Malik
(6/28/10)
If anything, the World Cup has shown a few simple lessons. One of
the main ones for the US and England are how history loves repeating
itself. Germany has a history of taking down England, and Ghana did
the same 2-1 victory to eliminate the US in 2006. Of course, that's
not to say all history will repeat itself in the World Cup. I mean
France (2nd in 2006) and Italy (champions of 2006) both left in the
first round...which is also doubly unusual since France and Italy
never both leave in the group phase.
Of course, if anything is going to be a long standing lesson so far
from this World Cup, it's that there are rarely any good solutions
in soccer/football. I'm talking about some really bad calls from the
refs and how to handle this in the future. Yes, some officiating has
been pretty good, but then you have things like disallowed goals
that are perfectly good (happened to the US in the second and third
group games, and England in the first half against Germany), players
ejected or penalized for doing nothing (like the US player who had a
face called a hand or Kaka being ran into in some sort of flagrant
case of "being in the wrong place").
Yes, soccer always has some trouble with officiating. It's a simple
problem that cannot be fully solved. I'm talking about the nature of
the game and how hard it would be to keep the game fluid (no
excessive stoppage just for a replay or a discussion from the
officiating crew) while also remaining fully watched and fouls fully
called. There are some "simple" solutions, but that's something that
only really would work in the heat of the moment.
For example, when your team gets screwed out of a goal because of a
false penalty being called, it's easy to start screaming about how
soccer needs instant replay. However, this would slow down a 90
minute game and turn it into a infinitely long mess of every damned
movement on the field being scrutinized. Replay only really works in
a few sports, such as American Football, because it's a sport that
has constant breaks in the action. It's the nature of a play based
game to allow a replay...and even then it can become a problem. Any
NFL fan cannot say replay is the solution to soccer when they are
the same people who will become enraged at the long pause in the
action during any NFL game for a coach's challenge.
A replay system is slow on a play-by-play type of game. To add it to
a non-stop game like soccer would just be the same as asking soccer
to no longer be soccer. Can soccer be soccer with constant breaks in
the action? To change this would be like saying a boat is good, but
it must not be allowed in water...in which case, is a landlocked
boat really a seafaring vessel anymore?
That's not to say the other side of the argument is any good. Too
many people (usually people who work for FIFA) like to argue that
the "human factor" is what makes soccer good. That's just a lazy way
to try to say that you don't need to face a problem. Of course, FIFA
is so damned secretive about anything dealing with officiating that
I imagine FIFA would be happier is soccer would never be played in
front of spectators and would actually be some sort of secret cult
that only plays under the light of a full moon in some abandoned
meadow.
One real solution, or at least a partial step towards making
progress would be for FIFA to remove the secrecy to some extent. I
mean if an official on a major game (like a World Cup game) is
making the type of mistakes that really do screw someone out of
advancing, then that ref needs to be held somewhat accountable.
People do make mistakes, but it would be nice to know if the
officials are actually held to any real standards.
When Kaka was ejected on a second yellow, the ref called it a yellow
based on not knowing anything. All he saw was a man on the ground
with his face obviously hurt. He could have determined that it was
an accident or a flagrant attack. It's obvious which choice the ref
made, but can you really apply "guilty until I prove you innocent"
thinking in such a scenario? True, if it was the other way around (a
player punched another in the face and didn't get a penalty since
the ref missed seeing it), the world would once again stand in false
judgment. However, that's what FIFA is facing with the idea of the
"human factor". However, it's better to leave a call out, when a ref
missed something, instead of automatically punishing everything
without reason.
When this happens, FIFA needs to do more than just announce who will
officiate at the next round of a tournament. They need to reveal to
the fans if these refs who are making opinions instead of official
calls face any sort of consequence. After all, if a team is
eliminated on a bad call or two, the team is being punished. Imagine
if the US tied Algeria and was eliminated from the group
round...because of how their 2-3 "tie" against Slovenia went down.
Did the ref face any consequence beyond not being retained for the
next round (and many refs go home after each phase anyway as the
number of games decrease)? At least in the wild west that is the
NFL, we fans do learn if a ref is fined or suspended for flagrantly
bad officiating.
However, I do think one other step can be helpful in cases like the
dismissed goal when England should have tied up with Germany. The
technology exists to solve this problem, and it can even be
secretive, like FIFA loves to keep things. Just go with the old
fashioned "chip in the ball" idea. You put a microchip in the ball
and a sensor across the goal line. If the ball crosses any, a small
tone or alarm of some sort goes to the ref. This could be a
vibration from a pager of sorts, or a small noise sent to an ear
piece. Either way, it can be kept secret, so the ref can decide if
it's a real goal or not, without the world judging the judgment
quite as strictly. In other words, if a ref misses a close quick
goal, like the England goal, but didn't miss the action and knows no
foul exists, then his blinking (or whatever cause the goal to be
overlooked) would not cause an obvious error in play calling.
However, to repeat what I have said a few times recently, technology
is not the fix-all for soccer. The ball sensor technology, if it was
ever implemented, would be as far as technology should ever go. If
instant replays become the norm, it's opening a Pandora's Box that
will cause nothing but misery in its wake.
Malik |
Malik
(7/1/10)
It's a weird time for me
right now, since I'm just not feeling the geek vibe. I don't want to
play any more Super Mario Galaxy 2, since it's just not entertaining
enough to search out the green stars. Maybe I'll go back at some
point, but it's hard to find the energy for this stuff.
The green stars
are supposed to be a "Where's Waldo" of SMG2. However, it's not as
much a challenge to find them as it is to get them. However, I don't
mean you have to find then and then determine how to reach that
location. I mean you have an obvious means to get them, but you need
the patience for a perfect approach. You may have to do an ideal
triple jump from the exact correct location, or you may have to make
a blind suicide jump and remember precisely where you must fall as
you die. In the end, it mainly comes down to finding enough 1-Ups,
which isn't too hard (just tedious), to keep trying something that's
not fun due to a camera (while better than prior 3D Mario cameras)
that is just not forgiving.
It doesn't help
when some stars are at the end of a stage, but require a power-up
from the start of the stage. I'm talking about ones like the third
green star on the fire/ice level. One hit and you lose your cloud
power, or one too many twitches of your wrist and you'll spin out
all three of your clouds prematurely. Then, if you hit any check
points, you must exit the level and start again from scratch. It's
not hard, as in challenging...it's just annoying.
I'm now trying to
find a new game to divert my attention, but it's just not coming to
me. I've also been thinking about old games to play again, but each
one seems to have a reason to draw me away from it. For example, I
don't want to face the annoyance of most of the second disk of
Xenogears, the frustration of missing too many of the good quests of
Legend of Mana, the annoyance of the aluminum quest on Lufia 1, or
the tedium of the final grind-fest that makes up Phantasy Star 2
(while trying to get Megid).
At least in the
meantime, sports are diverting my attention nicely. It helps that
the Sounders FC did something above average, for once this season,
in beating Portland in the US Open Cup. True, it did take a long
game to do so, since it was tied 1-1 after overtime. It also helps
that Keller is a damned good goalie, which makes up for some sub-par
striking.
Also, the Mariners
seem to have found some momentum. I mean they beat the Yankees twice
in the last two games with some authority. I think the return of
Branyan was a nice booster of moral or something. Plus, when he hit
a two run homer last night in a shutout of the Yankees, you can't
argue with his power. I mean even in today's loss, the
only runs came in the 8th on a 2-run RBI double from Branyan.
Malik |