Originally posted by jbromer
I'm late to the discussion, but here is my 2 cents on this whole thread. Remember, I am one of the biggest US fans on this board here too.
1) O'Brien's handball against Mexico was illegal, and caught, deserved a red card. But, for years, part of soccer/football has been getting away with what you can. If every shirt tug and dive was called, what kind of game would we have?
Haha. What kind of game do we have if refs can't call OBVIOUS things like that? There's a point for there being refs, and the point is to make sure that players play fair. If there was a foul, it deserves to be called. But it's up to the players if they want to have a fast-paced game or not: they simply don't need to hack.
Is it right to let a foul go in order to keep the game going fast? No way! If there's a foul, but the foul does not make the team who currently has possession lose the ball, then the ref does not call it this is called the advantage rule. I agree it would be dumb for refs to call every single foul no matter if the team lost possession or not, but that's why there's the advantage rule.
So, yes, every foul should be called as long as it does not give an advantage to the offending team.
2) That said, the handball today was NOT a handball. The german player clearly did not play the ball, and furthermore, the ball did not cross the line. I have no beef with the reffing, I really thought the Scotsman called a good game (note he even referred to his linesman when he wasn't sure he could make a proper call on Reyna)
Like I said, it probably was not a handball, but yes, the ball did go over the line. Unfortunately, debating this is kind of pointless right now, since we can't see the replay anymore. If you can find a QT movie of the alleged goal, then maybe you could prove that the ball didn't go over the line, or maybe I can prove that it did.
What did Reyna get a yellow card for anyway? It looked like the German took him down. Did Reyna retaliate or something?
3) The US outplayed Germany today. Not even the German players can refute that. But as Friedel said after the game, give the Germans credit for coming up with a win out of a subpar performance. Frankly, I am happy that the US went out in a blaze of glory rather than losing after playing a game flat...
I agree here, but the ref should still have allowed the goal. Again, we need to see the replay again, though.
4) Ronaldhino got caught (see point one). He clearly took a dangerous and unsportsmanlike shot, and he got caught. Consequence: Red card. The refs have to card when they catch the foul in action otherwise the players will take control of the game away from them. It's like the IRS here in the US. They catch maybe 1 out of every 100 people cheating on their taxes, but that risk keeps another 90 of the 100 in line...
Ronaldinho was going for the ball in that play, and accidentally got the player in his run for the ball. But it certainly did not deserve a red card at most, it deserved a yellow card.
Red cards are for deliberate attacks and hacks on the part of a player. There are instances where a red card is needed, like if a player goes after the ball in a very dangerous way, but this instance was not one of them.
Overall, I think the refs have been doing a decent job - nobody's perfect. Simx, I am 1/2 Italian (middle name is Luciano), but I think it is ridiculous that an Italian TV station is talking about suing FIFA over the reffing. Sometimes you get the calls, sometimes you don't. Refs are unfortunately human, and respond to home field advantage. The Italian team got a string of bad luck in this cup, but will likely fair better in future matches.
Being half Italian has nothing to do with it, jbromer. I don't think that suing FIFA is the right thing to do. But I do believe that FIFA should take these instances and learn from them they should make sure that their refs are of the utmost quality, and make sure that they have experience in international games. The Ecuadorian ref who reffed the Italian-Korea game did not have enough experience, and that game was above his ability to ref.
I am just happy that the US team finally have gotten the respect they deserve, even if it took losing to get it 
jason
I agree here. I really didn't particularly care about the Americans until I heard they were starting to play well. I'm glad I watched the Germany-USA game. That was an awesome game.
The only thing that I hate, though, is that it takes the USA winning in order for soccer to get a good article in the newspaper. The stupid San Francisco Chronicle insists on putting golf on the front page. Sheesh.
