FIFA World Cup 2006

[Mythor]

Ref Merk needs a kick up the bum.

[katrant]

But surely Croatia and Japan drawing last night is a good think, we only really need to draw with Croatia next match to make it now, don't we? Win is obviously better

[Mythor]

Kewell facing up to possible ban.
He blew up at the ref after the final whistle and was reported.

Originally Posted by ABC

Kewell was apparently angry at Merk's handling of the game, in which Brazil received 25 free kicks and Australia received only nine.

Merk needs to be turfed out of the refereeing ranks. This is the second game I've seen him handle atrociously.

Oh well, bring on Croatia!
Australia v Croatia is at 5am, Friday morning.

[katrant]

I agree with you there, Mythor, I don't know much about soccer at all, but it seems you couldn't touch the Brazilians, and yet they could do whatever they bloody liked to the Australians. Merk was appalling. Regardless of what Kewell would have said to him, I reckon what I would have said to him would have been 100 times worse...

[sara]

Hopefully he isn't banned, but whether the umpire/ref is wrong or not surely it's innapproriate to approach him like that. It's not going to improve the calls in your way, if anything it'll make it worse as the ref loses confidence or gets annoyed at your team. That's not to say that they'll deliberately start calling even harder on you, but if that sort of dissent happens the ref will ususally have a bit of a crack down to get everything in line and the first thing that will be called more is what the ref already has shown they're not going to take in the game (*Edit* Sorry I just realised that this was after the game, so my last point I mean more in general).

Plus it's not as if the ref gets off completely after the game. If it's anything like the sport I umpire these refs (particularly at the highest levels) have a panel of other refs who critique their every game. I know the worst thing in the world can be the kick up the butt you get after you have a bad game. Every call you make wrong can be discussed and any biases you've shown will be pointed out with it made clear that it better improve in the next game or you won't be umpiring at that level for too long.

Sure it's frustrating when you get bad calls against you all the time, especially when the game means this much, but I think they should show a bit more respect and discipline.

[Mythor]

The theoretical slap on the wrist for Merk post-game won't get Australia a fair go in the match. If the match had been refereed fairly, the result may have been very different. Post-game punishment - which won't happen - won't miraculously change the game to having been a fair one.
There won't be any punishment for Merk because he's a "Top German Referee", the team he unfairly favoured was Brazil and the team he gave the shaft to was Australia. If FIFA weren't a bunch of corrupt and biased assholes then maybe something would be done. I really doubt it, though.

And as for Kewell, he waited until the match was finished - a minute before it was supposed to, to add insult to injury - before confronting the referee. That showed quite a bit of discipline, since prior to that Australia at least had some small chance of winning with him on the field, despite the referee. Other players have remonstrated with the referee during a match and received yellow cards as a result.

Referees are meant to be fair and unbiased and Merk was neither. Why should he be shown any respect?

[hails]

kewell's been cleared - apparently, the only person allowed to speak to the ref about their decisions is the captain, and mark viduka was not allowed to do this during the game, so the ref was the one at fault. also apparently, the touch judge or whatever they're called in soccer actually supported kewell instead of the ref all this according to the soccer show at 7pm on sbs.

[Mythor]

WOOHOO!

Soccernet has some more about it.

It also says that a draw against Croatia will be enough, so long as Japan don't beat Brazil by 3 goals. Which does seem unlikely.

[Playm8]

Pretend World Cup trip

JUST how World Cup obsessed are your friends and workmates? What would it be worth to prove to them that, yes, you were there when your national team scored that crucial goal?

Feedback has just received an email from www.fakealibi.com plugging an offer to provide fake documentation of a World Cup trip. For just £99.99 you get ticket stubs, flight and coach details, a "virtual phone number" to field calls and a beer-stained shirt.

Naive as we are, our first thought on receiving this was that fakealibi.com had reversed the normal flow of alibi. That, we assumed, would be to prove to your boss, who has unaccountably failed to understand the life-or-death nature of this sporting fixture, that you were, in fact, dutifully attending an ISO 9000 Quality Assurance Review Day in Swindon, UK - not painting your face in Dortmund, Germany.

But then we lifted our eyes from the bare text and noticed the slightly disturbing signature graphic on the site. It depicts a blonde person, oscillating sinusoidally on what appears to be a hotel bed. That, the site seems to imply, could be the reason why a person might want to pretend they were at the World Cup.

[Playm8]

Dammit, where’s Mark Schwarzer?


and OT – I can’t believe I’m up this early and it doesn’t involve a new Harry Potter book.

[Mythor]

YAY! Yay! Yay!

HOLY CRAP WE'RE IN THE NEXT ROUND!
I'm still shocked.

Highlight of the match was definitely Simunic managing to get 3 yellow cards. HAHAHAHA! I'm still baffled as to how no one got him off the park after his red!
Now that we're in the clear, it's hilarious. At the time, it was very scary.

YAY!

[Playm8]

Originally Posted by Mythor

Highlight of the match was definitely Simunic managing to get 3 yellow cards. HAHAHAHA! I'm still baffled as to how no one got him off the park after his red!

And... When exactly did the game end? I thought we'd (I'm a socceroo!) scored another goal, but then we weren't playing anymore...?

[Laney]

Originally Posted by Playm8

Dammit, where’s Mark Schwarzer?

Yeah the guy they had instead was sooooo crap! He just let a ball roll into the goal and that could have cost the game. For the whole time, i was just thinking, fuck don't kick it at the goalie cause he wont' be able to catch or block it.

that was awesome, but basically that game was wayyyyyy tooooo close

[Mythor]

Yes there seems to be some confusion over the end of the game. Simunic got penalised again in the penalty box, don't know what for, but it probably should have been a penalty kick?
It's a moot point since the draw is enough to get us through, but the game wasn't supposed to have ended I didn't think.
Waiting to see what happens to the ref in the after match assessment stuff. He was doing okay for the first 60 minutes or so, then it all went to hell in a handbasket.

[Laney]

Originally Posted by Mythor

Waiting to see what happens to the ref in the after match assessment stuff. He was doing okay for the first 60 minutes or so, then it all went to hell in a handbasket.

Oh, does the ref do a recap of the match? What happens to the ref when he find out that he let so many things slip by. I wonder why they don't have an earpiece with another ref watching the replay. It was unfair when the ref seemed to be against Australia most of the time, but it was okay when Australia fucked up and the ref missed it - it kinda seemed fair then

(right, i'm going to get more than my 1 hour sleep for tonight