Good football, bad officiating

I don't think there's any debate that Germany were better than England or that Argentina were a class above Mexico. However, the real talking point in both matches is not the skill of strikers or anything else related to actual football performance. In the first game, Lampard scored a goal which should have put the score to 2-2. It was clear that it was a goal, to everyone except the referee and his assistant. The second game's opening goal was scored by Carlos Tevez, who was clearly in an offside position.

It is time to have technology in football. Tennis uses it, rugby uses it. It wouldn't slow the game down any more than the protests that we saw from Mexico.

I don't advocate using it to check every single tackle/dive/foul or every offside even, but if a goal is scored or may have been scored, the technology is there to check it. There is no merit to any of FIFA's arguments against it. Football overall is what suffers when horrendous calls such as those today are made. In years gone by human error may have been a valid reason for bad decisions, but now the technology exists and can be accessed easily there is no reason not to have goal line technology at the very least, and at least entertain the possibility of video replays in certain situations.

Finger on the big red button...

Portugal are currently 4-0 up against North Korea (Korea DPR).

Not that KDPR were expected to win or anything, but 4-0 is pretty much a hammering. And while other teams have been trounced and there have been shock defeats and poor performances, this one might be slightly more dangers, seeing as the guy in charge of North Korea is mad.

(Now 5-0).

Yeah. Mad. Not in a good way. Not in a fun, bit of craic kind of way. No. A lose his temper, might be willing to blow up the world, kind of way. They've been developing weapons over there for a while, in secret. No one really knows exactly what's in Kim Jong Il's arsenal.

It sometimes gets called a communist country. And DPR actually stands for Democratic People's Republic of Korea. It isn't socialist and it sure as hell isn't democratic. It is run by a madman who runs the country like it's his own personal cult.

What's the betting that regardless of how many goals the Ivory Coast put past them later in the week, the players are slightly reluctant to get on the plane home when their exit is confirmed?

It finished 7-0. It sounds selfish, but I really hope that if Mr Crazy presses the big red button, his targeting system is good so he doesn't hit Ireland if he's aiming for Portugal...

Vuvuzelas

So the World Cup is on in South Africa at the moment. So far there haven't been an awful lot of goals, so for a neutral like me (neutral because Ireland are not in it, though I am sort of shouting for the Netherlands) it hasn't been great. I've been shouting for both teams in most games so far (except for France vs Uruguay, for reasons the other Irish and those sympathetic to our plight will understand). This has been great fun actually - though it would have been even more fun if a few more of the chances had resulted in goals.

All the commentators seems to be complaining about the vuvuzelas though. They're long trumpets that the South African fans play. Apparently it makes the stadia sound like there are bees buzzing around them.

Come on folks. Football stadia in the WC are going to be noisy anyway. Something about all the criticism just seems off to me. There haven't been many crimes, the stadia are finished and looking great...maybe people are just desperate for something to criticise? Or maybe they're just old white men looking for a chance to be nasty about an African's horn ;)