GAh! Just finished watching ITA-AUS. Did FIFA have an edict to just award all games to European teams or what? My gawd, what a cheap penalty. Has there been any ‘good’ game in this year’s World Cup..maybe CZR – USA…that’s about it. Every game has been ‘controversial’…it’s getting obscene. Maybe they’ll call a fumble out of the endzone out of bounds at the 1…oh wait, wrong football (see prior post).
I’m grumpy now. I need some more Rumple Minze
The Blog for the Sports Gamer 
Au contraire Dan, the penalty was soft, but spot on.Neill plays in the Premiership, so knows very well that once you go to ground, you constitute an illegal obstacle between the opposing player and the goal…and that player has no obligation to leap over you or otherwise avoid you.Soft, yes, but all Neill’s fault. Defenders at any level are taught not to go to ground except in desperation, which this wasn’t.As for bias towards European teams, Sepp Blatter is anything but, having constantly expanded the World Cup to include more deadweight teams from Asia, Africa and Oceania…and guess where the bulk of his voting support comes from ?
LikeLike
That’s not correct. At most it would be an indirect free kick for impeding, even in the penalty area (and that would still have been a wrong decision since impeding can only be called if the defender’s action is deliberate and without any attempt to play the ball).A direct free kick is only awarded for impeding progress if the defender makes deliberate contact with the opposing player, such as reaching out with an arm. That would then fall under the holding rule and be punishable by a direct free kick/ penalty.Having just seen France win thanks to another dive by Henry the only thing left to say is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrvRGTVkv6Y&search=football%20dives
LikeLike
Spoken like a true Italia fan. Going to the ground doesn’t mean you have a penalty. Using that logic a non-goalkeeper player diving to block the ball who gets the ball when a player then takes a dive would be awarded a penalty….
LikeLike