Saying that Pantisil brought down a Uruguayan for a clear cut penalty and that wasn't given.

Bratty: If you watch more football you'll see that these things do balance out, usually.

I've been watching football for a very long time and no, they don't. But you can't do anything about it so there's no point worrying. Sometimes justice doesn't get done, that's just life.

This is awesome - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yBkbj_S3etY

He's argument falls flat on the fact it's called FOOTBALL and it starts with an F

I really hope it's satire. I just can't tell with that accent.

In that match they did. Uruguay should of had a penalty, it wasn't a goalscoring chance so Pantsil would have got a yellow, that would have been his second and he would have been sent off.

We can disagree about balancing out over time. The Germans saw the unseen goal in our match like the one in 1966. Meh.

TBH I don't actually care. It's a game, a sport, it has rules, you play to them and rely on officials to, well, officiate.

I have a feeling they only did that because it would get at certain English people. They've won the world cup twice since then, so it doesn't have as great significance to them as it seems to some dunderhead Ingurland types.
As to the 'evening up' thing, I can give you an absolute concrete example where it didn't. However fair enough...


The Uruguay thing is interesting because it exposes how football's rules are slightly different to a lot of other sports. Quite a lot of other ball sports have the notion of a 'penalty score'. Basically, if you illegally prevent a certain goal/try/whatever, it's given to the opposition anyway along with whatever the usual punishment for the offense is. If football had that rule, Suarez would have been sent off then Ghana would have been awarded a goal - I don't think there's any argument over whether they would have scored if Suarez hadn't handled it - which would obviously have sent Ghana through. In football you get the good chance of a goal, which is to some degree poor compensation compared to losing a certain goal. While football 'only' gives a penalty kick, rather than a goal, there's always going to be situations like this where fouling is actually the sensible thing to do. I can see the logic in changing the rules to make it so there's no 'up side' to these kinds of offense.

But, obviously, you'd have to have that rule at the start of the tournament, so it's too late for Ghana anyway.

Interestingly FIFA are now saying they're looking into charging Suarez with 'severe unsporting behaviour', which would allow them to extend the one match ban he would get to two or three matches therefore ruling him out of the remainder of the tournament and meaning he wouldn't get a winner's medal (should they win - which without him they probably won't). I think he might have been able to avoid that if the cameras hadn't shown him wildly celebrating after Gyan missed the penalty. However I can definitely see the value in FIFA doing it.

Are they going to do the same to the German goalkeeper as he didn't say "hang on ref, that went over"? It's daft.

I don't think it should change to a penalty score, if he hadn't of put his hands up it most probably would have gone in but then it may have hit another part of his body, ricocheted off the other play and come out. Not probable but not impossible so hence they have a penalty. Rules are rules.

I agree but this is an unusual case given the foul was essentially the last act of the game and therefore essentially decided the outcome plus his reaction when it was missed suggested it was a calculated rather than instinctive act. Of course there's also a vast amount of political self interest here - cheats cannot be seen to prosper and Sepp relies on the African vote to keep him in power, so he's throwing them a bone to smooth ruffled feathers, if that's not too much of a mixed metaphor.


I'd say it pretty much was impossible for the ball to hit another part of his anatomy given his arms were above his head when the ball hit them. Unless Uruguayan anatomy is significantly different to the rest of us. However as you said earlier, the rules are the rules.

Also, isn't Argentina vs Germany a bloody good game so far?

True, I admit it was harsh for Ghana but we have to have rules that apply generally to football as a whole. If we bring in the penalty goal I can see problems arising far more often than we have at the moment. It ain't perfect but I guess that's sport.

I think a start would be to see refs applying the current rules consistently before we think of changing any others.


Yup, Germany are learning at a quick rate. They always plan for the World Cup so well, no matter the team. Would I be out of line saying that the next England manager should be German?

Edit: The Germans must be working so hard, it's the same today as it was against England, it looks like they have an extra player on the pitch, there seems to be a German everywhere. Maybe that's their secret.

I think that might be a step too far, some of the tabloids would combust . It wouldn't matter anyway. A few years ago we sent €700m on a new national stadium. At the same time Germany was spending €700m on a youth development programme. Take more than a good coach to bridge that gap.


2-0 now, and I think they'll give Spain a hell of a game in the semi playing like this.

3-0 now. The predictions have come true - Argentina going out the first time they come up against a team that isn't scared witless of their forward line. At this rate, they'll do no better than England.

I've heard talk of youth development but look at the results. England U17s won the 2010 European Championship, against Spain, and the U21s reached the final. That looks quite healthy. Well, except the U21s lost 4-0 to Germany.

3-0 now. The bad thing is now the FA may try and say that England didn't do so bad considering we had a goal missed.

Diego looks like he's lost his keys but found a shoe.

Diego Maradona with a face like a smacked arse. It's almost enough to raise an Englishman's gloom . Messi going home without a goal though, wonder what the odds on that were when the first game kicked off?

Edit: 4-0! At least England scored...

Aye 4-0.

Now it seems Australia are as good as Argentina and England are slightly better.

Never doubt the psychic octopus!

As the commentators said, all these big teams have a few big names. Germany are a team, in every sense.

Brilliant performance, as much as I hate to admit it.

I don't envy the teams that have to face them in this campaign.

I'm so pleased Argentina lost by a bigger margin than we did.