Argentina beat Mexico 3-1 last night to seal qualification to the quarterfinals, but the scoreline could have been so very different had it not been for a massive mistake by the referee's assistant. In a match that replicated the last 16 match in 2006, El Tri were hoping to take revenge on their South American neighbours and book themselves a place against Germany in the next stage of the tournament. And, it certainly looked possible, particularly in the opening stages as Mexico saw a great deal of the ball and had some clearcut chances to get themselves on the scoresheet. Concerns have been raised about the Argentinian defence as being the only chink in their otherwise formidable armour, and this certainly looked to be the case, as Mexico played their short, sharp passes in between the last line. There was really good movement by the Mexicans who were unlucky not to score first, when Carlos Salcido's shot crashed against the post and Guardado shot narrowly wide. It was a great start for the Mexicans but soon the tide turned against them with the aid of the referee's assistant.
Before Argentina's first "goal", they hadn't really looked to threaten in the opening stages of the game but Messi had done well to find some space and send the pass through for Tevez, who missed his first chance at goal which was smothered by Oscar Perez, but then was on hand to head home the rebound from a great pass by Messi. However, there was just one problem. Tevez was clearly offside when the ball was being played to him. The mistake was clear to see by everyone in the stadium, as it was replayed out on the big screen. That, in itself, was a mistake, as controversial decisions are not supposed to be shown like that, because of what happened next. As the referee, Roberto Rossetti went over to discuss with the linesman, Stefano Ayroldi a whole gaggle of Mexican players surrounded them and protested vehemently at the decision. Ayroldi knew that he had made the wrong call, but FIFA rules prevented them from ruling the goal out as he had not raised his flag.
At half-time, things got worse as a huge melee of players, managers, staff and referees were involved in altercations, no doubt, about the unfairness of the decision. 2 hugely controversial decision in 2 matches on the same day. And they could have made a massive difference to the outcome of the result. In the England game, the relatively inexperienced Germany side could have failed to get over the shock of leading 2-0, and then getting pegged back which might have affected their game somewhat. And, in this game Mexico who had started off the better of the two, could have at least been real contenders right to the very end. Instead, much like England, Mexico failed to recover from that goal, and as they went forward to score, they were left open at the back, making stupid defensive errors (exactly like England) and allowing Argentina to score and ultimately win the game and book their place against Germany.
Argentina's second came shortly after the first, when Osorio lazily tried to pass it to his fellow centre-back partner, but the ball was pounced upon by Higuain who worked it round the keeper and coolly slotted in to get his fourth of the tournament. Tevez scored a magnificent third goal not too long after the restart, doing well to control the ball, evade two defenders and create enough space to shoot from 25-yards out. It was a wonderful goal and some real, piece of Argentinian style. SAF's new recruit, Javier Hernandez got his second goal of the tournament, and what turned out to be nothing more than a consolation after he squeezed past Otamendi and Demichelis to finish off beautifully. There is still some weakness in that Argentinian backline - particularly Demichelis who appears to be a weak link. Messi, who is still yet to score in this tournament, produced a bit of magic very late on as he went on one of those marauding runs of his only to see his shot saved by Perez. For the Albiceleste though, a 2 goal cushion was enough to see them safely through to the next round, with Mexico, again failing to make the quarters.
Absolutely shocking decisions on a day of real, real controversy. Before the "Hand of Gaul" incident I must admit that I wasn't too sure about video technology. Only because once you start using it, people might demand for every single decision to be looked at rendering the referee pretty much useless. But since then, my mind's been changed. The handball incident did not affect one team but one nation. It prevented one whole nation from reaching the World Cup finals and basically allowed the other to cheat their way into it. And after the England/Mexico refereeing blunders, I cannot, for the life of me understand how, in a world where modern technology is so central to almost every aspect of our everyday lives, football is still living in the dark ages. I understand that there are people out there who do not want the controversial aspect of the game to change, because, they argue, that there wouldn't be any more talking points but this is the World Cup for goodness sake. Mistakes are being committed here at the highest level and that is just not acceptable, nor is it fair.
Sepp Blatter has stated that the reasons for not using video technology are that it is too expensive to implement on a global scale, it will take too long slowing the game down in the process, when viewing a replay the decisions are still going to be taken by humans and it takes the fun out of the debates that fans have over controversial decisions. Well, about the cost - quite frankly, that's rubbish. FIFA has enough money to set aside for this, and with the number of people and clubs that want video technology, I'm sure they will all be willing to donate to make this possible. It doesn't take long at all to view it on replay - in the England game, it took all of about 2 seconds - that's shorter than the time it takes for free kicks to be taken. Yes, the final decision will be made by a human but the whole point of a video replay is to spot something that did not get spotted before, or to verify a controversial decision made by someone else. As for the fans, well they'll still be able to find things to debate about. It's all about where to draw the line with video technology - should it just be for things like whether the ball goes over the line? Or should it be used to determine other things such as offside decisions, corner kicks, throw-ins, red card offences? That's something that needs to be seriously thought about and real guidelines need to be set before video technology can be implemented. I think that's what FIFA is scared about - where to draw the line. They don't want to kill the game entirely but something needs to be done. Maybe one solution is to have a system like "Hawkeye" in tennis, where each player gets a maximum of 3 requests to have a video replay. This ensures that the game is not spoilt by the player who can't keep disrupting the game everytime he is unhappy with a decision, and also makes sure he uses his 3 calls wisely instead of flippantly. However, there is absolutely no doubt about it. We need some kind of video technology, because two huge mistakes in the space of one day is two too many.
No comments:
Post a Comment