Like many soccer fans around the world, I watched yesterday’s World Cup match between Italy and the United States. The match was enjoyable, both teams were fun to watch.

I am however, embarassed and disgusted my the ABC announcers who repeatedly insulted not only the match referee, but every person who has ever officiated a soccer match. The post-game vitriol included these choice phrases:

Players win games, coaches lose games, and referees ruin games… There are two kinds of referees: bad ones and worse one.

ABC commentator in post-game show following World Cup 2006, Italy v. U.S.A., 17 June.

This barbed rhetoric is in poor taste, and ABC/ESPN should be ashamed to employ those who spout it unchallenged. Having been stamped with the network’s seal of approal, baseless phrases such as these are repeated in youth soccer and amateur leagues, and serve only to tear down. Youth soccer loses a significant number of young referees each year because coaches and parents inappropriately harrass and belittle them.

One of the in-game comentators (the obligatory former player) complained about the referee every 10 minutes through the entire second half, more than once predicting it would be this referee’s last World Cup match. While this announcer had fair insight into strategy and positioning, I lost all respect his knowledge of the laws of the game.. He referred multiple times to “new rules from FIFA” regarding fouls—there haven’t been any in the past several years, only position papers emphasizing the long-standing rule that fouls designed to injure an opponent must be considered “serious foul play” and deserve a red card. (Two of the three red cards issued are clearly in this category.) He also referred to Mastroeni’s send off as a “make-up call.” It was anything but, and deserving of a red card in any match.

Lest one think I’m off in left field, international news outlets agreed with the official’s major decisions:

Moments later, Mastroeni was off too. His two-footed, reckless lunge on Pirlo was deserving of a red card and left referee Jorge Larrionda with little option.

BBC Sport,“Italy 1-1 USA”
Referenced Sun, 18 Jun 2005 22:54 (MDT)

Pablo Mastroeni lunged into a two-footed tackle on the shin of Andrea Pirlo—so late and so vicious, it was a wonder there was no breaking of bone—and was dismissed.

… Why had this match turned into such an atrocity, given that every team in the tournament was given a clear warning about Fifa’s intentions and given that other countries had all appeared to be putting the good of the game to the fore? Within two minutes of the second half, Pope launched a reckless tackle from behind on Gilardino. What could he expect but another yellow card, the clear diktat before this tournament began?

The Times [London], “The beautiful game turns ugly”
Referenced Sun, 18 Jun 2005 22:51 (MDT)

All of the red cards handed out by Uruguayan referee Jorge Larrionda were justified and he maintained control of the match despite the at times violent play.

Der Spiegel, “USA Ties Italy in a Match Marred by Rough Play”
Referenced Sun, 18 Jun 2005 22:51 (MDT)

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