I suppose every country has its laments about the World Cup. It does inspire passion. I'm not quite agreeing with you, though, that England has been afflicted by dubious refereeing. Was it dubious refereeing when they got knocked out in France when the goalkeeper misjudged a free kick and let it sail in right over his head? I cheer for England but my suspicion is that when they play in a tournament with native-born players -- as opposed to the Premier League where the players come from all over the world -- they are not quite athletic enough.

This time Lady Luck has actually been shining on the English squad. First they were placed in a weak group, from which they emerged despite playing uninspiredly. They then drew the less than fearsome Paraguay in the round of 16, playing better but still winning only by 1-0. Next they play Portugal, down two key players because of red cards from the mad Russian. The goalkeeper is already making excuses that their desultory play has been because of poor field maintenance by the German hosts. (Have their opponents been playing on different pitches?) Enough whinging and moaning. Let's see the English team actually show up to play, then they can talk and explain.


>That's par for the course. Every major competition that England has gone in for since 1996, we've been knocked out by "dubious" refereeing. Mainly it's been a goal disallowed for offside when it wasn't, or a goal against us when they WERE offside. And who could forget Maradonna and his "hand of God"? Now THERE's a refereeing decision that should have been overturned after reviewing video replay.
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>You wait. If we don't win it this year it'll be from such a decision, and we'll end up losing out on the old penalty shoot-out.
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>BTW, it's "extra time" not "extension" :-)
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>>A dubious penalty in the last few seconds of stoppage time? Give me a break!
>>Should have gone to extension.