"High Noon" for players and officials alike in Germany...

What is that one movie... "The quick and the dead". The World Cup is starting to remind me of the theory behind that film in a metaphorical sense... and in my opinion this is detrimental for the current state, and future of international football.

Today's explosive game has brought the issue to the fray, though the whole thing has been boiling steady since the tournament began in early June. The two instances that previously caught everyone's eye occurred in the Croatia Australia game (when Graham Poll failed to send a player off after showing 2 yellows) and then in a contradictory rather violent fashion when Italy played the USA, and three were dismissed, 2 (both Americans) were shown their marching orders in highly suspicious circumstances.

Moreover, the referee from the USA Italy.. "brawl", Jorge Larrionda, was suspended in 2002 from officiating because of improper conduct. How can FIFA allow such preposterous errors to occur when the fate of nation's future footballing destiny is at stake? Larrionda clearly should not have sent off Mastroeni because there were tackles as such flying in left right and centre during that game. If that tackle warranted a red card, there probably would have only been Keller and Buffon left on the field of play.... disgraceful!

Poll's performance in the Croatia game is... forgivable (at best), but Valentin Ivanov's horror show of a performance in today's round of 16 game was almost laughable. Such was the magnitude of disbelief surrounding the countless cards being dished out by the ruthless Russian, Deco (dismissed in the 78th minute), was seen confiding with his fellow Barca teammate Van Bronckhorst (who was ejected in the 90th minute) over the reasons behind their respective Red cards. Did Mr. Ivanov think he would get his Christmas cards sent out early? It certainly seemed the man from Russia was not offering "any love" between himself and the players. He was more "trigger happy" than a hunter and the beginning of hunting season... in total the four red cards set a new tournament record, surpassing the three dismissals which occurred in the matches between USA and Italy (2006), Denmark and South Africa (1998), Brazil and Hungary (1954) and Brazil and Czechoslovakia (1938). Also, the number of yellow cards equaled the World Cup record which was set in 2002 when Germany played Cameroon!

Now surely, common sense is needed to be placed in abundance when a Referee takes charge of a game this massive. Not withstanding, there is a recent history between these two teams, Holland have not beaten Portugal since 1991 and the Dutch were eliminated by the Portuguese in Euro 2004 (also to a fabulous strike by the mercurial Maniche). Honestly... the official should not have acted in such a way that degragated the quality of what was a potentially brilliant game, which rather was twisted into a slug fest in which both sets of players frequently clashed in unnecessary fashion. In truth, if the two teams had possessed a greater "historical" rivalry - like the one that exists between the Dutch and the Germans - Mr. Ivanov could have caused a riot with the way he dealt with today's game.... it was that shocking!

I for one echo the post match comments of FIFA President Sepp Blatter that "the referee himself deserved a yellow card". I personally believe that FIFA is partially to blame in their appointment of such dreadful officials, and for their remarks before the competition began about referees taking a harder line on players who foul/cheat on the football pitch. I believe that too many yellow and red cards ruin the spectacle of, what is undoubtedly, the greatest show on earth. Enough of the yellow and red "confetti", and more of the main course (a fantastic football match), bitte, Herr Blatter!

source =

www.bbc.co.uk/football