In South Africa it was the goal that never was: after being hammered by Germany initially, we fought back and really took the game to the old enemy, as Lampard rattled the crossbar with a 30 yard screamer, that bounced so far over the line as to be comical. No goal. Fast forward to Brazil and we now have goal line technology, which should have put an end to such catastrophic errors. Unfortunately though, referees are still human and therefore are still capable of making mistakes; conspiracy theorists would even suggest they're even more capable of being persuaded to make mistakes. The performance of officials in Brazil was nothing short of embarrassing, with disallowed goals for no reason, penalties for breathing too hard on a player's shoulder and the odd yellow card for breaking a fellow's back. In relation to England however, against Italy there were numerous offside decisions given as Sterling was sent racing through and a couple of huge penalty shouts that fell on deaf ears - all were pretty much up for contention, but a penalty chance is a penalty chance. Uruguay's battle hardened centre back, Diego Godin, picked up a yellow card in the opening minutes of the England game, and then put in an horrific tackle later on that didn't draw out a second card and a sending off. Uruguay were spared playing for an hour with only 10 men and went on to win the game when the game could've looked very different had the official not made the contentious decision. Perhaps it's easy to complain in these terms, but it's hard to ignore the fact that these decisions had genuine impact. There are many other factors that may have contributed to England's demise. Which do you think need to change if England are to become a real force in International football?
I have been described as a sportsman with the brain of an athlete and the body of a scientist. Since it was established that playing wouldn't work out for me I have taken to writing.
