>I was listening to ESPN radio yesterday or the day before, there was a guy talking (I do not know his name, I never listened to ESPN radio before) and the guy started saying that he received a call from someone that saw what happened, and it was a foul by an American outside the view of the cameras (they mention the name of the American as well as the Slovenian, I forgot both), and was very early on the play, even before the other fouls committed against the US, and this is consistent with the early call by the referee, remember that the whistle had blown before US scored. Now, I saw just the same as you... anyways USA not only qualified for the round of 16, but did so winning their group, I think that was beyond the wilder dreams of anyone! Between Uruguay, France and now USA I lost all hope of winning 1 million dollars in a poll, darn it!
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>Hugo, I realize the Americans won their Group, and so one can make the argument that they advanced as well and as far as they could have, with or without the bad call. The Americans were their own worst enemy yesterday - but still had a nice run. I hope the names Dempsey, Altidore, Donovan, Bradley, Howard, and others are remembered for a long time. I hope Americans are proud at what they did.
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>The point (especially after today's games) is that the FIFA officiating and the FIFA process (or lack) during the World Cup is unacceptable. I would love to "love" the World Cup as much as I love, say, the Stanley Cup playoffs...I screamed my head off when Donovan scored the game winner against Algeria, and was really down after the U.S. lost yesterday - but as it stands, the FIFA World Cup is a flawed product.
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>The last few weeks I've gotten in debates (pretty heated ones) with people in the U.S. who think soccer is "easy", because "you only need to know how to run and kick". I tried soccer in high school, figuring that since I was good at other sports, soccer would be a breeze. It only took me an hour to realize how wrong I was. And so I've been trying to explain the incredible coordination and quick reflexes and STAMINA required by soccer players.
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>However, what I CAN'T defend to soccer-haters is a series of horrible calls without any replay process. Again, I refer to the model used in the National Hockey League. It is not perfect, but is far superior to FIFA. I'll even go so far as to say I hope ESPN and ABC are able to put pressure on FIFA to implement some type of process - because what exists right now is broken.


Did you catch the disallowed England goal today. Thats rekindled the whole technology debate. I'm still against it.