " Oh, and why do people pound on Korea for being lucky while Brazil, who benefited from the most outrageous call of this tournament, Marc Wilmots' disallowed header, are called "mighty", "imperious" and "glorious"? That pisses me off. It's just such incredible stupidity that "big teams" are lauded when they are lucky, but "upstarts" get accused of paying off referees. That just makes want to pound someone. And even if they thrash Germany 8-0 and then win Brazil with a scoreline more reminiscent of an American football game than a world cup final, I know that there will still be self-described "purists" and "pundits" (not to be confused with people who actually are purists and pundits) who'll say that they didn't deserve it and some other team should have won. That just makes me mad. On a more happy note. I've yet to see anyone make a bad joke of Hiddink's "we'll come at them like young dogs" statement. If it had been made earlier in the competition I'm sure I'd have seen a rash of "a dangerous thing to do in a land where dogs get eaten for lunch" type comments. That shows that the respect for them is growing.
posted by Kattullus at 12:28 PM on June 24, 2002
Funny, I always thought "home field advantage" meant being more comfortable with the field, being used to the climate, and having a larger fan base supporting you in the vicinity. Not breaks from referees. And no, I'm not crying "Conspiracy! Payoffs! Bribes!" (Vieri I could happily strangle...) Crappy officiating has been seen all around in this Cup (yadda yadda yadda see above). I for one won't be biting my fingernails over officiating blunders for the semis and finales. But that's just because I already bit them all off.
posted by romakimmy at 12:51 PM on June 24, 2002
Ack. That should have been "...having a local (and hence larger) fan base..." Sorry. Today is one of my "having a brainfart in English" days.
posted by romakimmy at 12:57 PM on June 24, 2002
While I'm no fan of the Brazilians, especially after their constant cheating during this tournament, it's one thing to have one goal unfairly disallowed against you and another to have five. I've never seen officiating like it at the World Cup before and I've been watching them since 1978. They should use the best refs; the ones used to the pressure of big games and with experience of this level of competition. I predict Colina will ref the final so no problems there. Cue huge controversy over the final. ;-)
posted by squealy at 01:27 PM on June 24, 2002
Eh. I guess every new upstart has to run the gauntlet of Doubters. Even if they win magnificently, some people will still claim it was a fluke. Hell, some people are still dissin' the Lakers. Yeah, whatev.
posted by ShinyKnows at 01:58 PM on June 24, 2002
Korea has had the advantage of being together as a team for 6 months and being coached for all that time by an acknowledged master of the art. They are also supremely fit. I read yesterday that when Hiddink took over it took them 3 minutes to recover from a particular exercise, now it takes 30 seconds. It's no accident that teams get better as tournaments progress, its a consequence of spending time together, Korea have started with a massive advantage in that respect. Plus the officials have been blatant homers. Collina may ref the final, but who are his linesmen going to be? Did somebody mention dogs ?
posted by Fat Buddha at 02:17 PM on June 24, 2002
What would've been really cool was a full profile of a ref, including disciplinary actions, controversial match calls, etc. Not the stupid hee-hee "what hair color do you like" profile they have on the World Cup site. Next World Cup, I'm frickin' building a non-BS, fan-oriented shadow site that will do this. Or not.
posted by worldcup2002 at 03:42 PM on June 24, 2002
The president, Sepp Blatter, has already pledged to reverse Fifa's present, democratic, policy of selecting referees from around the world in an effort to quell the suspicion surrounding the performance of officials from the more obscure footballing nations. "We can't experiment any more in the World Cup," Blatter said. "We will use the best referees even if they come from just a few countries." Um, democratic policy of selecting referees?! What, like a high schoolish popularity contest voted upon by peers (ie other refs)?! Damn skippy the best referees should be used. Correct me if I'm wrong, but the idea of a Cup competition, (any Cup competition) is supposed to be the cream of the crop culled from the other contenders, vying for the chance to win the final. Why, then, would you use inferior officiating for the cream of the crop?! Not only does it leave the organization wide open to cries of "Conspiracy!" and "Robbery!" and piss off ardent fans, but it is also an insult to the winning teams as their victory(ies) are besmirched by these claims, whether false or true. 'Scuse the locker room language, but Fuck Democracy in this instance. I would much rather see a handfull of competent refs than a footie flavoured PC version of "It's a Small World After All" Signed, Another Pissed Off Azzurri Fan ;-)