congratulations Spain on your 1st world cup victory. i would have rather seen Netherlands take home the trophy, but it is still good to see a new country win. your ball control is impressive and 2 goals allowed in the entire tournament is impressive. in the final i think it was something else that turned the tide, the thing that i don't like about soccer, the thing that you do well. you played the take falls, beg for cards, frustrate the other team to where they deserve some cards by arguing and playing recklessly. in the end it paid off. a brilliant, "egot" winning performance brought a bogus second yellow to a key defender in overtime causing team oranje to play with 10. you took advantage and scored in the final minutes. Holland got some raw deals in the officiating but they did luck out after the karate kick to the sternum in the opening minutes that could and maybe should have been a detrimental red card.
hey fifa! the world cup is awesome and all but make some changes. sure we want soccer to keep it simple so anyone can play, but this is a big deal. you have about a billion viewers worldwide that have slow motion replay, who can see how many mistakes your refs are making. lets let the officials have some better eyes. here is what i suggest:
get an extra ref on the field for every fifa game. basketball has a much smaller court/field yet they have 2 refs. more eyes equals more accuracy and accountability.
for the actual world cup tournament (which is the biggest sporting event in the world) put an official in a video booth to review everything as it goes. give all the refs and line judges earpieces and mics so they can have continuous communication with each other and the booth. make the transcription or audio of their communications public so nothing shady goes down. and because the refs have good advice coming from a good view you don't have to tolerate arguing.
stop the clock for injury time. not hard.
see you in 4 years.
