2014 World Cup

[A N Mouse]

not that russia really deserved to win last night but they would have every right to feel very frustrated by the added time at the end of the match.

4 added mins were notified around the 89 min mark but following on from this algeria substituted (surely another 30 secs should have been added so?) a player who felt the need to embrace half the algerian team walking off and then an unused algerian sub kicks the ball away and the ref wastes even more time by walking over to give him a yellow. the ref then blows up bang on 94 mins! russia probably wouldn't have scored anyway but very poor officiating in my view

I think three minutes were originally notified, and an additonal minute was added after the booking.

[NeverFeltBetter]

That;s exactly what happened. It was stated as three and more was played. Commentators on ESPN noted it.

[NeverFeltBetter]

On a side note, the fourth official apparently - maybe breaching his duties - ordered that Antonio Valencia be sent off against France for his lunge. I've said before that this is the only way a video ref could work in football. Let's say the Italy v Uruguay game had continued as it had, and then two minutes later, the fourth ref, having reviewed the replays, gave the ref the ok to send Suarez off. It'd look a bit silly being sent off two or three minutes after your actions, but would it be an improvement to the game? I think it would.

Interesting idea, but what happens if Suarez scores in those intervening minutes? Does it get chalked off?

[A N Mouse]

It's the general gist of it and its urging for level-headedness that I found welcome. The reason's it's being so widely circulated, in spite of its faults, is probably down the fact it's one of the few mainstream pieces (that I've come across anyway) to go against the grain.

Calling out the hyprocisy is fair enough. But the comparissons with rugby (a game were biting, stamping, gouging, faking injuries with stage props are tacitly approved - just don't get caught) are unecessary.

Especially when there are better examples in English football - whether or not Shearer should have been allowed to go to the world cup, after the Lennon incident.

On the ban, I think when you take previous into consideration he got off lightly. I only found out about the incident with the ref yesterday. If a 16 year kid had busted a ref in junior game here in 2003, how many international caps would he have at this stage? If you bit an opponent in a Sunday mornining game, what kind of punishment would you expect? First time? Second time? Third? Fourth?

[Stuttgart88]

I think if you bit a guy in a Sunday morning game you'd get your nose broken.

Just as an aside, wasn't there a spell of ear biting among Dublin street knackers several years back?

[pineapple stu]

Interesting idea, but what happens if Suarez scores in those intervening minutes? Does it get chalked off?
No, it's a goal.

It's not perfect - nothing's going to be - but it's just something that might be an improvement.

And if players know they're being watched by umpteen camera angles, they'd hopefully be less likely to lash out at opponents.

[Stuttgart88]

Maradona siding with Suarez.

Uruguay FA think it's an assault on the poor because Suarez didn't go to college, though my guess is that few players ever banned for anything ever did unless they played for UCD of course.

And Chiellini is being very magnanimous.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/worldcup/2014/0627/626933-maradona-likens-fifa-to-mafia-in-defence-of-suarez/

[OwlsFan]

Collect the wife from the airport, I fear the good times are over!:(

For the wife ?

[jbyrne]

That;s exactly what happened. It was stated as three and more was played. Commentators on ESPN noted it.

RTE initially said 3 but confirmed 4 mins. the ball kicking away happened after they mentioned 4.

[Razors left peg]

Maradona siding with Suarez.

Uruguay FA think it's an assault on the poor because Suarez didn't go to college, though my guess is that few players ever banned for anything ever did unless they played for UCD of course.

And Chiellini is being very magnanimous.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/worldcup/2014/0627/626933-maradona-likens-fifa-to-mafia-in-defence-of-suarez/

Whats the odds that Chiellini is lining up a move to Barcelona too?

[DannyInvincible]

I don't think it really says anything that hasn't been widely agreed upon by all but the most hysterical hacks. Citing the lack of uproar in Italy is particularly misleading since it's obvious why it's not the major story there.

Indeed, Italy were knocked out, which would have dominated the back pages there, no doubt, but the incident would surely have offered plenty of potential ammunition for the Italian media if they'd deemed it newsworthy enough. The incident could easily have been exploited to bolster feelings and expressions of grievance over the fact Uruguay weren't forced to play with ten men like Italy were. And the victim was an Italian, after all. In spite of that though, they didn't focus too heavily on it.

The Brazilian media haven't been all that hot and bothered about it either, it must be noted. The BBC consensus, in contrast to the perceptive verdicts of the RTÉ panel, was almost Orwellian in its conformity, although Neville and Friedel did both admit in surprised fashion that the locals didn't seem to get what the big deal was at all. The Brazlians couldn't get over the drama it provoked in the English media. I won't argue the incident amounted to nothing and is to be laughed off, but it does demonstrate how our moral (and legal) interpretation of events is a matter of cultural perspective. Any idea how other national medias have reacted? Has it stirred much internationally?

I'm guessing the primary factors FIFA might have considered then in coming to their decision would have been the level of physical harm caused, the harm to health potential, Suarez's recidivism and the impact to public relations/brand image. Harm caused was minimal to non-existent and the harm potential was low (as far as I can make out), but I do acknowledge the significance of his recidivism. Whether right or wrong, it's a fairly well-established moral and legal principle in our society that repetition of an offence demands a greater degree of treatment in response; that most often amounts to punishment. In terms of PR and FIFA's brand or image, the incident was probably adjudged to be of a significant enough level of seriousness to threaten sponsorship and the public good will of those with no interest in seeing such behaviour in the game. Whether public outrage, moral shock and corporate concern, rather than medical facts, should play so heavily on disciplinary matters covering physical incidents though, I'm not so sure, but then FIFA do call the shots. It's their party and they can throw out of it whoever they see fit if they think he's lowering the tone. In their overly stern response, however, I think they've damaged their own reputation amongst people who believe in notions of fairness, consistency and proportionality.


Maradona siding with Suarez.

Uruguay FA think it's an assault on the poor because Suarez didn't go to college, though my guess is that few players ever banned for anything ever did unless they played for UCD of course.

And Chiellini is being very magnanimous.

http://www.rte.ie/sport/soccer/worldcup/2014/0627/626933-maradona-likens-fifa-to-mafia-in-defence-of-suarez/

Maradona is an utter lunatic. And there's no need for the Uruguayan federation president to rely on nut-job conspiracy theory either to emphasise the draconian severity and arguable double standards of the punishment. The university claim is amusing; the poor are, no doubt, more often demonised by society than the affluent, but if FIFA were really out to ban footballers without a university education, there'd be very few footballers left!

[DannyInvincible]

My personal view is that despite Liverpool being punished the fact remains that they bought a guy who they knew had issues. The top clubs didn't want him because they knew of his temperament. Also, it's just a fact of life that players can get crocked playing international football, or suspended. An economist would argue that all known factors and risks should be incorporated into a player's financial value. Sadly, it drives a wedge between club football and international football but hopefully clubs will be grown up enough to accept that such events are rare and rightly deserve punishment.

It's an interesting one alright. I do think the punishment is harsh, as I've made clear, but on the basis that it has been issued and we are where we are, I'm not quite sure whether it's right to feel specifically sorry for Liverpool or not. Have they been particularly hard done-by? Outside of football, if a worker was to commit a crime and be imprisoned, would anyone seriously argue that he should be allowed out of prison for a few hours every day or whatever to allow him to continue serving his employer to ensure primarily they were prevented from suffering loss too? (Maybe they would; maybe it is a great social unfairness!) I'm not suggesting it's right or wrong that Liverpool should also suffer, but just drawing an analogy. It's just the way life is; it's not naturally possible to separate Suarez the Uruguayan from Suarez the Liverpool player. They're one and the same entity and always will be. Whatever one does, the other has done it too. If Suarez was adjudged to have committed a legal crime for which the punishment was to be thrown in prison, would it be particularly unfair on Uruguay and Liverpool that he'd no longer have the freedom to offer them his services? That's kind of the point of punishment, isn't it? It's all-encompassing. If you're of the belief that Suarez should be at least suspended by football's governing body for an act he committed on the football field - and I'm not saying he should be exempt from punishment - then it's surely only logical that that ban should apply to all official competition.

[DannyInvincible]

Interestingly, FIFA, obviously keen not to have such incidents tarnish the reputation of the competition, were prepared to step in to resolve the Ghana bonus-pay dispute by transferring the money themselves and deducting whatever would have then been owed to them from the prize money of Ghana's football association: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/28065553

Looks like the Nigerian players are now in dispute with their association for similar reasons.

[DannyInvincible]

Former Cork hurler Dónal Óg Cusack put forward a very insightful and compassionate view on Suarez's transgression in the Irish Examiner yesterday: http://www.irishexaminer.com/sport/columnists/donal-og-cusack/suarez-is-just-another-crazy-mixed-up-kid-not-a-bad-person-273535.html

Well worth a read.


Tuesday a fragile man broke in the industry we all support. He cracked in the pressure cooker we all built.

On my way into work every morning I pass a mural. Sometimes I pause and just gaze at it for a while. That’s why it is there. One of the inspirational figures painted onto the wall is Marie Curie, the first woman to win the Nobel Prize for Science. There is a quote from her too. Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.

I love that. The words apply in nearly all areas of life. We live in a world where trying to understand things has gone out of fashion. Trying to understand stuff takes a while. We like everything these days to be instant. The Luis Suarez jokes came instantly.

The one about his mother getting a job as a cleaner in a bus station in the capital and the whole family having to move 300 miles to live in Montevideo. Luis Suarez was seven and he was so traumatised he stayed behind with his granny for a month.

The cracker about his father walking out two years later and leaving a mother and seven sons to cope.

Or the kid having no boots and realising if he improved enough the club he played for as a kid would buy him boots. Or how his teenage girlfriend Sofia, who is now his wife, had to move with her family to Europe when he was 15. Suarez reacted like he did when he needed those boots. He played harder and harder till he got a move to Europe at the age of 19. His being depended on the boots, on Sofia.

Laugh? Far from it. Time after time Luis Suarez’s world got ripped apart and football put him back together. My favourite is the one I read about Suarez growing up in Uruguay in a culture where winning through knavery and roguery and a little deceit and foulness is a little bit sweeter. They call it Picardía. We call it being a cute hoor. There’s a thin line between being celebrated as a cute hoor and being convicted as something else. You learn that too late.

I think the Luis Suarez story is just desperately sad. I have no stones to throw at him. For a while now the Gaelic Players Association has been responding to the mental health needs of players. The We Wear More campaign (www.wewearmore.ie) which was launched recently is designed to emphasise a footballer or a hurler is more than just a footballer or a hurler. He wears more than county colours. He is a son, a brother, a nephew, a husband, a boyfriend, a student, a worker, etc. In one sense our members are fortunate that they generally maintain the support system around them while playing elite sport. They are close to family and friends and the club they grew up in.

On the other hand very few people understand the pressures they feel, or understand that being good at a sport and being celebrated for it doesn’t make you immune from other pressures and troubles. There is a fear for many players if they open up about that internal life people will say, oh yeah I’d love to have those troubles or just lighten up and enjoy it.

One thing we have learned in the GPA is it is wrong and dangerous to judge anybody without knowing their story. I look at a Luis Suarez or a Mario Balotelli and I read about them. Soccer has been their way out of isolation and poverty and fear. We give them money and expect them to cope.

Suarez arrived in Holland aged 19. He had the love of his life and he had his career but he didn’t have any of the equipment to cope. Keep winning and you can keep this life. Lose and you are in the ditch. That’s the way we feel when we are kids. That’s what abandonment does. That’s how it is for players on the edge of making it. More fear than understanding.

Suarez survived but he grew up with a distorted view of football. I really think he feels his happiness depends on it. You watch him play. Football isn’t just his job. It’s his dependency.

How many talented young players have been thrown away with stories which never get told. Gambling, drink problems, general behavioural problems. Good enough to play but not good enough to adapt. Kids who can’t cope get ditched early. There’s more talent at the door always. Suarez got through the filter. Too good to discard. Too screwed up to last.

Dressingrooms are strange places to grow up in. I’m not sure how you could grow adequately in the environments where Luis Suarez has spent his life. A poor Uruguayan kid. Then suddenly a rich Uruguayan kid thousands of miles from home. When he made that handball against Ghana in the last World Cup he got a red card and Ghana won a penalty to win the game. What serious dressingroom wouldn’t have encouraged a player to stick out a hand in the same circumstances. To take one for the team? Gyan missed the penalty. Suarez was in tears in the tunnel when the camera’s caught him shifting from despair to joy. He was the scapegoat one second, then the saviour who took one for the team. Uruguay won on penalties.

Afterwards people forgot Suarez had been punished under the rules. Ghana just didn’t cash in. Listen, how many of us list Thierry Henry’s handball down as one of the worst moments in World Cup history and Diego Maradona’s handball as one of the greatest? I watched that Henry incident in remote Zambia. The African next to me sitting on a crate supporting France didn’t see it the same way. Suarez was a hero or a villain depending on what colours you wore. Any wonder he didn’t come away with a clearer understanding of football’s morality code or how that code changes shape.

His abiding memory must have been that winning made everything ok again. In times of extreme stress it looks to me like he goes back to being a little kid on the street again. Biting and name calling. Being a cute hoor. It doesn’t matter if you win or lose it’s how you play the game? That’s not taught on the street or in dressingrooms underneath big stadiums. Winning equals reward. Losing for Suarez means everything he fears and doesn’t understand beginning to threaten him again.

He can score goals. That protects him. His dependency is football. His cartoon superpower is football. No matter what he does he is good enough to be sold on at a profit and somebody else will coddle him and use his talent for a while.

Just because he is rich doesn’t mean he isn’t being exploited. Just because Marilyn Monroe was rich doesn’t mean she wasn’t exploited. He needs to be helped not scapegoated and then serially sold on. At Liverpool last year Suarez did some work with the psychiatrist Steve Peters. I have read Peters’ book The Chimp Paradox and the man comes from a very interesting background of working with high-security prisoners. While he was in that environment at Anfield last season something changed in Suarez. When he started his season, later than everybody else because of his last suspension he was a changed player. His behaviour was excellent, his play was brilliant. He opened up as a family man.

In Brazil this week he was a South American player in the mad world of a South American World Cup. He was removed from that support structure which Brendan Rogers had put in place. Steve Peters was with the England team. The British media were back to taking pot shots at him. Not fully fit, playing badly on a Uruguayan team which was going out of the World Cup and being marked by a provocative Italian with whom he had history, Suarez flipped. Remember Zidane!

He went back to the old pathology. He bit somebody. In a stupid and obvious way.

At the end of the game against Italy he didn’t celebrate like he did against Ghana four years ago. He looked like an addict who was going to have to begin painful rehab all over again. It was desperately sad to see. Biting is an ugly thing to do, but nobody died. No bones were broken. Everybody else played on. The fuss was 100 times louder than when one professional player comes in high and premeditated with a tackle which could break a leg and end a career. That’s what it is like being Luis Suarez.

When it happened Suarez reverted helplessly to childhood, clutching his teeth, then saying his eye hurt, crying.

He has bigger problems than FIFA are qualified to deal with.

...

[Crosby87]

Brazil's won loss record while wearing the yellow is daunting.

[Razors left peg]

It was a well written piece by Donal Og but I still think that there are lots of people with troubled pasts and it still doesnt give anyone the right to continue to bite people.

I actually think the bigger problem is that Suarez is constantly surrounded by people that keep telling him he doesnt do anything wrong. I heard a journalist from Liverpool on Off the Ball the other day saying that Suarez lives in a small little bubble of a gated housing area where he is surrounded by family, friends and other hangers on.

Look at the reaction of the Uruguay fans when he went back to Uruguay.They are treating him as the returning hero rather than the gobsh1te who just ruined their world cup chances by doing something completely idiotic. Theres plenty of people in Ireland that still hate Roy Keane for his return home(Many wont agree but Keane was sent home for arguing to improve Irelands chances :) )

His captain Lugano was adamant that nothing had happened at all and that Chiellini had old scars on his shoulder.... Is it any wonder that with all these people continuing to tell him that he is doing no wrong and he continues to believe that he is the victim.

His official defense in the suspension hearing was laughable. He just tripped,lost balance and landed on Chiellini.... Its like the script from a bad porn movie, the cheating wife gets caught and says that she just tripped,fell and landed on yer man!

The way that Uruguay have been carrying on I honestly hope that James Rodriguez rips them to shreads and Columbia win 5 nil

[DannyInvincible]

Those South American anthems are truly rousing stuff.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Howard Webb doing well already. Good attacking feel to this game.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Another own goal. Seems like a lot of them in this tournament.

[Crosby87]

chile has no chance to win this. Im going outside to tan. G'Day, mates.

[NeverFeltBetter]

Come back inside Crosby.

[DannyInvincible]

Nice! 1-1.

Utterly shambolic defending though. And from a throw-in?! You use a throw-in to have a breather and use the break in play to look out for a way to relieve yourself of pressure. That was reckless schoolboy stuff.

[Razors left peg]

chile has no chance to win this. Im going outside to tan. G'day, mates.
come back inside quick!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[NeverFeltBetter]

Did that Neymar header not hit the guys upheld arm? That has to be a penalty surely.

[DannyInvincible]

Im going outside to tan.

Have you ever done anything sensible in your life? :p

It's been a terrific contest so far. End-to-end under a phenomenal atmosphere.

[Stuttgart88]

Seconds before Chile scored I was about to type that I was really impressed by Brazil. Fast, athletic and direct. But Chile have held on and took their one clear chance. Vidal did everything to ensure it went out for a throw rather than a goal kick and look what happened.

Fascinating contest. I'm utterly gripped.

Arturo Vidal has a career as a Hollywood Hispanic villain when he retires. If Vinny Jones can do it...

[Stuttgart88]

Did that Neymar header not hit the guys upheld arm? That has to be a penalty surely.
I wasn't sure, I'd like to see it again. These games are often decided of small margins.

Webb should have given Hulk a penno. The pressure Chile put on him via the media was well targeted. Webb has a history of being lenient in the early parts of a tense and high profile contest for fear of chaos following. The players know it and played to it.

[centre mid]

This level does seem to be beyond Webb, not in control at all, well played Chile.

[Stuttgart88]

Big call there. Still not sure about it.

[centre mid]

Although good decision on the Hulk disallowed goal.

[DannyInvincible]

Definite hand-ball by Hulk. Delighted it was ruled out; you can't be let score a goal at the World Cup with a bloody shin-scuff like that!

[DannyInvincible]

This level does seem to be beyond Webb, not in control at all, well played Chile.

You think? FIFA/UEFA regularly give him big games. I think he's pretty solid. He strikes me as more savvy to the possibility of players diving than many other refs. He errs on the side of caution, no doubt, but I can't say that's a bad thing. Given the decisive nature a penalty can possess, he'd probably rather he waved away an ambiguous penalty-shout than award a penalty for a suspected dive. You need to be certain. Hulk's shout certainly wasn't stonewall. Contact was minimal and I don't think careless. It was a coming together of bodies, I thought. In fact, there was a similar incident up the other end involving Luiz. I think Webb would have to have awarded Chile a penalty for that if he'd seen reason to give Hulk a penalty earlier in the game.

[centre mid]

I think certain teams/players are able to get to him/influence him. I'd forgive him the 3 card trick.

[Stuttgart88]

Wasn't that Graham Poll?

[DannyInvincible]

It was. This is a character assassination. Lay off Webb! :p

[centre mid]

Oh yeah - apologies Howard

[Stuttgart88]

What a tense game. Chile has big balls. Taking the game to Brazil in Brazil at the end lime that.

[Stuttgart88]

For those who give out about footballers appealing to refs, I think the instantaneous appeal by the Chilean defender prompted Webb to disallow the Hulk goal.

Was the Lino involved in the decision?

[DannyInvincible]

Although agreeing there was a hand-ball, Shearer is asking how Webb could have seen Hulk's hand-ball. Didn't linesman Mike Mularkey immediately wave his flag and bring it to his attention?

[DannyInvincible]

Rio Ferdinand: "There'll be clubs looking at this lad Sanchez."

Doesn't he realise Sanchez is a regular feature for Barcelona?

[DannyInvincible]

I couldn't even see where that Chile effort that cracked the bar went with the sunny patch in the background. Anyone else been having similar issues with the contrast when the ball passes between the camera and that area?

Brazil's most recent shoot-out didn't go very well at all:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iq0_MTEb7sA

They missed every single one of them.

The tension is unbelievable.

[Razors left peg]

That was ridiculously tense!

WHAT A WORLD CUP!!!!!!!!

[NeverFeltBetter]

That crossbar shot at the death. That's nightmare fuel for Chile. What might have been.

[DannyInvincible]

That was ridiculously tense!

Football; bloody hell!... Incredible. Amazing start to the knock-out stage. What an effort by Chile in the belly of the beast. Feel gutted for them. Why can't there be two winners?!

A word of appreciation for Chile's third penalty taken by Charles Aránguiz before it's forgotten; I think it was the best penalty I've ever seen. They'd missed their first too and this guy strolls up and coolly bangs it with power and precision as close to the top-right corner of the goal as is physically possible.

[Crosby87]

Poor Chile fans will never forget that one. Play by play guy on the radio said officiating was horrid.

[DannyInvincible]

On the radio?! You were out getting a tan listening to that on the radio? Jesus, Crosby...

On a side note, what did he say about Webb's refereeing?

[Razors left peg]

I actually thought the ref was fantastic in the circumstances

[mark12345]

Football; bloody hell!... Incredible. Amazing start to the knock-out stage. What an effort by Chile in the belly of the beast. Feel gutted for them. Why can't there be two winners?!

Yeah, Chile were absolutely brilliant and for my money deserved the win. That's football. But my question is..........why the hell can't we play like Chile?

[Razors left peg]

Yeah, Chile were absolutely brilliant and for my money deserved the win. That's football. But my question is..........why the hell can't we play like Chile?
For one thing we dont have anyone near the quality of Vidal or Sanchez. But when you see Gary Medel from Cardiff and their left back just released from Notts Forest it does show what can be done with great organisation and belief!

[pineapple stu]

A word of appreciation for Chile's third penalty taken by Charles Aránguiz before it's forgotten; I think it was the best penalty I've ever seen. They'd missed their first too and this guy strolls up and coolly bangs it with power and precision as close to the top-right corner of the goal as is physically possible.
Looked like a toe bog to me! :p

But yeah, great peno. Enjoyed Neymar's too - didn't stop the run up, but he was definitely psyching the keeper out in a way I've not seen before. Nice to see football can be completely creative still.

Edit - today's game made me more sure that Brazil won't be able to go the whole way. (Wonder if I'll be eating those words in a fortnight...)