- Jenny Wood
Last week, the soccer world was faced with controversy surrounding a referee’s call and the final outcome of the match. That’s right, if you haven’t been living under a rock, you have heard about the Ireland v France World Cup qualifier, Henry’s handball and the ensuing goal that ultimately led to France’s qualification.
My question to the Iowa Soccer community is, should FIFA authorize a re-match?
On the one hand….an obvious missed call, something replay clearly showed. On the other hand, our game does not currently utilize replay, and, historically, a referee’s call does not get changed after the match is over.
Putting on my State Cup Director hat for a moment…what do you suppose the reaction of coaches, players, parents and referees would be if a parent on a losing side came to me with video replay after a match clearly showing the referee missed a call on what turned out to be the winning goal, and I determined the match would be replayed? How about you tournament directors out there — would you want to make that decision?
Essentially, FIFA was in this same position. In our game, referee decisions stand on the field and are not overturned “after the fact” — even in the face of overwhelming evidence that would support overturning. And unfortunately for Ireland, the Assistant Referee did not have the angle to help the Referee with getting the call right. I bet just about every one of us can point to a missed call that cost our team a match. But for now, that is part of our game. Any referees out there want to share their point of view? Community members, speak up!
Jenny Wood, Iowa Soccer
No Way, this type of thing happens way more than people think. It just got caught on camera this time. There’s no red challenge flag or booth review like American Football, or Officials review like in Hockey, so it stands like it was called. Like you said, it’s just part of our sport and I’m sure that each of us can recall a moment where a bad or missed call changed a games outcome (I could rattle of more than one, but that’s another conversation). Any game where you have fast moving action and human eyes watching there are going to be things that get missed. Our luxury to have instant replay for fans and onlookers has brought up controversy where ever it is shown, no matter which side of the replay you fall on (for or against). Look at all the issues surrounding Baseball and their lack of using replay. Also, are they going to go back and replay the Hand of God game with Argentina? – I think not…..
Agree with ks. Actually the “right call” was made. The right call is the one that the referee sees and believes. There is no other call…………..that counts.
Thought I would make a post but a little closer to home from the FIFA rematch question of Ireland vs France to right here in the good old USA.
Question: Do you know the final four of the College NCAA Women’s tournament?
Answer: UCLA, Stanford, North Carolina & Notre Dame.
Did you also know that there are two Iowa girls who play on UCLA, Chelesa Cline & Whitney Sharp! Do you also know both of these players were once in the Iowa ODP system! These two Iowa players are now playing with and against great national talent, just look at some of the players on the UCLA team.
Lauren Cheney (US national women’s team) and these other players have been on the U20-23 national team’s, Sydney Leroux, Kristina Larsen, Lauren Wilmoth & Kylie Wright.
By the way, UCLA 21-2-1 vs Stanford 24-0-0 will be played Friday 12/4/09 @ 5:30pm ET @ College Station Tx and will be on ESPN2/ESPNU.
Drake makes the Elite Eight –
Drake – 2 Won
Western Il – 1
Drake – 1 Won
Ohio St. – 0
Drake – 6 Won
Boston College – 4
Drake – 16-6-2
Vs
North Carolina 15-2-3 12/4/09 @ 6:00pm @ Chapel Hill N.C.
I think talking about a ref decision, and should there be a rematch for a FIFA game is ok but don’t you think it is a little more closer to reality to cover the NCAA soccer tournament for girls and boys and how Iowa kids and teams are involved it. It gives players and parent’s player’s hope for their kids for the future dreams of playing college soccer and these players that go before others then become inspiration for the next generations
FarPost
Hi Mike,
Thanks for the update on college soccer and Iowa players. Getting contributions from our members, such as you have done, is exactly what we’re going for — community involvement. I invite you to join our community network, SoccerNet, by going to http://www.iowasoccer.org and clicking on “Social Networking”. Then sign up for an account.
Since you follow college soccer and former Iowa youth players, you’ll be able to post and update the latest on those kids in SoccerNet. You can even invite them to join it and post their insider updates! We’ll try to keep up with them, also, but member contributions (from parents and players alike!) will go a long way toward keeping our community up-to-date on soccer — youth to professional.
Thanks, again for contributing.
Jenny, Iowa Soccer