2012 London Olympics Thread

[Viper]

I just got done watching the replay of CAN-USA. That, right there, was the most insane international football match I've ever seen, of either gender.

The Maple Leaf women gave ours hell the whole game, but ours survived, barely. Bring on the Rising Sun.

[Don]

I just got done watching the replay of CAN-USA. That, right there, was the most insane international football match I've ever seen, of either gender.

The Maple Leaf women gave ours hell the whole game, but ours survived, barely. Bring on the Rising Sun.

I believe we want revenge...

[Evil Doctor]

Tremendous effort. Shi**y way for it to end.

How so? It ended in open play at the last possible second. You can't script a better ending. It certainly is way better than it going to PK's. THAT is a :censored:ty way for a game to end.

Great game by both teams.

I think he means to have the lead late only to be taken away by bad reffing, and have that heartbreaking goal go in with seconds left...

...this was no doubt the reaction of most of us watching the game in Canada...

[bosrs1]

Tremendous effort. Shi**y way for it to end.

How so? It ended in open play at the last possible second. You can't script a better ending. It certainly is way better than it going to PK's. THAT is a :censored:ty way for a game to end.

Great game by both teams.

I think he means to have the lead late only to be taken away by bad reffing, and have that heartbreaking goal go in with seconds left...

...this was no doubt the reaction of most of us watching the game in Canada...

What bad reffing? She was warned at half time not to delay the game, and she held on to the ball for an inordinately long time. She's lucky she wasn't carded for ignoring the ref. As for the hand ball, nothing controversial about that. Both players touched it with their hands, and the second was not totally in line with her body. It was a fair call.

[kw11333]

#CanadaWasRobbed was trending in the UK and Australia after the game. If you REALLY think that game was fairly reffed you are delusional.

Hope Solo on 3 different times in the game held the ball longer, 2 min before US PK, a US player had their own handball in the PK area 10 feet away from the ref. US first goal came off a US player pushing a defensive player into the goal, making her not able to make a play. Now is that often called? No, but it is called FAR more often than a goalie holding a ball too long. In fact according to the British media in the over 100 year history of soccer in the Olympics that is the ONLY time it has been called.

No one outside the US thought it was fair, but feel free to live in your own universe and think what you want.

[Kevin W.]

Yeah, and the Canadian players hitting our players hard like it was hockey and not getting called for it was totally fair. You lost. Get over it.

[kw11333]

Yeah, and the Canadian players hitting our players hard like it was hockey and not getting called for it was totally fair. You lost. Get over it.

Once again it is meaningless to everyone else in the world now. Believe what you want. But if the world agreed, match fixing allegations would not be happening in outlets around the world if they did not agree.

The USOC has been caught bribing people before, completely not trust worthy.

[capn89]

They're not fat, they're fit.

[Viper]

Not sure if it was scheduled this way beforehand, or they moved things around, but the men's 100m medal ceremony featuring Bolt and Blake was actually done tonight - on the 50th anniversary of Jamaica's independence.

And speaking of Caribbean islands, Kirani James has won Grenada's first-ever Olympic medal - gold in the men's 400m.

[Kevin W.]

Yeah, and the Canadian players hitting our players hard like it was hockey and not getting called for it was totally fair. You lost. Get over it.

Once again it is meaningless to everyone else in the world now. Believe what you want. But if the world agreed, match fixing allegations would not be happening in outlets around the world if they did not agree.

The USOC has been caught bribing people before, completely not trust worthy.

Excuse me? Are you seriously insinuating that the United States bribed the referee? Yes, I'm sure the referee had plenty to do with the US scoring all of their goals. There were horrible calls on Rapinoe's two goals and on Morgan's. Oh, wait, there weren't. "Bad" calls on 25% of the US goals =/= a crooked referee. You got beat and to claim bribery is the surest mark of a sore loser. Maybe if someone other than Sinclair had stepped up with their A game, you would have won.

I really want to root for Canada in the bronze medal game but if all of Canada's fans are bitter like you, I guess I'll be singing La Marseillaise.

[Billy B]

In fact according to the British media in the over 100 year history of soccer in the Olympics that is the ONLY time it has been called.

That's such a small sample size to take from that the stat is pretty much meaningless. An indirect free kick is so rare that it's not surprising there hasn't been one off a goalkeeper holding the ball too long. I wasn't able to start watching the match until extra time, so I didn't see that play live or any of the time wasting before it, but just wanted to point that it's not surprising that call hasn't been made in Olympic play before.

[BlackBolt3]

That was one of the best soccer games I've seen in a while. Good game Canada, good game.

[Punch]

Yeah, and the Canadian players hitting our players hard like it was hockey and not getting called for it was totally fair. You lost. Get over it.

Once again it is meaningless to everyone else in the world now. Believe what you want. But if the world agreed, match fixing allegations would not be happening in outlets around the world if they did not agree.

The USOC has been caught bribing people before, completely not trust worthy.

Excuse me? Are you seriously insinuating that the United States bribed the referee? Yes, I'm sure the referee had plenty to do with the US scoring all of their goals. There were horrible calls on Rapinoe's two goals and on Morgan's. Oh, wait, there weren't. "Bad" calls on 25% of the US goals =/= a crooked referee. You got beat and to claim bribery is the surest mark of a sore loser. Maybe if someone other than Sinclair had stepped up with their A game, you would have won.

I really want to root for Canada in the bronze medal game but if all of Canada's fans are bitter like you, I guess I'll be singing La Marseillaise.

Oh, please. If the ref wouldn't have made those calls and Canada won, you would be the one acting bitter. The referee decided this game, though I do think claiming "bribery" is a bit far.

[Viper]

Naturally, NBC passes on showing Kirani James' historic medal ceremony, thus denying us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear the Grenadan national anthem on TV. Weaksauce.

[Kevin W.]

Oh, please. If the ref wouldn't have made those calls and Canada won, you would be the one acting bitter. The referee decided this game, though I do think claiming "bribery" is a bit far.

Yeah, I probably would be, seeing as though both US teams have been through tough losses like this one was for Canada, but I grew out of the "OMG THE REFS MADE A BAD CALL THEY MUST HAVE BEEN BRIBED" mode of thinking about ten years ago. It's immature sore loser-dom.

[NJTank]

Naturally, NBC passes on showing Kirani James' historic medal ceremony, thus denying us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear the Grenadan national anthem on TV. Weaksauce.

come come now, Ryan Seacrest, Mary Carillo and Monkeys doing gymnastics on a shi tcom that will be cancelled in November are more important.

[pmoehrin]

Naturally, NBC passes on showing Kirani James' historic medal ceremony, thus denying us a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to hear the Grenadan national anthem on TV. Weaksauce.

come come now, Ryan Seacrest, Mary Carillo and Monkeys doing gymnastics on a shi tcom that will be cancelled in November are more important.

I really don't get some of the things they've done, and that's one of them.

I really don't know why they did't bother showing the medal ceremony. It was important and its over in 90 seconds so it shouldn't be that pressing for time. They already edit a good portion of what you see in primetime.

But on the flip side of thigns if they had just ignored it altogether that would be one thing, but did about a two minute video piece about James before the race touching on these issues, so you can't say they were.

Is it just plain oversight? Maybe. What Tank brought up? Again maybe. Not wanting to be seen as taking too much of a political stance? Or just thinking the video piece was enough. Your guess is as good as mine. Just more headscratching then anything else.

[dfwabel]

People (men) here may hate it, but bottom line is that NBC is getting it done in terms of ratings. The "decision" to air Serena/Sharipova live on Saturday drew a 5.6 final rating and 7.9 million viewers on NBC.

The match also had an impressive 18 share, meaning 18% of homes with televisions in use were watching the match.

By comparison, the match portion of Williams? victory over Agnieszka Radwanska in the Wimbledon singles final drew a 2.0 rating on ESPN.

The last time any women?s tennis Grand Slam final earned a higher rating than Saturday?s telecast was in 2001, when Williams? loss to her sister Venus Williams in the U.S. Open final drew a 6.8 rating on CBS in primetime.

[vmd9]

Yeah, and the Canadian players hitting our players hard like it was hockey and not getting called for it was totally fair. You lost. Get over it.

Let them talk. Our medal count speaks for itself.

[GFB]

#CanadaWasRobbed was trending in the UK and Australia after the game. If you REALLY think that game was fairly reffed you are delusional.

Hope Solo on 3 different times in the game held the ball longer, 2 min before US PK, a US player had their own handball in the PK area 10 feet away from the ref. US first goal came off a US player pushing a defensive player into the goal, making her not able to make a play. Now is that often called? No, but it is called FAR more often than a goalie holding a ball too long. In fact according to the British media in the over 100 year history of soccer in the Olympics that is the ONLY time it has been called.

No one outside the US thought it was fair, but feel free to live in your own universe and think what you want.

My person opinions with mixed some facts and soccer rule explanations:

1. Solo wasn't warned by the referee for holding on to the ball too long at half time. Yours was. She didn't listen. (Granted, it was from an AR going into the half, so she might not have considered it a real warning)

2. The Rapinoe hand-ball incident is a completely separate manner than Canadian defender's handball. First, the ball was going away from goal, as oppose to being shot towards goal (it is a known fact that referees are more likely to give a PK for a handball if the ball is heading towards the net...).

Second, Rapinoe's arm was in what referees call a "natural position": where the arms are either (Case 1) near the side of the body or (Case 2) in a position of self-preservation in front of the torso. Thus, just because the soccer ball hits a player's arm does not necessarily mean that it is an infraction; it must be a "deliberate" handball. This is a very gray area and is left up to the referee's discretion. When I referee, I usually go by the following logic in determining whether or not to call a handball in the event of a Case 1 incident: if the defender did not have human arms but instead had "nutcracker arms" (you know what I mean), would the path ball have been impeded? If the ball would have hit the torso, then it is no infraction; but if the ball would have flown by, then it is a infraction. Specifically, in Rapinoe's incident (Case 1), it is my opinion the ball would have hit her in the side anyway and her arms were close enough to her sides to determine they were in a "natural state."

Now, regarding the Canada PK handball. It was obviously not an example of Case 1, as the defender's arms came up to protect herself, thus it would be Case 2. If the ball had struck her right arm only (which had come up to protect her face) I would have argued for a non-call because it was an act of self-preservation and the ball would have struck her anyway. However, if you watch the replay, you will see that the ball passed her main torso and struck her left arm instead. Going back to my "nutcracker" policy, I would have probably given the PK because the ball was going to pass by and go toward the goal. I do understand that the defender's handball was not "deliberate" in nature, but it was "unnatural" and probably did nullify a clear goal-scoring opportunity.

It actually reminds me a lot of a call that occurred in the US/Brazil game this year (around 0:44):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-lF7I9Ah_I&feature=related

If that ball hits Onyewu on the right arm, it's probably let go because it would have struck his body anyway and it was self-preservation. Rather, it hits his left arm which is far enough from his side that gets the ref to make the call. Enough on this explanation.

3. On the time-wasting call. Normally, yes, a yellow card is given time when time wasting is called. However, time wasting is usually given when the ball has gone out of play and it is a goal kick. In this situation, it was given because the keeper was holding a live ball for too long, thus the correct call is an indirect-free kick inside the penalty area. Now, this is sketchy at best because I've seen it called on a live ball maybe once or twice, and both times it was at an U-13ish level. To make that call in an Olympic Semi-Final match without a strict warning delivered by the center referee before... wow. That's tough to swallow. However, if that call isn't made, I think Morgan gets a PK call 3 minutes later on the tackle from behind and....

4. ...the officiating was poor all game. It was a women's game with the brutality of a men's game. Far, far too loose for my liking and it was allowed to get out of hand.

5. On the corner-kick goal. No one to blame but your own near-post guard. Why both Canadian defenders follow Morgan from her near-post position to the side of the box and leave that gap near-post, I'll never know. But you're never going to get a shoulder-to-shoulder call on a corner kick. It has to be an elbow to the head or shove in the back or something of that nature.

In summation, yeah, some stuff was really sketchy... But it wasn't the outright, black-and-white jobbing that Canadians are making it out to be (like the France/Ireland/Henry handball). Both teams had to fight through the same poor officiating all game long and the ball bounced our way.