by
>have cable, there isn't a lot of access to Good soccer with highly skilled
still very poor soccer coverage. :-(
>a card. I've seen defenders catch shots on goal without being Cautioned, much
>less ejected, and I have heard players loudly tell the referee to F*** Off, and
>this didn't earn a response either. (I was the linesman, and when I called the
>referee over to eject the player, he refused.) Referees complain about the
>game-control problems here, but I think a large part of it is that many of them
>consider it to be a personal flaw if they need to caution a player. Toss a
>couple of players out for abusive language, and they will get the picture.
entirely the wrong picture about acceptable level of protests.
I think I saw hints of this in the US-Eng 2-0 game yesterday. (Ah
yes, our cable did show a delayed telecast.)
The Americans were too inclined to protest when they had a slight
reason to do so. Compare this to the (almost) nonexistent protests from the
English when they had a reasonable case for penalty (I think).
At that point I almost thought that the *strong* English team had
been *asked* to lay off the *weak* US team and let them play, possibly win.
I unconditionally swallowed my picture tube after seeing the whole
match.
Recently a few Englishmen have been boasting about having given the
world the game. Well, it certainly looks like they have given it away and
left nothing for themselves. :-)
Vasudev Gharpure