Quote:
Originally Posted by Ryan S
The excessive number of bookings in previous World Cups harmed the quality of the game. I am not suggesting a free for all, just common sense.
Serious foul play should always be penalised to make sure that the good players are not kicked off the park. The referee last night lost control by not exerting his authority early or consistently.
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If I suggested you were looking for a free for all, that was not my intent.
It is the second part of your post that causes the problem for many fans. Using an example from this tournament, Honduras probably don't believe they can compete with the Neymars of the world technically, so they compete by being "physical" and "putting a foot in" and other code words that may not advocate kicking players (I am not limiting this to the good players) off the park but do not discourage kicking players to level the playing field. I noted earlier in the thread, it seemed like the officials have allowed players to be more and more physical as the tournament has gone on. With the increase in physical play, the threshold for serious foul play also increases. Those increases lead to an increase in injury risk for the players.
The sad thing is that if the referee had brandished one or two yellows early in the game to gain control, he probably would have be accused of spoiling the match.