World Cup Archives

U-KRA-I-NA!

June 26, 2006 06:08 PM

Utter chaos. Ukraine wins on penalty kicks. Shovkovskiy's the new national hero. And thousands of cheering Ukrainians are aimlessly roaming the downtown, unable to link up with the subway, which is closed. Cars are zipping about honking horns and waving the flag. It's 1 a.m. This could go on a while.

I caught the match at a pub next to Zolotiy Vorota (Golden Gate). And while I would have been jazzed by a Ukrainian victory in any event, beating Switzerland was especially sweet. In the post-9/11 era, it's hard to respect a country that preens about as an international neutral. I guess they'll have no one to cheer for now. Just so.

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World Cup Archives

There's One in Every Crowd

June 19, 2006 06:35 PM

The IHT's Rob Hughes demonstrates that it's not only political journalists who can speak the language of Bullshit.

But on the ninth day of the World Cup, foul play between the Americans and Italians turned the Beautiful Game ugly.

"These guys bled for our country and our team," said Kasey Keller, the U.S. goalie.

The U.S. coach, Bruce Arena, said, "Our players redeemed themselves and played with a lot of heart."

Shame on them. A plague on them - and on Italy, too - for brutalizing a tournament that for 24 games had stayed largely within the spirit of fair play, or at least accepted the rule of law.

Africans, Asians, Europeans and the Americas had all been given copious warning, even in video form, that the referees were given a mission to clean up foul and thuggish play.

The red card expulsion was to be mandatory for the malicious use of elbows or the reckless tackles that could break a shin.

Wherever it had happened, the 21 referees at this tournament had by and large carried out FIFA's instructions. What is more, there was a minimum of dissent, again in keeping with a uniform warning at the World Cup 2006.

When Saturday came to Kaiserslautern, in the heartland of U.S. Air Force bases, that decency took a violent backward step.

Americans blamed the referee, Jorge Lorrionda of Uruguay, for this disintegration. The players and the coach seemed convinced that Lorrionda had lost control.

Hmmm. I wonder how Hughes squares his perspective with this piece. But let's let him continue.

Wrong. The Americans and the Italians who made the fouls and paid the consequences were the ones who lost control.

Not since 1998, when three players were sent off in the South Africa vs. Denmark match, have so many red cards been shown in a World Cup encounter. And the Italy-U.S. match was only the fourth time in the 76-year history of the event that it has been necessary.

Even more shameful, it came on the same day that Sepp Blatter, the FIFA president, who is behind this crackdown on rough play, sat somber in Kaiserslautern. He was harboring a secret.

Before such a paragon of virtue as Sepp Blatter, no less! And with American war making instruments in the vicinity! Oh, the humanity.

Oh please. Aside from the well-deserved red card shown Italy's Daniele DeRossi, for a foul that drew blood and was clearly intentional, the play in the Italy-U.S. game was not appreciably different from -- and certainly no more violent than -- that of any other game thus far. The only significant variable was the referee, whose capriciousness marred an otherwise entertaining match between two quality sides. Mastroeni's foul would have drawn a caution from any other ref in the tournament; the second yellow on Eddie Pope was unduly harsh. I've seen several much-worse fouls meet with lesser punishments in other matches.

But let's look at some stats. The U.S.-Italy game saw two straight red cards and four cautions (both U.S. yellows went to Pope, which earned him his red). Did these teams really do more to "befoul" the Beautiful Game than Germany and Poland, whose match-up drew seven cautions and an expulsion; Sweden-Paraguay (8 cautions); Netherlands-Cote d'Ivoire (7 cautions); Portugal-Iran (7 cautions); Czechs-Ghana (7 cautions, 1 expulsion); Australia-Japan (7 cautions); France-Switzerland (8 cautions); or Spain-Tunisia (8 cautions)? I've watched almost all the matches, and so far the only insult I've seen to the Beautiful Game in this World Cup is England's advancement to the second round.... I don't know what game Hughes has been watching.

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