When technology misses the goal line

Video tech?!

Soon and very soon, the soccer ball will be embedded with a chip that maps its trajectory across the goal line. FIFA is expected to sanction its use in March 2012. Never mind that disputes arising from these situations are remotely spaced apart, rare to be precise. But football's governing body, FIFA is determined to place a hawk eye on the goal line. To some, this unyielding ambition is a good example of using technology in a way that it misses the point. That is where I stand. The game's greatest threat is more out field, where the majority of the contest is played. It is the sophistry of negative football that is weakening the appeal of the beautiful game.

With the spread of live telecast of soccer games across borders, it is easy to measure the strength of opposing teams and follow key players astutely. Everyone of note is well known. What a team needs nowadays to win or avoid defeat is to ensure that a better opponent finds it impossible to impose their strength or talent and the tools to achieve this has been abundantly displayed in the last world cup and the Real Madrid/Barcelona Champions league games. Professional falls, feigning injuries and defying gravity with the slightest contact to get an opponent booked are lavishly shown on television replays. Players are booked or sent off for dangerous tackles when no contact was even made. But these game changing antics are largely missed by the men in black! Gradually and persistently the game is losing its core feature, the ability to exploit your strength for a decent stretch of time over 90 minutes of a football match.

Tactics, pragmatic approach and foul play are now miles ahead of technique and talent. Great games at the highest levels of professional football are far apart. When they do come, real entertainment is transient. They are mostly cagey, disrupted by fisticuffs and unnecessary delays. It is sad that FIFA is not exploiting available technology to clean the game and bring back beauty to the beautiful game. The undue emphasis on goal line technology misses the point or better still, creates an unwanted distraction. Video technology can provide officials with instant video replays which would easily tackle goal line dispute, difficult off-sides calls, as well as catching those con artist disguised as soccer stars. What do we really have to lose if the game is played fair?

El clasico 2011: Barcelona and Real Madrid deliver a century of greatness

El clasico 2011: Barcelona and Real Madrid deliver a century of greatness

What we missed at the 2010 FIFA world cup in South Africa

Yes, we are busy or exhausted after a gruelling 4 weeks in South Africa, but if you are not taking time to watch some of the games at the 2010 FIFA U-20 world cup in Germany, you are missing a special treat of good football. A distinct variety that is raw and pure, unadulterated with the crafty antics of con artist that we grandly ordain with sophistry by calling them professional footballers or even football stars.

Being mostly teenagers, it is understandable that the beautiful girls from the 16 participating countries show a tactical indiscipline that thrills. Their movement is spontaneous. They ride tackles with competitive zest, alien to men's game at all levels.

Female football is gradually becoming the only platform where football is football. Please just see the games.

FIFA 2010 world cup: A chapter that should never close

On Monday we will do what we have always done. Close a chapter and shift attention to other things, but the FIFA world cup in South Africa will remain a nice niche for events that have brought to the beautiful game the need for better self inspection. It has been one of the most interesting in recent memory. The upsets were astounding and the bridge between the big boys and the smaller teams was thoroughly sabotaged. From now onwards the contest will be fiercer and the tag of favourite should continue to diminish is substance.

As a stage where legends are ordained, the hallowed football pitches in South Africa produced a rude awakening or a couple of shocking realities. The stars that adorn massive bill board world wide and have turned club side merchandising into multi-million dollar empire flopped. Christiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, Richardo Kaka and Lionel Messi are the undeniable icons of the modern game. What is a world cup worth if the stars of the game can not shine. Cagey tactics and negative antics flourished as a legitimate game plan for which firmer and consistent rules are veritable antidote.

And then the officiating. The officiating errors were jaw dropping. It is true that football is a human game, but a referee encased in the peculiar human flaw is not the best arbiter in the modern game. The soundest argument in favour of this is the rounded tool knocked around by the players, the jabulani ball designed by Adidas, with its tinniest entrails dabbed in technology. Why deny the referees the enormous advantage of having access to video technology in a game that has become so pacey.

By Monday, we should not close this chapter. The FIFA 2010 world cup has shown that the game needs fundamental changes in the rules (off side and the penalty for repeat yellow cards in two games) and the introduction of video technology in football. If we forget, it won't happen and the accusations of a systematic bias will trail football from now onwards, which is hardly good for the beautiful game.

Bridging the widest gap in modern football

The game between England and German brought back memories of 1966 for the goal that never was, a looping Lampard effort that struck the bar and landed well beyond the goal line. These dicey couple of seconds highlighted an uncomfortable truth, that in more than four decades, the beautiful game has not changed a bit in the kind of controversy it courts. But as video technology advances, the gap between what the viewers see at home and the referee on the the pitch is widening at an alarming pace, to such as extent that Video replays at the stadia is no longer a luxury at the on-going FIFA 2010 world cup in South Africa, as the football governing body attempts to drag a dark wool over the frequent gaffes by the men in black.

While goal line technology has been at the fore front of those advocating the introduction of technology, the use of video replays tackle almost all the issues, including Tevez's goal against Mexico. And the fear that the flow of the game will be disrupted is in practice insignificant. As long as only the referee reserves the right to seek clarification from the fourth official, who would have a "sony" HD tube in front of him, play would only be delayed for seconds. This enhanced referee's perception, hawk eye you might want to call it, will erase most of the avoidable gaffes.

In addition, professional falls employed by football players to con the officials would gradually fade from the game as the players become increasingly aware that the fourth official possesses a technology to expose these fraudulent devices, which should serve as a deter-ant. High stake games have suffered enough, particularly from the antics of deceitful players. Video technology is so integral to the enjoyment of football and there is no reason why the referee should be left out. Natural in a modern sense implies the use of technology in one form or the other.

African football teams searching for its missing link in South Africa

The game between Brazil and Ivory Coast at the Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg was billed as a true test of Brazil's strength after the Korean game, but in the end it was a casual stroll in the park for the Selecao, as a Fabiano brace propelled Dunga's team to a comfortable 3 - 1 win. With Cameroon already eliminated, Nigeria and South Africa precariously poised for ouster, only Ghana has gotten results worth celebrating across the continent. This in itself is disappointing because the Black stars have struggled to a large extent to create goals.

Ghana has played more than 90 minutes of football with a player advantage in South Africa against Serbia and Australia, two teams with less than an average pedigree at this level and their two goals have been spot kick. Nothing else from open play! A lose against the Germans, a plausible possibility, creates a back door opportunity for Serbia or Australia to leap frog them into the next round. It is really that bad for African teams with the possibility of all teams being knocked out after the first round. Nigeria had no shot on goal against Argentina after 60 minutes of football.

African players are often light weighted in technical abilities, but the missing link for African teams in 2010 FIFA world cup appear to be the absence of competence from the bench. The performance of the hurriedly hired coaches have been abysmal. The tendency to mould African teams after European style is failing grandly. An important reason is the short window to groom the players, but equally is the fact that you can't teach a senile dog new tricks. African players lack tactical discipline and are mentally unprepared to play complex formations, but they make up for this by their vibrancy, which is hardly in display nowadays. At the world cup, playing to your strength in a native system is the best tactics for African teams. Play simple, robust and fast paced football.

Argentina is looking good for the FIFA world cup, but ......

After a dominant attacking display against Nigeria and South Korea, Argentina is firmly on top as one of the favourites for the FIFA 2010 World cup in South Africa. Up front, the talent is awesome with Tevez, Higuain, Di Maria and Messi flooding forward in recurring waves of attacking forays. The first hat trick highlight the threat, but the crunch times lie ahead, a stage where the different sections of the team will be tested by opponents with tougher pedigree.

It will be interesting to see how Argentine team maintain shape when they are predominantly on the receiving end and the style of the teams in group B has not helped in this regard. The tactical abilities of the previous opponents where never fashioned to test the weakness of Maradona's team. An area that needs patching is the left side with Di Maria and Heinze seemingly always together in advance positions with only a few yards between them. The width of space behind them can easily be exploited by world cup teams who appreciate this loophole. In addition, how does the static central defence formation cope when teams have assess to their bye-line. The mobility between Walter Samuel and Demichelis has been narrow so far.

Maradona's team have shown enough ability to be rated among the teams to get to the last four. Although there is a lot of football to be played, it is already looking like a great tournament.