Well, what can you say? Any complaints from the losing side will always be construed as sour grapes, and England deserved to let their early lead slip. After Owen’s third-minute goal, and particularly after Rooney’s exit through injury, the team descended into a prolonged spell of Keystone Cops football. There was no communication, passes were random and under- or overhit, long balls were used indiscriminately without consideration for the positions of other players. What was so surprising about the Portugal equaliser was that it took another eighty minutes to arrive.
But… lacklustre performances don’t necessarily lose matches, as Germany proved in the 2002 World Cup, only really kicking into gear in the semi-final and ending as runners-up to Brazil. The England-Portugal match pivoted on some truly dreadful refereeing. Now, this is something that those of us who support lower-division teams have come to accept as an unpleasant but unavoidable reality, but in the quarter-final of a major international tournament, we should be seeing the very best. Specifically, we should be seeing referees who are not so easily swayed by the pressure of home-team support. It happened to Spain, who were denied one, possibly two legitimate goals against home team South Korea in the 2002 World Cup.
Back to this evening’s match, Swiss referee Urs Meier had made some fairly inexplicable decisions throughout the match, but the pivotal moment came when he disallowed Sol Campbell’s goal in the final minute. Every time I see that replay, I see a sturdy (but not illegal) challenge on goal from John Terry and Sol Campbell. If there is a foul, it’s by Campbell climbing on his own teammate! What’s worse is that Meier decided to make a snap decision despite having only a distant view of the incident. As it turned out, there was little to separate the teams in extra time (each scoring one more goal) and Portugal won the match fairly on penalties. That’s not the point, though… a misinformed decision affected the result.
The solution? I don’t know. I doubt that Pierluigi Collina would have been so lazily biased, but he’s just one (exceptional) referee. To give all referees the benefit of the doubt, the speed of the modern game has made it very difficult for one man (with two off-pitch assistants) to arbitrate effectively. However, there seems to be a general reluctance to accept this, and pursue bold, creative solutions. The subject of full-time, professional referees is rarely, if ever, broached. Digital video technology would facilitate instant replay and analysis, but is not used. When the cream of Europe’s referees can so easily be pressurised by home support into rash decisions, though, something must be done.
As for the competition, I now turn to Holland (my default “second team” since the 1978 World Cup, the first international competition I ever saw on TV) although I’d love to see the Czech Republic do well…