I know you did not argue with me on this point Greg, I just stumbled upon this and provided it as a support to what I said earlier.

Ofcourse the MaFifa is blaming it on the local FA, but that is BS as this tournament isn't played under the South African FA flag but under the FIFA flag. But the MaFIfa is never wrong, we all know that [add sarcastic smile here]
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Russian News today (I am watching as I type) are really covering the subject, replays games from past events as well.

Blatter has to go, there is no argument left for him to retain the seat. And Platino should as well, IMO. Start with new blood and change things. The only way to improve the game is make sure only top teams participate. What does anyone care if North Korea fans watched the cup at home or not? Would FIFA sell more seats if that same Brazil played Sweden instead?

Hopefully Spain vs Portugal won't be affected by officiating, although I will bet that Portugese players will spend at least 15% of it play acting and rolling on the grass. Spain? Maybe 5-10%. Anyone recall any BS like that in the England/Germany game?
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I agree that there should be a new qualification system, but doing it based on the world ranking isn't fair to the lower ranked team. Slovakia wouldn't have qualified, yet they reached the 2nd round and kicked Italy out of the tournament.

I would rather see a system like with (ice)hockey or the Davis Cup, with a promotion/relegation system. The top teams are qualified for the worldgroup, and the lesser teams can promote to that group if they preform well in qualifiers.

ps: from the 32 countries that started in this worldcup, 26 are in the top 32. Sweden isn't even in the top 32.
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Hey we're an emotional people! :-)
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Or a fixed system where the top 12 or 16 ranked teams at a predetermined cutoff time automatically qualify and the remaining berths are allocated equally per geographical area for regional qualification tournaments thus ensuring a truly global representation at the World Cup.
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I can see you dive to the dirt and start rolling with tears in your eyes at EPIC too, when someone comes close to you with a hand delivered bomb.
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grabbing my knee too!....hahaha....:-)....no dirt rollin' for me....now you on the other hand....:-)
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I owe you a sincere apology! Seems Torres has been usurping most of both teams' time with theatrical falls and lots of hand flailing... What a clown and a waste of a talent, IMO. Just suck it up and play.

So far, Portugal seems to have an edge in my book. Let's see how second half goes. Shame that only one of these may be playing Brazil. Looking at the brackets again, Brazill has only one real contender on their side, Dutch. And then 4 top notch teams have to knock each other out on the other side: Germany, Argentina, Spain and Portugal.
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Blatter released a statement today

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-c...cc=5901&ver=us
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Nobody will be playing Brazil in the semis!
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I will wear wooden shoes and give you something to cry about :-)
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Great game and yet another BS call, a mythical elbow thrown. Spanish defender kept touching his head, time after time, in faint hopes that blood will start dripping at some point from a "wound" that never was. Unreal.
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Moe,

In regard to Blatter's statement, read it carefully: "... FIFA deplores "when you see the evidence of refereeing mistakes." What Blatter deplores is the fact that refs and FIFA got caught, not that refs made mistakes. What an idiot...
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he has been ruining FIFA for a decade now. He's a day late and a dollar short... hes already apologized to Mexico and England... I believe he owes apologies to USA, Italy, and Klose, Kaka, and the list goes on and on and on.

Perhaps the answer is not replays on every play... but maybe the individual teams can have two "challenges" per game. I wouldnt mind seeing something like that in place.
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Spains goal was offside too.
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just add portugal to the list too ferdie
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and Holland, the penalty yesterday wasn't a foul. Good thing we still won.

I must admit that the offside of Villa was hard to see for the linesman and the ref.
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and apparently the TV too, cause they didnt mention it the entire match
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they mentioned it here on Dutch tv.
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Worst cup I can recall. How many games were decided by the refs so far? And in the worst way...
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It happened at every worldcup. 1966 for example, when England 'scored' that goal against Germany in he final that wasn't a goal. 1986 Maradona's 'hand of god' and I can recall a quarter final Brazil vs The Netherlands in 1994, when Brazil beat us 3-2 with one offside goal and one free kick goal that wasn't a foul at all.
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