I don’t know if I’ve ever seen a game that was more, for lack of a better term, fucked-up… than that contest between Portugal and The Netherlands yesterday. In the second half, as I was watching, I was thinking, “I’m not sure what this is, but I have absolutely no intention of changing the channel.”
It was that weird. It was like the Eagles/Bears fog bowl in ’88. I’m not saying it was foggy, but it gave that same kind of feeling, like “Well, you don’t see this everyday.” 16 yellow cards were issued, to go along with four reds. Weird shit was happening all over the place. There was absolutely no institutional control of anything happening on the field. It looked like someone walked into a juvenile detention center, threw a soccer ball down, put half the kids in red shirts and the other half in white, and just said, “Hey, have at it, you little bastards.”
Some quotes…
“If you talk about fair play, you should watch yourself first. They were a bit more experienced with all these tricks and all this time wasting.” – Netherlands coach Marco van Basten
“FIFA talks about fair play. There was no fair play.” – Portugal coach Luiz Felipe Scolari
“It is sad there was so little soccer played in the second half.” – van Basten
“It is a pity the referee made a mess of this game.” – van Basten
“The refereeing wasn’t up to the level of the teams. Today certainly wasn’t a fair-play day.” – FIFA president Sepp Blatter
That’s the president of FIFA there, a man who’s reputation is at stake with the quality of the officiating. Imagine how bad a crew of NBA officials would have to be before David Stern said, “Yeah, OK, that was fucked up.” And the truly unique thing about it was that both sides were equally furious with the officiating. Congratulations, Russian ref Valentin Ivanov. That’s a rare feat.
And it should’ve been a beautiful game; a real Joga Bonita sort of affair. Both sides are immensely skilled. And I’m not even saying the game was bad… you could even make the argument that it was better. There was violence out there. And with two players from each team sent off, there was pleny of room for everyone to operate. Scoring chances were not rare. But it is kind of a shame that there wasn’t much soccer played in the 2nd half, because I think both of these teams are/were legitimate Cup contenders.
And I still think Portugal’s going to beat England, even without Deco and Costinha.
Biff
As far as I’m concerned, that was the greatest soccer game I’ve ever seen. But then, I’m a hockey fan, so I love it when the players get chippy with each other.
The incompetence of the Russian ref meant that the players didn’t trust him enough to whine to him, and instead they settled their own shit amongst themselves, and that’s the way it should be.
June 26, 2006 at 1:05 am
Superman
yea.. good luck trying to win without both Deco and Costinha
June 26, 2006 at 9:19 am
option+
Sepp Blatter is a complete ass clown. There certainly would not have been 16 yellows and 4 reds in this game if Blatter and his FIFA cronies hadn’t instructed the referees to crack down on… well, pretty much everything. Blatter acts like last night’s match happened in a vaccuum; the truth is that this tournament has already broken the record for both yellow and red cards.
Don’t get me wrong – Valentin Ivanov made everything worse last night. But given how FIFA wants these matches officiated, a game like last night’s has been on the cards every since the tournament began.
Last night’s fiasco was as much Blatter’s fault as it was Ivanov’s. That Blatter would throw Ivanov to the wolves is disgraceful. Can’t say I’m surprised though.
June 26, 2006 at 9:50 am
Ron
Semifinal prediction, Germany vs. Australia. Brazil vs. England.
Germany beats Brazil in the final. Home team has a huge edge. When the home team is as good as Germany is (France in 98) they have a HUGE advantage.
June 26, 2006 at 12:47 pm
Mr. Bojangles
Good prediction, except you forgot one thing – those fucking Italians would dramatize their way past Australia with one of the most obvious bullshit calls in the tournament so far. Aussies were robbed.
I hate that team so much. I don’t know anyone who likes them outside of Italy at this point.
June 26, 2006 at 1:44 pm
Edward
Hey, predicting against England when we’ve won so convincingly, like in our match against….uh…well, we played all right in the first half with…well…shit. Just, shit.
June 26, 2006 at 1:48 pm