How many bad calls will it take before the World Cup adopts instant replay?
View full sizeThis sequence of six photos shows Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer looking at the ball that hit the bar and bounced over the line during the World Cup match between Germany and England on Sunday in Bloemfontein, South Africa. The goal was disallowed by the game's referee, but Bill Livingston believes is just more evidence that a worldwide event should allow replay to help overmatched officials.CLEVELAND, Ohio -- England lost to Germany in the World Cup on Sunday, a lot (4) to a little (1). One of the big talking points afterward was another missed goal by the officials.
Frank Lampard's drive slammed off the crossbar of the German goal, then rocketed down, landing clearly behind the goal line. That is a goal, as a worldwide television audience saw on the replay the rules denied the referee and his assistants.
Rather than being tied, 2-2, late in the first half, England went in trailing, 2-1, Forced to press the attack in the second half, the English overextended like consumers with a maxed-out credit card. Germany scored twice more on counter-attacks. Germany was the better side, but the disallowed goal changed the entire dynamic of the game. Goals are so big in soccer that they have to be credited when fairly scored, pure and simple.
Later the same day, Argentina's Carlos Tevez, offside from Buenos Aires to Cape Horn, flicked in a header off a scrum in the penalty box for the first goal against Mexico. The first goal in soccer, a low-scoring sport, often dictates play for the remainder of the game. Yet the goal stood, despite a conference between the referee and the linesman.
Both the Lampard and Tevez rulings reinforced the argument for replay review even more.
When Lampard cranked his bullet off his Gatling gun foot, the referee was behind him, at the top of the semicircle of the 18-yard box. His view was unobstructed, but his perspective was not the best. The closest linesman was level with the 18-yard line.
How much better would have been the chances to get the call right with a goal judge behind the net? Common sense says much better...
It was a bang-bang-bang-bang play. Off the bar, off the ground ("Gooooal!" to all but the blind mice officials), off the bar again, and off the goalkeeper -- who, by playing on, executed a bit of unsportsman-like gamesmanship that helped fool the officials.
It would not have happened with the aid of video replay, which should be used for goals and for handballs and offside in the box.
The World Cup refs have now incorrectly disallowed goals against the U.S. twice and England once. They have given mighty Argentina an undeserved goal. These Magoos are making baseball's perfect-game spoiler Jim Joyce look like an eagle eye.
The Lampard play recalled the overtime goal Geoff Hurst scored to give Engand a 3-2 lead over West Germany in the 1966 World Cup final. England eventually won, 4-2. The Germans protested that the ball never crossed the line, an argument which has seemingly been confirmed by recent digital enhancement of the game film.
The traditional soccer audience argues that controversy increases the sport's appeal because more people are talking about it. But outrage and disgust are not enviable selling points.
Traditionalists also say replay is not used at the grass roots, so why use it at the sport's highest level?
Basketball, to invoke one American example, does not use replay in CYO games, but it does in NCAA Tournament and NBA games because the stakes are so high that the premium is on getting the calls right.
The traditionalists say replay will disrupt the free-flowing pace. They oppose a reasonable time limit on getting calls right in favor of a speedy accumulation of errors,
No camera angle, however, would have quickly resolved the debate over Hurst's goal in 1966. So the NFL rule should be used, in which only "overwhelming evidence" on replay can overturn an on-field call.
Overwhelming evidence existed on Lampard's carom and Tevez's header.
When NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell convinced owners to change the overtime rule in the coming season's playoffs, he admitted no overtime system is perfect. But he also said, "Don't let perfect get in the way of better."
FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, should heed those words. Perfect is an impossible dream, but better is attainable.
Quit acting like error is a good thing. Quit making injustice and intransigence the focal points of the championship of the world's most popular sport.