hehe my bet is on japan 1:0 paraguay this afternoon ^^

Even if my brackets didn't come out to the ro8 quite as well as I had hoped, looks like my prediction of the Netherlands beating Brazil came true after all .

I had guestimated this outcome as well. I am really sad I couldn't watch the actual game, was at work until 7 pm. Oh, and just when I was leaving a co-worker came up to me and said: "have you heard? The Netherlands beat Brazil!" Other co-worker chimes in "Yes, with 2-1." Effectively ruined my plan to watch the game after work. They have since been notified not to spoil world cup results for me, unless they want their lunchboxes spoilt as well

Isn't the way how Uruguay won against Ghana saddening? In my world, it would not have been red card for Uruguay in the last minute of the game, but goal for Ghana! After all, using the hand is not allowed and if this is prohibiting a goal, the referee should have the power to declare that a goal - in my world, at least.

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Stay out of my territory! (W. White, aka Heisenberg)

That was a very clever play of Uruguay's player. If he hadn't used his hand, Uruguay would have been out 99.99999%. But with his action they still had a 20-30% winning chance. And they used it. Congratulations to Uruguay (though I rooted for Ghana....)

Wow, was I fortunate enough to watch this game when it went into overtime. Sure it was bad sportsmanship, but I'm stunned by the number of people I've seen already on other sites/forums ragging on Suarez. He did something that I think most of us would have also done, and if you look at this shot:



It's pretty obvious he couldn't have stopped that shot without using his hands. He didn't try to hide the fact or argue with the ref about what he did and accepted the consequences because strategically it was the right thing to do. Morally...well that's another thing, and besides the point. People should be criticizing the rules/procedures for situations such as these, not Suarez.

I completely agree.
Guess we go players might be used to trying to see the best strategic "move" in a situation (compared to an emotional response from a lot of other people).

now I just hope they don't get away with a simmilar "move" against The Netherlands and beat us to the finals

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Laurens
Go school: freegame's Teaching School
Author of: The Next Move a book for 15-3kyu players.

I hope not. I have been waiting for the Netherlands vs Argentina for a long, long time. But the German team might prove too much for the flaws in Argentina's defense. We shall see.

I was not able to watch most of the game that The Netherlands played today.

For some odd reason the university did not even take this match into account when scheduelling final exams of this accademic year .
So, while 99.9% of the Dutch people were watching soccer, I had to sweat in a way to hot exam room for 3 hours

Luckily it was the last exam this year for me so I get to see the other game (and hopefully games)

Maybe I'll go to Rotterdam tomorrow to watch a little bit of the Tour de France prologue.
I'm not that much into cycling but it's only 20 min by train from where I live, so I don't think I'll get another chance like that any time soon.

_________________
Laurens
Go school: freegame's Teaching School
Author of: The Next Move a book for 15-3kyu players.

Note how the other player is also reaching out to try and stop it. It was the right thing to do, given the rules of the game. If FIFA are unhappy with this, they could easily change the rules to give the referee the right to award penalty goals, but I don't think FIFA are unhappy. In fact, I think FIFA are generally delighted with this world cup. There's been no shortage of excitement and controversy.

That's exactly the problem I have with soccer in general: Unfair behavior is rewarded. This match is just an extreme example.

A red card and a penalty is hardly a reward. Maybe the punishment isn't sufficiently severe, maybe not, but you can't call it being rewarded.

The only reason there's even a debate at all is because Gyan missed. I'm not sure what the penalty conversion rate is, but I'm guessing its around 90%, probably even more.

The problem for lawmakers is that they cannot predict the future. If you make changes, for instance, to allow penalty goals, sooner or later other teams are going to be negatively affected by some freak unforeseen circumstance.

Your main point that cheating has a better cost/benefit ratio than other sports is probably correct. But bear in mind that football is by far the most popular sport in the world. You don't want to mess with it too much.

Read this account of the 1994 Caribbean Cup match between Barbados and Grenada for a perverse example.

Ok, lets look at the consequences of the hands play:
a) Being reduced to 10 players: The game time was over, so no consequence here.
b) One player missing next match: Irrelevant, since otherwise there would have been no next match.
c) Penalty: 75% chance of getting a goal vs. 100% chance of getting a goal. That's not a punishment, that's an improvement.

a) and b) had no negative effect, and c) is a clear advantage, in that particular case enough to win the game.

a) Sure.
b) Straw man. They did progress, so obviously it is a relevant.
c) It's higher than 75%, but anyway, the improvement doesn't make it a reward. The odds were neither rewarded or punished as a result of the player's action.

So, a) had no negative, b) had a negative effect, and c) is an advantage but not one created as a reward.

The goal counts when the ball crosses the line, not when it hypothetically might have crossed the line - this one may have been clear cut, but (and particularly without video replays) what about difficult angle decision handballs? The precedents set by changing the rules to penalty goals will create much more ambiguous decisions, and we have enough of those as it is.

As it happens, Uruguay do get a punishment. Maybe a better punishment is not just that the player in question is not allowed to play in the next game, but that Uruguay are only allowed to play the next game with 10 men ?

Like I said, the punishment may not be severe enough, but it is still a punishment and not a reward. A reward would be to give Uruguay a goal for it instead.

This is pretty persuasive. He did the only thing he could do. And he did not argue. I could have done without his also understandable celebration in the tunnel, he would have scored higher with me if he had been less emotive at that point.

I do think FIFA could have given him a two match ban, since he missed none of the game he was red carded.

Come on - Uruguay was rewarded by staying in the tournament. If this is not a reward ...

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Stay out of my territory! (W. White, aka Heisenberg)

But that wasn't the reward for that incident. That was the reward for already being at 1-1 and winning the penalty shootout. Had they been 3-0 ahead it would have made no difference. Had it been 0-3 it would have made no difference. Had they lost the penalty shootout you wouldn't be talking about them being rewarded anything. Had Ghana scored the penalty they got for the handball, there would be no talk of a reward.

If I said that the disallowed second goal for England against Germany destroyed their spirit which is why they played so badly in the second half. Germany only got through because they were "rewarded" by a bad decision. In reality, it was the rest of the game that determined who went through, just as it was the penalty shootout that determined Uruguay's progress.

The use of the hand was rewarded by the chance to stay in the tournament - it is as simple as that.

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Stay out of my territory! (W. White, aka Heisenberg)