I really didnt like this match. It was very sloppy and brutish. The ref (Larionda) has lived up to his rep of being one of the worst refs in South America. He was horribly inconsistant throughout. He called every lil touch foul in the 1st half and seemed to #### his whistle in the 2nd half.
Pope shouldve been thrown off in the first half after that "Last Man" tackle. Ironically, the second yellow card, to me, didnt seem warranted.
The goal that the linesman called off for the US seemed iffy at best since the man offside didnt take advantage of the play.
A few offsides were missed, too.
On a separate note: Can someone buy Arena a lb. of cheese for all his whine??? Sheeeeeesh, DUDE!!! Yer worse than my wife!!!
I've commented elsewhere on this off sides. It's not that simple. Of what I think is the intent of the off sides rule, McBride was not passed nor did he touch the ball. ABC correctly pointed out that he obstructed the goalie's view and I immediately accepted that when watching.
However, as a player, the goalie's view is constantly obstructed by all kinds of things whether off sides or not, that is in fact the game. In the game, it seems to me that it's the defending teams job to help there goalie in this regard.
It was impressive to see Beasley's shot at the goal was very righteous! I would like to see the replay of this as ABC aired the perfect camera angle. I wondered if the goalie first guessed wrong that Beasley was going to shoot to the other side of the net.
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
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