If one keeps the score aside we were witness to a cracker of a match in Mangaung/Bloemfontein today, with both teams playing many levels better football than they played in the group stages. As my good friend @subhadeep_c said “This is the World Cup”.
However one of the things this match will be remembered for will the controversial denial of goal to Lampard. FIFA needs to work out a resolution for such situations in the future. I agree that football is a fast game and stopping the flow is not a good idea but this is ridiculous! Countries are not going to put in so much money and effort to play and then leave it to a bad referring decision – that’s just unjust. Some kind of challenge scheme like they have in American football (and maybe in hockey too if I am not wrong) might be needed here.
Having said that, in the end that denial did not count in the final scheme of things, unless there was some psychological impact. After all the final score was 4-1, and one does expect international players, living in the limelight day in and day out, to be more tough mentally. I am sure the pundits and guru’s will find the real reason for the sorry debacle of the English team this time (*cough* Capello *cough*). However through my amateurish eye I can see only one overriding reason and that is SPEED. The English team were bloody slow – Rooney’s movements were a pale (and slow) imitation of his form years ago. It was almost like he was playing in slow motion. And if that was the case with him what do I say about Terry – he epitomized super slo-mo today, both physically and mentally. Let’s face they were an old team and it showed. They were nowhere near the speed of Ozil, Muller or Schweinsteiger. In fact even Klose was faster than the majority of the English playing 11.
So in the end I do not think any of Lampard’s shots mattered. Whatever the situation Germany always looked that they could attack back and the same confidence did not exist on the English side. It is kind of sad seeing the English side losing in such a fashion, as I believe a whole generation of English stars will have played their last match here. Time for them to buckle up, take it on their chin, and create a younger, fresher team for the next set of qualifying matches aimed at Brazil 2014.
About the Ger-Arg match? If Arg win and play Ge I believe it will be more or less more equal than people think. Though I would love Argentina to go through I do not think it will be a cakewalk 🙂
The Whiz's Crucible 
What about Tevez’s offside against Mexico? I think that was an even more ridiculous decision. Mexico were really hard done by that call.
Raoul, completely agree about Tevez’s first goal. The linesman and referee screwed that one up. Hence my tweet at the moment http://twitter.com/brijwhiz/status/17188318443.
Somehow technology takes the charm out of the sport (line calls in tennis, LBW referrals in cricket). If the referee makes an error, so be it.
Anyways, if that error had not happened, what would the brits drink to till the next world cup?
Not really concerned about this one case rags. However there should be some way that big goof-ups are prevented. I accept every little error cannot be referred to without upsetting the flow of the game. That is why I feel that one should be allowed limited referrals like in American Football. It is for the the teams to decide when they want to utilize it. Further simple changes like a chip in the football will resolve a lot of this ball-in-goal situations without any need for referral
wow great blog