Every team does it to some extent, but there's a difference between falling, usually because you get clipped bit even when it was legal contact, and the flailing on the ground that Portugal, Italy and France (among others) are known for. "Oh god my face, you pushed me in the stomach and gouged out my eyes a the SAME TIME!"

They did hand out a card for diving in one of the last group round games. USA's coach suggested that there be a review and retroactive red-cards be given. I think it would clean it up a lot. Again not necessarily for the "fall" itself, but for the flail or the time waster.

However, the ref didn't get pissed enough in this game to do that though, he was relatively good even if he misjudged one of their cards and one of ours, IMO.

I said the same thing when Ghana took the lead for good. I'm not a fan of the knockout round but i was happy the U.S. Team got that far. U.S. had a lot of oppurtunities in the last few minutes but couldn't buy a goal.

Yeah and their goalie was good. By the end of OT our guys were wiped and just couldn't do anything. It's a shame, but we stopped spreading their D to the outside as well as we did earlier and tried to bang it through the wall of red.

I have a good Brasilian friend (who is also a former pro soccer player) who gets incensed when people spell it with a Z.

And I did find out, hours later, that the match was tied.

Then I watched today's match. Ugh. Why didn't Bradley save at least ONE substitution for near the end? I don't like Ghana right now, but hey, they probably don't like me, either.

Hey, if I'm spelling it in Portugese I'll use the 's' :p American English loves our 'z.'

I don't know why we had Clark and Findley in the first place. Maybe just because they were fresh legs, but we ended up pulling Clark out anyway :-/

Ghana deserved to win, but showed poor sportsmanship throughout and I find that disappointing.

This.

And I sleep in and wake up to find Germany beating the snot out of England.

*Insert Jon Stewart's joke about England calling the USA for help again.*

lol. Germany's precision was very good. The back-2-back goal scoring pretty much knock out England.

Augh ouch. I'll have to catch replays later, I'm out of the house for the next match too.

Justice!!!!
 

FIFA drops refs who made biggest mistakes

"Koman Coulibaly, the referee who gained notoriety for controversially denying the United States a potential game-winning goal against Slovenia in the group stage, was sent back to Mali without having refereed another match since his glaring mistake 11 days ago.

"The 10 referees deemed to be the worst in the tournament were excluded from the final list of elite officials who will be in contention to take charge of the all-important quarterfinal rounds onward.

"All 10 packed up their things from the secret refereeing base near Pretoria – where the officials have lived in isolation since the start of the World Cup – and were due to catch flights home either Tuesday night or Wednesday morning.

"Yahoo! Sports exclusively revealed hours after the USA 2-2 draw with Slovenia that Coulibaly would not be allowed to referee another match, and so it transpired...."

Don't deprive yourself from reading the whole article! (Y Viva Espana!)

Blatter says sorry to England, debate re-opens

with the recent controversial calls, FIFA has agreed to revisit the possibility of using goal-line technology, but remains steadfast on not using video review. even the idea of limited use, ie one or two challenges for instant replay, are given little regard.

FIFA President Sepp Blatter is a terrifically pompous ass. it's astounding how much i deplore the man, and he can still find room for growth. if being an A-hole was a renewable source of energy, his worth would be limitless. a perpetual jerk.

FIFA = F'n Insolent French A-hole.

hooray!!

And Justice for....some. While it's good that the FIFA grew a pair and ship off those idiots, the damage caused by their mistakes will remain a black eye for the organization.

You know, I get that they can't really change the rules about goal line tech or replays at this point in the Cup. But show a little bit more apology for the way things have gone!

Good bye Brazil.