fuck the alberta emergency public warning system, doing a test during the game? fuck you...they never interrupt entertainment tonight or friends reruns

shiiit. I have been watching Mundials since 1986. that's before you were born son. go find a noob somewheer else.

red is way too harsh.......

fucking beautiful! that last goal ruled.

the red card was the one digakoi (sp?) should have received for fucking up fucile-- he already had a yellow and was clamoring for a red.

but no, it was a penalty, and it was a red card cuz of the danger of the play, it was a goal without the foul, and if you watched the replays the goalkeeper's feet were nowhere near the ball and he tripped suarez. yes it was the tip of the foot but when you're airborne it will send you face-forward.

player of the game, for me:



parreira must be cutting off his testicles as we speak. his team barely tried attacking-- he removed pienaar? why the fuck?

anyway, this was AWESOME, to see uruguay play the way they should, suarez coming in from all sides, forlan's artillery, and the midfield creating offensive situations.

the only one who fucked up was cavani-- he missed like 3 good opportunities and i wish fernandez had come in earlier.

i wish :(

the player seems to have been offside.... fifa needs to start using video judging, shit like this and hand goals etc. it's too much.

i have a feeling somebody will die tonight

In a way, but the referee went by the book. Personally I think they should change that rule which awards a penalty and a red card but until they do, both sides know the rules. It is harsh, though.

Anyway, great game. Forlan's on fire. S'th Africa were simply outclassed tonight. Uruguay look like they might be the dark horses people've been looking for.

you mean suarez or pereira who scored? cuz pereira was behind suarez.

big surprise to see Africa get robbed with that bullshit redcard, africa has been getting robbed for four hundred years, what is another year ;)

that shit absolutely broke their momentum, they were on the verge of being able to tie it up at least, but then that shit ran the clock and broke SA spirits

SA was playing shitty all first half, but so were the Swiss and they surprised me and came up with a win, so I was hoping SA could do the same..
Striking South African World Cup guards wage war

Page last updated at 19:38 GMT, Wednesday, 16 June 2010 20:38 UK



By Pumza Fihlani
BBC News, Johannesburg Strikers vent their anger at the world famous Ellis Park venue in Johannesburg At a time when South Africa wants to put its best foot forward, a series of strikes at almost half of the World Cup stadiums threatens to hog the limelight.
Thousands of guards tasked with ensuring safety at the stadiums have gone on strike in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town - hours before the kick-off of World Cup matches - citing a wage dispute.
The country's police have been forced to take over security duties at four stadiums.
In one of the latest incidents, 1,000 officers from around Gauteng Province had to be diverted to Ellis Park stadium in Johannesburg to manage the 55,000 football fans set to attend the game hours before Brazil took on North Korea.
The guards told the BBC that they often worked 15-hour shifts and were "angry" and accused security company Stallion, their employer, of "exploitation".

We are being exploited because we are poor, uneducated and don't know better

Striking security steward
"We are very angry. How can they expect us to survive on the money they want to pay us?" one steward, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said.
"We are being exploited because we are poor, uneducated and don't know better," she added.
After just finishing a long shift, she had joined other guards in a protest outside Ellis Park - some chanting for their unpaid wages.
"I am tired that last thing I need is to be sitting here. But what choice do I have? These people are robbing us we have to fight them," she said.
'Fifa mafia!' The guards say they were promised 1,500 rand ($194; £133) per shift when they signed with the company last month.
Instead they say they are receiving as little as 190 rand ($24; £17).
Police have been drafted in at the last minute to take over security Most of the stewards are contracted to the Stallion, which has refused to comment on the strikes.
"We enjoy what we do," another guard at Ellis Park says.
"I have been unemployed for years and working as a security guard for the World Cup, it makes me feel like I am helping my country.
"But I deserve to be rewarded for my work, and rewarded well," she says.
Her views reflect a growing frustration at World Cup venues.
At a march in Durban, some 3,000 campaigners vented their anger on Wednesday at the lavishing spending on the World Cup, AFP news agency reports.
"Get out Fifa mafia!" crowds chanted, their ranks swelled by stewards involved in clashes with riot police on Sunday.
Some have been angered by the lavish World Cup spending which they say has not benefited the poor Their dispute sparked the strike on Monday in Cape Town, where more than 1,000 police trainees were sent to Green Point stadium hours before the Italy-Paraguay match.
The head of the local organising committee, Danny Jordan, said that he recognises the right of workers to strike, but that match day disruptions were unacceptable.
The Congress of South African Trade Unions, a partner in an alliance with the ruling African National Congress, said the workers' wage shortfall was an example of "greed".
South Africa's Transport and Allied Workers' Union - the largest union representing the security guards - says it has asked labour authorities to investigate.
High alert The union says it seems many workers were employed without written contracts.
"Most have been employed on a temporary basis under conditions which do not comply with the minimum conditions," the union said in a statement.
The police are on high alert - and anxious to show they can handle the disruption.
"Our priority is the safety of the tournament and the country as a whole. We will perform our responsibilities with diligence," Police Commissioner General Bheki Cele said.
He spoke as it was announced on Wednesday that his force would continue stadium security duties in Johannesburg, Durban and Cape Town.
His words will give little assurance to the strikers, who serve as a reminder that the millions of dollars generated by the World Cup are unlikely to improve the lives of millions living below the breadline.

well in the replay i think they said it was suarez who was almost certainly offside depending on whether or not someone else had touched it, which they couldn't tell from the replay.


they just need to have somebody watching shit other than the referees who can't really see what's going on well half the time, if they did that you wouldn't have croats with australian accents getting 3 yellows in a game lol

Absolutely. Even taking the quality of opposition into account, that was a class performance. Forlan and Suarez look like a great partnership. Uruguay haven't really been tested at the back yet but, from what I can see, no teams look like they've got rock-solid defences.

oh. i get the "latino" channel-- we overlook those things ha ha ha. though video would have gotten dikgacoi expelled.

i'm looking for a video to watch for the offside but nothing is up yet. maybe i should get a fucking tivo, or unearth the old vhs deck

i fear if control went to video judging we'd end up with something like american football where you need a team of lawyers to call each play though.

I been watching it in Espanol and they got decent replays, its not quite like ESPN super replays but it has been useful just the same, plus the espanol announcers have WAAAY mas sabor than the boring americans

well digakoi(or whatever) isn't important because they were never going to win the game, the thing they'll be most pissed about is losing the keep

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=efIb1GYJP8U

i think it comes down to whether the guy got it with his knee, which it looks to me like he did but i don't know why the sportscasters would flip shit about it if it wasn't questionable

ahh.. american sports, pride of the calvinist/legalist tradition

i can't find any networks questioning it so maybe it's the cbc announcers being nuts..

German TV mentioned it too... they had the replay from a different angle i think, but could not tell if Cavani (n°7) touches the ball or not...
In the youtube video you linked, at normal speed, it looks like he did...

Come on!!
It's South Africa, not Africa.

About the video, I think it's being used by now.
I've noticed that the main referee has a microphone and headphones.
I don't think it's to communicate with his girlfriend.

haha - well, it was funny to see him on the pitch, hope to see him tomorrow!

it's not being used.

i believe it has been used somehow to send off Zidane during last WC's final. at least, that's the story i keep hearing all the time (none of the referees had seen Zidane's headbutt, buffon came to explain what happened, then after a moment of confusion, the referees got the confirmation of what had happened - supposedly from the video replays - and Zidane received the red card). i can't remember much myself.

edit: ah, now after doing some research, i see that FIFA always denied that video has been used, but that it was the 4th referee who saw the action and that he did not have access to video... now i remember this polemic.

whether its Cote d'Ivore, Cameroon, Algeria, South Africa.. its ALL africa, and maximum RASpect to the Afrique teams. This is Africa's moment, win or lose, as they show the world its not all huts and thatched roofs..

it does look like that cavani hits the ball.

Yep. I think no players or referee spot the headbutt, except Buffon.
So he did make a fuss and woudn't let the game go on, it lasted several minutes until the decision came on.
The video was involved, no doubt.

(i don't know if it was only my television, but) it was impressive how Forlan's penalty kick managed to suddenly silence the vuvuzelas. well, only for a short time.

I know Africa is very little about huts and lion hunters and all the clichés.

Yet African teams haven't been very bright.
Except Ghana, that you forgot to mention in your list.

see if it ever is used, they do it secretly, it's not part of the rules,it's problematic that you can barely tell what happens sometimes when you watch the replay from 10 different angles, let alone the referee with 5 meters and several men between him and the ball knowing what happened in a split second.

it's a constant issue with things like the thierry henry handball etc.

a few of the african teams have had pretty decent games with hard teams, i mean ghana is the only one that won but they didn't play better than the other teams, getting lucky with a penalty near the end of the game

Dutch television mentioned the off-side thing too, albeit only after the game I think.
Seeing Suarez go down in slo-mo reminded me of this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k9EtS_qwiSw#t=1m00s

He's well-known in holland for diving:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bht2VOqtAk

I do think this one was indeed a penalty, but it's anoying to see him go down with so much theatre... and earlier in the game he had a similar moment where he pretended to get hit in the face. It makes me really dislike him, which is a shame because he is a quality player.

you mean when they broke his mouth & he had to momentarily leave the field cuz he was bleeding, had to miss forlan's free kick (and a chance to score), & came back a bit later with a huge mouth-tampon? that was caused by a hard slap by a south-african. more of a clawing, actually.



it was a verifiable foul (hit on the shoe in mid-air) by the last defender in order to avoid a goal (the goalee wasn't even near the ball when he swept him), and inside the penalty area. so yeah, it was a penalty, and it was a red card, and if suarez had to flail a little extra to make sure the ref didn't miss that one, more power to him. he played to win. the bonehead move would be to try to be "discreet" about it.

Africa has a major handicap, poverty and political corruption, which is FIFA thinks is ok if you are in the Americas or Europe, but heaven forbid it happen in Africa. Not only did FIFA ban Ethiopia from competing in the World Cup qualifying matches, Ethiopia was supposed to hold 14 World Cup Exhibition games but FIFA banned those as well because of political corruption issues.. that didn't help any Ethiopians, it only further entrenched the political corruption, and newsflash, I read about political corruption here in the US in the paper everyday, be it at the municipal or federal level, did the US team get banned? Did they cancel exhibition matches in the US?

Several African nations had this problem. If FIFA does not include African nations in the regular games, how can Africans get the practice at World Cup level competition and expectations in order to compete on an even playing field (pun intended). Ethiopia and her neighbors could have been just as pumped as South Africa had they been allowed those exhibition games, and the African teams would have been growing exponentially.

Further, African overall poverty means players are not training in the kind of modern and world class facilities which prepare the teams to compete with the powerhouse and mulitmillion dollar clubs and federations from Europe and the Americas.. As Africa evolved into a more equal playing field their players and teams will begin to stand out give them time.

Contemporary Africa is HIM Haile I's gift to the world, Africa could very well have collapsed after colonialism and there would be nothing, no pieces to pick up.

Big Up the African teams

i always get the impression these guys bleed easily.
like they're on their periods or something.

This doesn't detract from your overall point, which I agree with, but as you know a majority of African players in this world cup receive top class training already, due to their links with major European clubs. A bigger long term problem is whether African football will ever be able to draw its best players away from these clubs to play in Africa or keep those it has from leaving (both of which, right now, I think is highly unlikely). The other big problem for African players, especially those used to playing in Champions League clubs, is that they're used to being very successfull, so having to return to represent their country, while nice, is likely seen as major comedown for a lot of them, given the general expectation that no African nation is likely to do all that well. Although the same could be said for a player like Diego Forlan who's clearly good enough to be a cup winner but plays for a country that probably isn't.

Anyway, a more general point: if this World Cup achieves anything, I hope it makes African football more sustainable at a club level. Unfortunately, I think there's so much money in European football - especially amongst its elite clubs - that I just think it's an ask too far. Beyond that, I think the World Cup, for all its commercialism and self-interest, has done a good job of 'humanising' S'th Africa to much of the rest of the world: by showing it beyond the stereotype of rebel farmers, violent crime, etc. We'll see. I generally think that by choosing S'th Africa to host this tournament (against massive opposition) Fifa have done at least a little bit of good for that country. Certainly more than had they chosen a more traditional venue, anyway.

Bugger off.

i can't decide about the Argentinians. While i love to watch Messi, Mascherano and Tevez play, i was 9 in 1986 when Maradona cheated us out of the world cup, and that's an impressionable age.

I thought Spain were stunning. I could watch Alonso all day. It'll take alot for them to not win this (maybe Argentina?)

good half.
Argentina look very good. There were reports before the world cup that they would implode and Maradona wouldn't let Messi play properly, they only just qualified etc but they look as good as ever

argentina looked great.

Diego Bad-Donut was very happy

greece sucks, damn

HAHAHHA!