South Africa 2010: Instant Replay?

I got an e-mail from My Dad this morning to say he'd actually watched some of the Ghana-USA match yesterday. We both admitted to pulling for Ghana. I only recently told my parents about my blog and they've been reading it. I've worried a little that My Dad might be a little put off by my characterization of him as a non-fan. But in truth, I think it's a nice thing that I developed interests separate from those of my family. I am grateful for our common ground, of course, but our differences are important to me, too.

There were some pretty obvious bad calls in both games today: the refs missed what would have been England's second goal in the first game and the Argentines were clearly offside for their second goal in the later match. In the end, the calls didn't really matter for either game but there have been enough questionable calls and non-calls in this tournament to merit discussion of some instant replay provisions. I can understand why they might not want to add a review procedure to a sport in which delay tactics are a highly sophisticated dramatic art form but I think it's always worth doing what can reasonably be done to get calls right. In the long run, it saves headaches on all sides.

Argentina-Germany: a storied soccer rivalry, having faced one another in the final game of two consecutive Cups. The Argentines won in '86, the Germans in '90. I think Argentina takes it this time.