Thoughts on the World Cup Quarterfinals of June 30-July 1 2006
As of now, the world cup appears to me to be somewhat of a stupid thing. Too many games decided by red card penalties, and by penalty kick shootouts after the game. It seems truly insane. Hard to believe that at this late date, this hasn't been fixed up. They should be able to crack down on foul play without changing the entire course of the game be ejecting players for the entire game as a result of which for the entire game, one team has one less player than the other team. The game is too low scoring it is absurd all these games should be decided by penalty kick shootouts. When players are ejected the number of players per square meter of the field declines. At the same time, it seems the number of players per square meter of field is already too low, as a result of which in the soccer world a premium is unfortunately placed on marathoner-like endurance as opposed to on skill, and as a result of which the number of exciting situations in games is reduced. All those players have more important things to do, compared to running for miles and miles in training.
I feel the game of football/soccer could be improved, by: clearly enunciating the different penalties that are enacted based on the different degrees of fouls; avoiding except in the most extreme cases, ejecting a player and at the same time forcing the penalized team to play with one less player; ejecting players for at least the remainder of the current game while allowing for substitutions to be made for them; placing the penalty kick a given number of yards ahead of the spot of the infraction depending upon the degree of the infraction; avoiding deciding games through shootouts; requiring that depending upon the degree of the infraction, a team will have to play a certain number of minutes in situation X; enacting that this situation X feature the penalized team having to play the other team with say 4 defenders against 7 offenders, exclusively in its own half of the field, its only option being to clear the ball past the midline, for which it would not receive any points; allowing for more substitutes to be used; using situation X to solve ties that are now solved by penalty shootouts.
Other big stories of these recent World Cup Quarter-finals: Rooney getting a red card and other questionable conduct in #7 ranked Portugal victory over #10 ranked England; the home team #19 ranked Germany upsetting #9 ranked Argentina in Berlin to advance to the semis where they will face #13 ranked Italy; #8 ranked France upsetting #1 ranked Brazil to advance to the semis where they will face #7 ranked Portugal.
Prior to this in the round of 16, #19 ranked Germany had upset #16 ranked Sweden 2-0 on June 24th in Munich. Bizarre how so many seem to be missing the point that these upsets must be producing very emotional days for Germany.
The penalty to Rooney in England's loss to Portugal was in the 62nd minute. Rooney had a Portugal player Carvalho to his right, and another Portugal player Petit to his left as he struggled with them for the ball. Rooney began to push both players away, a foul. The player to his right at almost the exact same time that Rooney started pushing, placed his left leg in front of Rooney's right leg, which was the foul of tripping, the foul of charging an opponent (playing the man not the ball), and of making contact with the opponent before making contact with the ball; clearly Carvalho moved his leg to put it in front of Rooney's leg as opposed to for the purpose of reaching the ball with his foot. Rooney slipped as Carvalho did this and so did Carvalho. Rooney regained his feet and was standing up again before Carvalho who was still on the ground. Apparently Rooney at this point opportunistically used his left foot to stomp on Carvalho's groin since Carvalho's groin happened to be near his left foot, as Carvalho was on the ground behind him. Therefore the referee who was right on top of the situation red carded Rooney.
Here we apparently have a situation where two opposing players both foul each other; yet throughout the World Cup I have never seen two opposing players both called for fouling each other.
The way I now see it, what I can say re these incidents involving Portugal being the victim or the perpetrator of fouls, that others have not already said, is that this seems a little silly. Defenders like Carvalho get away with tripping and head-butting forwards like Rooney, they are for some reason allowed to dangerously slide tackle forwards like Rooney, then offended forwards like Rooney get carded for stepping on defenders like Carvalho when they get the chance, because them stepping on some unprotected sensitive part of the defender's body is considered to be dangerous to the defender physically and thus a red card foul.
I now say it would be better if, in high class soccer wherein players can afford protective equipment, players were expected to wear protective equipment that would keep their body out of danger, so that there would not be the need to kick offenders out of the game because what they did was supposedly (and usually questionably) dangerous because the other player was not wearing their protective equipment. This should be combined with making the dangerous slide tackles illegal, and not allowing defenders to get away with things like tripping the other player, charging the other player, contacting the other player before contacting the ball, and head-butting opposing players. The refereeing while focused on protecting players from physical danger, has lost sight of fouls that do not cause physical danger to the other player but that violate the laws of the game and bring the game down to a low and boring level.
Six days prior to the Portugal England match, the Portugal captain Figo had head-butted Van Bommel of the Netherlands, in the match which by winning Portugal had advanced to face England. Some say Van Bommel hammed it up (simulation) after the head-butt but the point is, though we cannot tell whether a player is exaggerating the extent to which he has been injured, we certainly are capable of realizing what a horrible thing a head-butt is. It had been in doubt as to whether Figo would even have been allowed to play against England but FIFA cleared him. Then when Portugal's Ronaldo took the field against England at the beginning of the game, as he passed by England's Rooney, he made a head-butting gesture.
In a game which features the head and face of players being visible, and also the heading of the ball playing an important crucial and exciting role, it is I now believe, impractical to attempt to protect the face and the head with protective equipment. The protective equipment in and of itself can become a danger to other players. But it is possible to protect the groin through the wearing of a protective cup of the type worn by American tackle football players. Yet what do we have here? The player who head butted another player in a previous game is allowed to play; a player from the head-butting team makes a head-butting gesture directed at an English forward (forwards are especially endangered by head-butts) as he takes the field; the England forward who stepped on the groin of a player from the head-butting team is ejected. Rooney may not have logically followed the train of events but players have instincts especially when it comes to avoiding injuries they or their team-mates are endangered by.
I can think of, compared to the head-butt, few things as physically dangerous and as harmful to the spirit of the game and the extent to which it is entertaining. On TV people watch the "Ultimate Fighting Championships", a kind of no-holds-barred fighting. Yet even in no-holds-barred fighting, featuring the ferocious use of fists knees and feet, the head-butt has been rightfully outlawed. Soccer players are not just players they are personalities, their face combines with their personality to interact with the fans, the beauty of their face is endangered by head-butts.
Significantly and lamentably the FIFA highlights did not even show the controversial head-butt by Figo on Van Bommel. Therefore since I did not see or record the Portugal vs Netherlands game I must confess my opinions are based on what I have heard others say regarding the headbutt incident.
@2006 David Virgil Hobbs
I feel the game of football/soccer could be improved, by: clearly enunciating the different penalties that are enacted based on the different degrees of fouls; avoiding except in the most extreme cases, ejecting a player and at the same time forcing the penalized team to play with one less player; ejecting players for at least the remainder of the current game while allowing for substitutions to be made for them; placing the penalty kick a given number of yards ahead of the spot of the infraction depending upon the degree of the infraction; avoiding deciding games through shootouts; requiring that depending upon the degree of the infraction, a team will have to play a certain number of minutes in situation X; enacting that this situation X feature the penalized team having to play the other team with say 4 defenders against 7 offenders, exclusively in its own half of the field, its only option being to clear the ball past the midline, for which it would not receive any points; allowing for more substitutes to be used; using situation X to solve ties that are now solved by penalty shootouts.
Other big stories of these recent World Cup Quarter-finals: Rooney getting a red card and other questionable conduct in #7 ranked Portugal victory over #10 ranked England; the home team #19 ranked Germany upsetting #9 ranked Argentina in Berlin to advance to the semis where they will face #13 ranked Italy; #8 ranked France upsetting #1 ranked Brazil to advance to the semis where they will face #7 ranked Portugal.
Prior to this in the round of 16, #19 ranked Germany had upset #16 ranked Sweden 2-0 on June 24th in Munich. Bizarre how so many seem to be missing the point that these upsets must be producing very emotional days for Germany.
The penalty to Rooney in England's loss to Portugal was in the 62nd minute. Rooney had a Portugal player Carvalho to his right, and another Portugal player Petit to his left as he struggled with them for the ball. Rooney began to push both players away, a foul. The player to his right at almost the exact same time that Rooney started pushing, placed his left leg in front of Rooney's right leg, which was the foul of tripping, the foul of charging an opponent (playing the man not the ball), and of making contact with the opponent before making contact with the ball; clearly Carvalho moved his leg to put it in front of Rooney's leg as opposed to for the purpose of reaching the ball with his foot. Rooney slipped as Carvalho did this and so did Carvalho. Rooney regained his feet and was standing up again before Carvalho who was still on the ground. Apparently Rooney at this point opportunistically used his left foot to stomp on Carvalho's groin since Carvalho's groin happened to be near his left foot, as Carvalho was on the ground behind him. Therefore the referee who was right on top of the situation red carded Rooney.
Here we apparently have a situation where two opposing players both foul each other; yet throughout the World Cup I have never seen two opposing players both called for fouling each other.
The way I now see it, what I can say re these incidents involving Portugal being the victim or the perpetrator of fouls, that others have not already said, is that this seems a little silly. Defenders like Carvalho get away with tripping and head-butting forwards like Rooney, they are for some reason allowed to dangerously slide tackle forwards like Rooney, then offended forwards like Rooney get carded for stepping on defenders like Carvalho when they get the chance, because them stepping on some unprotected sensitive part of the defender's body is considered to be dangerous to the defender physically and thus a red card foul.
I now say it would be better if, in high class soccer wherein players can afford protective equipment, players were expected to wear protective equipment that would keep their body out of danger, so that there would not be the need to kick offenders out of the game because what they did was supposedly (and usually questionably) dangerous because the other player was not wearing their protective equipment. This should be combined with making the dangerous slide tackles illegal, and not allowing defenders to get away with things like tripping the other player, charging the other player, contacting the other player before contacting the ball, and head-butting opposing players. The refereeing while focused on protecting players from physical danger, has lost sight of fouls that do not cause physical danger to the other player but that violate the laws of the game and bring the game down to a low and boring level.
Six days prior to the Portugal England match, the Portugal captain Figo had head-butted Van Bommel of the Netherlands, in the match which by winning Portugal had advanced to face England. Some say Van Bommel hammed it up (simulation) after the head-butt but the point is, though we cannot tell whether a player is exaggerating the extent to which he has been injured, we certainly are capable of realizing what a horrible thing a head-butt is. It had been in doubt as to whether Figo would even have been allowed to play against England but FIFA cleared him. Then when Portugal's Ronaldo took the field against England at the beginning of the game, as he passed by England's Rooney, he made a head-butting gesture.
In a game which features the head and face of players being visible, and also the heading of the ball playing an important crucial and exciting role, it is I now believe, impractical to attempt to protect the face and the head with protective equipment. The protective equipment in and of itself can become a danger to other players. But it is possible to protect the groin through the wearing of a protective cup of the type worn by American tackle football players. Yet what do we have here? The player who head butted another player in a previous game is allowed to play; a player from the head-butting team makes a head-butting gesture directed at an English forward (forwards are especially endangered by head-butts) as he takes the field; the England forward who stepped on the groin of a player from the head-butting team is ejected. Rooney may not have logically followed the train of events but players have instincts especially when it comes to avoiding injuries they or their team-mates are endangered by.
I can think of, compared to the head-butt, few things as physically dangerous and as harmful to the spirit of the game and the extent to which it is entertaining. On TV people watch the "Ultimate Fighting Championships", a kind of no-holds-barred fighting. Yet even in no-holds-barred fighting, featuring the ferocious use of fists knees and feet, the head-butt has been rightfully outlawed. Soccer players are not just players they are personalities, their face combines with their personality to interact with the fans, the beauty of their face is endangered by head-butts.
Significantly and lamentably the FIFA highlights did not even show the controversial head-butt by Figo on Van Bommel. Therefore since I did not see or record the Portugal vs Netherlands game I must confess my opinions are based on what I have heard others say regarding the headbutt incident.
@2006 David Virgil Hobbs
posted by David Virgil at 1:32 AM
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