I am not a soccer fan but I actually watched some of the World Cup. It was hard not to considering how many promos ESPN had for it. They threw it in your face so much that it made you want to puke. In all honesty, the event didn't do it for me. I never played the sport and I guess I just don't get it. I guess it's because I am an American. The games are very boring. If you score first, you're most likely going to win the game. If a team has a two goal lead, they should just call a mercy rule because the game is basically over. Some of the U.S games had their exciting moments, but once they were eliminated, I lost interest. I couldn't get myself excited enough to watch the Netherlands or Guam.
What I noticed most was how bad the officiating was. They were major league baseball bad. I lost count of the bad calls. When watching the post game shows, the majority of the talk was about the bad officiating. That is not a good thing. We shouldn't even know who the officials are. When the bad officiating becomes bigger than the event, something is wrong. This was soccer's national stage and the officiating ruined it.
I can understand missing a call or two, but to actually screw up a play where a goal is scored is really bad. In the England vs Germany game, England scored a goal and it was ruled no goal. The ball fully crossed the line hitting the net, and the refs completely missed it. There is no excuse for that. The rules are simple, when the ball crosses the line hitting the net, it is a goal. A five year old understands that. A blind referee couldn't screw that one up. Every ref in that game should have lost their job. They shouldn't have been allowed to finish the game. It was that bad.
The officiating in the U.S games was more criminal. They made such obvious bad calls on multiple plays in every game. Do the soccer refs know what offsides is? It seemed like they were clueless. It was so bad that it looked like the games were fixed. I do not know a lot about soccer, but I know that the U.S was screwed over.
The officials are human beings and I do not expect them to be perfect. We see bad officiating all the time in every sport. It is amazing how officiating in all sports seems to be at an all time low. There mistakes are more noticeable because we live in a time of replay and high definition television. New technology has totally changed how we look at officials. We also have the technology to solve most of these mistakes. Most sports have implemented replay systems to correct official mistakes. World Cup Soccer should consider doing the same. For UEFA president Michel Platini to say video replay is not needed is comical. I am not saying they should have replay for everything, but it needs to be installed to some extent. Replay on whether it is a goal or not a goal is a must. Replay for offsides is also necessary because it seems like that call is screwed up all the time. Maybe Michel Platini missed the World Cup because there is no possible way someone who watched the event could argue against replay.
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