No Goal! How a referee ruined England vs. Germany

Heading into today’s opening match at the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, there was a lot for soccer fans to get excited about. A veteran England squad were set to match up with a youthful German side in the latest installment of one of soccer’s most bitterly contested rivalries. English stars Wayne Rooney and Frank Lampard had the opportunity to shake off lackluster group-stage performances by performing at a high level when it really mattered. Emerging German playmakers Thomas Muller and Mesut Ozil had the chance to shine in their first performances on the world’s biggest sporting stage. Yes, there were storylines galore at the start of the day, and it’s a shame that now that the game is over poor referring seems to be what everyone’s talking about.
A crucial first-half mistake on the part of Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda has left many soccer fans wondering if the time has finally come for FIFA to implement some form of instant replay on the field and- more importantly- whether the better team won a berth in the quarterfinals.
In today’s match in Bloemfontein, the Germans struck first with clinical finishes from Miroslave Klose and Lukas Podolski in the twentieth and thirty-second minutes respectively. The Germans definitely appeared to be the better side early on, but the English began to find their footing in the match shortly after Podolski’s strike hit the back of the English net.
The first true English counterpunch came in the thirty-seventh minute when Matthew Upson put home a headed attempt on goal off a Steven Gerrard free kick to make the game 2-1. Then, less than one minute later, came the moment which is sure to haunt English dreams for years to come.
After a respectable buildup by his team, English midfielder Frank Lampard came to possess the ball at the top of the German penalty area. He let loose a looping shot on goal which beat German goalkeeper Manuel Neuer but crashed off the crossbar. The ball ricocheted straight down and past the German goal-line, yet the backspin created by its collision with the crossbar sent it back into the field of play. Sadly neither referee Jorge Larrionda nor his linesman were in a position to make the call, and the goal never counted.
From then on a match which could have been anyone’s game at 2-2 seemed destined to end in a German victory. Both of Germany’s goals in the second half came off devastating counterattacks which were a result of the England team desperately pushing for a tying goal which they’d rightfully already scored. The game’s end result may have been 4-1 in favor of the Germans, but England coach Fabio Capello knows the game could have turned out much differently.
“"We made some mistakes when they played the counterattack,” Capello told ESPN.com after the game. “The referee made bigger mistakes. If we are given that goal, there is no way of telling what the end result would have been.”
Back home in Norman, fans were left with a bitter taste in their mouth regardless of which team they were backing heading into the game.
“I wish England would have won, and I still think they could have,” said Norman resident Walter Russell. “The fact there’s no instant replay [in FIFA-sanctioned soccer games] is absolute horseshit.”
Germany supporter Bryan Spitz echoed Russell’s sentiment, only without the profanity. After all, his team won.
“I really wish they’d get these things right,” Spitz said. “FIFA seems to think any press is good press, but they don’t recognize that stuff like this turns off casual fans from watching soccer.”
Both men say they’ll continue to watch the World Cup despite the refereeing gaffes, but that the game as a whole would be much better if FIFA, as Walter Russell eloquently puts it, “grows the fuck up and joins the twenty-first century already.”