Let's start out by saying that football (soccer) is one of my least favorite sports to watch. Keep in mind that I have played the sport my entire life and was at one point ranked as one of the best players in the entire state by the newspapers. I just find it boring to watch and would really rather watch almost anything else, especially Gaelic football.
I do watch the World Cup because it is the world's largest sporting event outside of the Olympics. Also, I live in a very "international" community and everyone else is into it so "when in Rome."
The rule changes I am referring to are the fact that we are using technology (finally) to help officiate the game. In the past this was not used for the sake a tradition and because it eats up a lot of time in the game. The head official now has a headset on and a group of people with 35 camera angles are constantly watching the action and will let him know if he missed something. This results in far less shenanigans, diving, dirty play, and of course the ever constant threat of Suarez biting you.
It is my understanding that the individual teams can demand a play be reviewed a certain amount of times but I don't know the specifics of this. I have watched 7 or 8 matches so far and I have not seen the review initiated by anyone other than the official. It is nice to have this option though as I am sure some of you can remember the incident of Germany vs. England where the ball actually crossed the goal line by half a meter yet it wasn't ruled a goal because it bounced back out and from where the ref was standing it appeared as though it didn't go in at all. This technology eliminates things like this from happening.
My favorite aspect of it is the fact that players can be reprimanded and even booked and fined for diving. This is one aspect of the sport that drives me nuts. I'm not saying that there are no injuries in this game because there definitely are, some quite heinous ones actually. However, when the game stops being a sport of skill and becomes a competition of who has the better actors on their team, I'm not going to enjoy it. It is only going to make me mad, even if the team i am supporting benefits from it.
We still see overreaction from anyone who has their ankle touched by another player and the ubiquitous placing of hands on the face while rolling on the ground despite the fact that your face wasn't involved in the "injury."
So now in this cup i have seen very little Oscar award nominees on the pitch and instead people for the most part don't even try this tactic because attempting to do so will land you in the book and possibly sent off. Fantastic!
There is one other thing i would like to see though: I don't believe penalty kicks should be awarded in the box for fouls where there wasn't a conceivable chance on goal. This happened last night in South Korea vs. Sweden. I don't remember the players names because I was only half-way paying attention but a foul WAS committed in the box... with play going away from the goal for a loose ball. There was no play on the goal, no chance at a shot. The foul seemed innocent enough, just a fraction of a second too late which resulted in making contact with legs instead of ball. It didn't appear intentional or malicious. Therefore, Sweden got a PK and scored on said kick. They ended up winning the game 1-0 in a hard fought battle that really should have ended in a draw.
I hate it when a game is determined by penalty kicks and would like to see some alteration of the rule to only give PK's when the foul occurs during what can be conceived as an opportunity to score. No more free kicks because of incidental ball contact with someone's forearm either. It likely wont ever happen since so many teams rely on the existence of this in order to win but it certainly would make the game much more appealing to me.
Anyway, I am glad the technology is involved now. It makes for a much better game with far less paths-to-victory-via-cheating. Some people were concerned it would make the games too long much like instant replay did to American Football in the 80's, however this has not been the case and if anything it is actually saving time because the players are playing the game instead of rolling around on the ground for 90 minutes hoping for a whistle.
Do you agree?
