June 19, 2012

SportsFilter: The Tuesday Huddle:

A place to discuss the sports stories that aren't making news, share links that aren't quite front-page material, and diagram plays on your hand. Remember to count to five Mississippi before commenting in anger.

posted by huddle to general at 06:00 AM - 14 comments

Why no one should care if Lance Armstrong doped.

posted by apoch at 01:39 PM on June 19, 2012

I'm glad UEFA added those fifth officials or they might miss things like clear goals.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 04:41 PM on June 19, 2012

I don't worry about it because Platini said we're all set and it won't happen again. Feels good, man.

Semi-related: Alexi Lallas feels like a Marakov chain-powered trollbot. Or Bill Walton 2.0.

posted by yerfatma at 04:46 PM on June 19, 2012

posted by yerfatma at 05:04 PM on June 19, 2012

God Alexei Lalas is just the worst soccer commentator I've ever encountered. He said the outcome of the no-call was "fair." Unbelievable.

posted by insomnyuk at 07:29 PM on June 19, 2012

I think the outcome of the entire move could be counted as a wash, as the original Ukrainian involved in the move was offside, but once the offside isn't given that has to be a goal.

You can see the head of the fifth official looking directly along the line and he still screwed it up.

Completely unexpectedly the English media reached for the goal against Germany in 2010 that wasn't given because, for them, two wrongs make a righteous indignation.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 08:13 PM on June 19, 2012

He said the outcome of the no-call was "fair."

But it was: the whole play was offsides. More good news for England as they've already beaten Italy.

posted by yerfatma at 08:16 PM on June 19, 2012

More good news for England as they've already beaten Italy.

This follows on from Rooney who said this weekend that England could win the whole tournament.

Considering the performances have ranged between "workmanlike" and "dreadful" it would probably be wiser to keep plugging the underdog angle.

posted by Mr Bismarck at 08:37 PM on June 19, 2012

Amazing the hate in the replies to Rio's tweet! I know Twitter is full of lies, hate and other absurd statements but jeez, could there've been one of the five replies in his favor?!?!

posted by billsaysthis at 11:49 AM on June 20, 2012

You can see the head of the fifth official looking directly along the line and he still screwed it up.

Shouldn't the official line up with the outside boundary of the line rather than the inside? It appears that the ball would need to be about 1/2 the width of the line inside before the official would see separation between the goal post and the ball (depending upon whether he's right or left eye dominant).

posted by offsides at 12:37 PM on June 20, 2012

I understand that the ball must completely pass the goal line, but in trying to look up the rule, I find some conflicts. Is it a goal when the ball completely passes through the plane bounded by the goal and the field-side edge of the goal line, or does the entire ball have to pass over the entire painted goal line? To put it another way, do I have to see grass between the ball and the goal line, or would a ball completely in the goal but biting the back edge of the line (i.e. a ball that would still be in play if this happened on a sideline) count?

posted by bender at 12:54 PM on June 20, 2012

Yeah, it's amazing they went to the trouble of adding the officials, bragged about it and then stuck the official in the one place where we'd be hard-pressed to say what happened. All-around good guy Sepp Blatter is being classy about it, as you'd expect.

posted by yerfatma at 12:57 PM on June 20, 2012

To put it another way, do I have to see grass between the ball and the goal line,

Yes.

Until they come up with an invisible laser grid and RFID thread in the ball itself, there is always going to be a problem with those kind of goals.

If they go to instant replay, you better hope that the camera is embedded in the post/crossbar, and that is isn't shaken by the ball hitting the crossbar.

Even in the picture above, you can see that the top corner of goal (beyond Terry) doesn't line up exactly with the goal line that extends beyond.

posted by grum@work at 01:12 PM on June 20, 2012

I am not certain the full ball crossed the line, based on the camera angles available. The extra official was so close I'm inclined to accept his view that it wasn't all the way over.

In real time, this is practically an impossible call. It's like expecting officials to call an 100 mph tennis serve that's a centimeter past the line.

Given his position, the official has to see the ball go past the posts, not over the line. I don't think the cameras capture that view.

If Terry doesn't make that absolutely fantastic play, we don't get to have this argument.

posted by rcade at 01:15 PM on June 20, 2012

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