The Jack of All Sports on 105.7 The FAN Baltimore

Unfortunately for soccer fans, poor officiating has negatively affected too many games at the 2010 World Cup. I am a soccer fanatic and have seen many big soccer tournaments become tainted by poor referee decisions. However, this tournament has gone from bad to worse, and is simply the worst officiated tournament of all time.

The two disallowed goals the United States scored against Slovenia and Algeria were total refereeing disasters. FIFA was saved from a major controversy when Landon Donovan scored an injury time goal against Algeria to send the U.S. through to the knockout stage.

There was the terrible red card awarded to Germany’s Miroslav Klose against Serbia, as well as a number of goals that have counted even though the goal scorer was clearly offside.

Look at yesterdays trainwrecks: England fell behind early 2-0 to Germany, than proceeded to score two goals to tie the game before the half. However, a clear goal on a ball which crossed the line by four feet, was disallowed leaving the English down 2-1 at the break. England was forced to chase the game in the second half, and by pushing up the field, spaces were created in the back of the English defense. The German counterattack was lethal and they capitalized on these open spaces.

Casual fans think that Germany blew out the English, but if the game is 2-2 at the half, there would have been a completely different dynamic. Instead of the English coming out of the half full of confidence and focused on not conceding another goal, they were deflated and forced to seek a goal. The disallowed goal affected the English tactics and changed the shape of the game.

Right after this game, Mexico got robbed against Argentina in their Round of 16 match-up. The first goal of any game is so critical, and the Argentine’s broke through on a play where Carlos Tevez was easily five yards offside. Once again the officials changed the shape of the game. Instead of being able to focus on playing disciplined defense against a potent Argentine side, Mexico was forced chase the game and find a goal. A mental lapse and too much space resulting from open play led to a 3-1 Argentina victory.

Please don’t bother telling me that the better team won both games. The better team doesn’t always win in soccer or any sport. On this stage, teams should lose fair and square. Period.

Let’s bring this back to how poor officiating affected the United States. Blown calls forced the U.S. to expend too much energy as they desperately searched for a late goal against Algeria. This emotional roller coaster left the Yanks out of gas in extra time against Ghana.

I never thought the U.S. would give up that Hail Mary second goal to Ghana. The Ghanaians hadn’t created a chance in more than sixty minutes, and the U.S. were buzzing the entire second half. Furthermore, if the game would have gone to a penalty shoot-out, the U.S. had better penalty takers and a better goalkeeper.

Even though the U.S. gave the nation a thrilling ride in South Africa and attracted many new fans to soccer, the team met only minimum expectations for the tournament. Most experts predicted the U.S. to finish second in group C, and to lose to Germany in the Round of 16. Instead the U.S. won the group, but lost to Ghana in the knockout stage. I knew we were in trouble when Ghana was the last African team standing after the group stage.

I am disappointed that the U.S., similar to my Maryland Terrapins in March, were unable to take advantage of a very favorable bracket (remember that N. Iowa upset Kansas to open up the Terps road to Indy) . There will never be another World Cup in our lifetime where the United States will have such a manageable road to the semifinals.

In the end, the injuries to Oguchi Onyewu and Charlie Davies came back to hurt the United States. Onyewu would have dealt with the long ball which led to the second Ghana goal, and Davies would have given Altidore a better target partnet up front. I predicted that the unheralded and in-form U.S. strikers would step up, but I was completely wrong. The U.S. didn’t get a single goal from any of their forward players.

It’s a shame the U.S. wasted a tournament with Donovan and Dempsey playing so well. Clint Dempsey played the most creative and influential 90 minutes I have ever seen him produce versus Ghana. Unfortunately, like the rest of the U.S. team, Dempsey ran out of steam in the extra session. Donovan raised his profile once again, and will reap the financial benefits with marketing deals and a move out of the MLS to a major European club.

The U.S. just couldn’t stop conceding goals in the early stages of games/extra time, and this theme ultimately led to their demise. The U.S. will play their next game in an international friendly against Brazil on August 10. My analysis on the state of U.S. men’s soccer will be forthcoming in the next week or so.

By the way Tim, great call on picking Higuain to win the golden boot. I think you will end up looking prophetic.

Woodman – emotionally devastated once again