A good thread here despite the idiotic views of Mark and Willard. I hope they are enjoying a newfound interest in chess as was suggested. ; )

Nice analysis. Too bad about the refs for this World Cup, but then again, it is a very hard job. I actually think the refs were worse in 2002.

Regarding Bruce Arena and the troops, give him a break! I don’t think it was politics – I think the troops have simply been the USA team’s most consistent and loyal fans

Oh, no! Dual?!? If we cannot achieve consistency with on center ref, how will we get consistency with TWO center referees :-0

Congrats, Aaron! Your web site manages to be both informative and highly entrtaining!

As far as the PK in the Ghana-US game, it’s quite pointless to go on about it. One either understands this sort of thing or not. There was not enough good reason to call it. If you still think it was a good call, then you should perhaps consider turning your focus toward chess or some orther non-physical pursuit.

It was plain for all to see, from the close-up video replay,
that that dirty referee was on the side of the Germans.
He was clearly seen smiling cynically and sarcastically
in front of Teddy Lucic when he showed the red card.

Those two fouls by Lucic were hardly fouls at all. In the
first case, he had already kicked the ball away when he
tripped the German player – that was intelligent defending,
and at most only a free kick should have been given against
Lucic – clearly not a yellow card. In the second situation,
Lucic merely tugged Klose’s t-shirt gently – I’ve seen much
worse shirt-tugging in other games and not so much a whistle
was even blow. To my shock, that dirty Brazilian referee,
Carlos Simon, gave him a second yellow card,

Carlos Simon was clearly seen smiling later with a German
player who PATTED him on the back, then applauded him !
This makes me wonder if that Simon had been hand-picked
by the Germans for this match.

This is why I’ve always said that FIFA is a useless hypocritic
body – the penalise, suspend players all the time, but always
protect their own referees.

Your view is not just an unpopular view in the US. It isn’t in many English papers either. Of course, it isn’t helped byy the fact that it’s a view completely without merit.
The contestation of 50-50 balls in the air like that play occurs dozens of times a game. Players figure out where the ball is going to land, lean on one another for position and then jump up to head the ball. On the play in question, there was no hand action (grabbing, tugging, holding) so the call couldn’t have been a strike (elbow), push or hold. The contact was minimal, and mostly consisted of two players leaning on one another, and so was neither charging nor jumping at a player. Nonetheless, Merk likely called the former, as he saw two players come together and then one player fly to the floor. Merk bought the dive hook, line and sinker. He showed that he has no idea of the meaning of “careless, reckless or using excessive force”.
(tounge in cheek) Good on the Ghanan to pick up on it, know when he was beaten and use it to his advantage.(/tounge in cheek)

The reason Merk had to call the PK is precisely because the ball was within playing distance, in the penalty area, and the US player’s careless physical contact on the Ghana player prevented the Ghana player from having a fair chance to play the ball.

And by the way, the physical contact generating the foul call doesn’t have to be “reckless” or “dangerous” to merit a PK.

It’s not a popular view but again, Merk’s PK call in the US-GHANA game was right.

and as for the fourth, modest contact can at times be a foul worthy of a direct free kick so that can be discounted too, since any foul by the defending team worthy of direct free kick inside its own penalty area should always lead to a penalty kick.

you are trotting out the same irrelevant lines that commentators do. no wonder refs get so much grief. folks are unaware of the basics.

Merk has been involved in other high-profile incidents. Most recently, in August, he sent off Lionel Messi controversially after only 90 seconds of his Argentina debut. Jose Mourinho labelled him the worst referee he had seen after Porto’s Champions League semi-final first leg against Deportivo La Coruña in April 2004. David Beckham was fined £4,000 in September 2000, found guilty of spitting at Merk and sarcastically applauding.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Markus_Merk