Trailing 2-1 near the end of the first half, England’s Frank Lampard scored the game tying goal against Germany, as his shot hit off the top crossbar and bounced about two yards over the line. But ball popped out, and the ref did not call it a goal.
What a joke. The absence of video replay in soccer is close to ruining this World Cup. Goals are such a scarce commodity, when the are scored, they have to be counted. I don’t blame the refs here – on a such bang-bang play, it’s almost impossible for any naked eye to determine whether that ball was over the line. It would take all of two seconds to correct a mistake the entire planet can see. An England loss is on FIFA’s hands, because of the organizations comical stance on the value of human judgement – debate sparks interest in the game, etc. No. disastrous calls will only turn off casual fans that want to appreciate this game.
Sepp Blatter, FIFA’s president, has to step up. Heck, show some guts, install instant replay now, starting in the quarterfinal round. That a bit much? Perhaps. But this has to be the last World Cup where video replay is not allowed. Enough is enough.
UPDATE: Ok, it’s now 4-1 Germany in the 77th minute. But please don’t let the math mislead you. It’s natural to say: “Well, if Lampard’s goal counted, it’s would be 4-2 Germany, instead of 4-1 Germany. Big deal.” But we’ll never know how the game would have changed at 2-2 instead of 2-1. Would Germany have been demoralized and let their guard down? Would England, energized, kept on the attack and played a crisper game? Did the letdown of the disallowed goal take something out of England’s attack? Bottom line: England still got robbed here.
(And no, I have no blood ties to England. I’m 25% German, in fact. And the rest of me is Irish, yet another reason to be pro-Germany in this instance . . . )