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Thursday, November 19, 2009

It Should Happen, But It Won't

While all of us in Saskatchewan are on pins and needles awaiting the Western final, those that follow "football" or soccer as we know it continue to discuss the highly controversial ending between Ireland and France. In a game where the winner would go to the World Cup, France won on a goal in which there were two egregious errors by the referees. First, two members of the French side were offside which should have blown the play dead, and then a French player was seen to have touched the ball with his hand which is a no-no(or in this case a non-non). They are furious in Ireland and they should be. This call possibly prevented the Irish from completing a major upset and advancing to only their 2nd World Cup. They want FIFA(soccer's governing body) to order a replay of the game. It won't happen. As tough a call as that is, it is the right thing.

Ireland's soccer team would not be the first team to be screwed over because of bad officiating. The Seahawks might have won Super Bowl 40, Brett Hull may not have scored a Stanley Cup winning goal, the Riders would have won instead of tying Calgary this year.
You can cry and complain about it all you want(and Irish soccer fans have every right to), but the game is over and you can't change that. The result has been booked. If teams were given the right to force replays, it would just cause chaos. There is no doubt Ireland gets the short end of the boot in this situation, but they are just going to have to learn to live with it and have the events of their game forever played in infamy.
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Ricky Williams looked like the Ricky Williams of old last night in a win over Carolina. Was he officially classified as a bust in the CFL. Injuries certainly didn't help him in his one year stint in Toronto. Remember the outlandish claims that were made when he first signed up here as to how many yards and touchdowns he was going to score. All of it coming from people who just didn't know how good the CFL is. It was nice to see Cam Wake get some props from the NFL Network play by play guys. I get the feeling Wake is going to be a real force for the Dolphins next year. He should become a starter taking over for either the mouthy Joey Porter or perhaps a retiring Jason Taylor.
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A question was asked of me yesterday regarding our new stadium. The question being is whether or not the layout of the building would make it conducive to try and lure a minor league baseball team here. That's a great question! I know the Northern League would consider Regina if some improvements were made to Currie Field. A stadium with a retractable roof would certainly make Currie Field obsolete if there was room for baseball in it. However, getting a Northern League team in here or even a Pioneer League team might be disastrous for the Regina Red Sox.
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Rumour has it 30-thousand thundersticks are going to be handed out to people coming into Mosaic on Sunday. All I can say is have fun Henry! If you thought it was loud before. Maybe the thundersticks will be loud enough to drown out the guy who sits under the press box and yells "HOLDING" on seemingly every offensive play run by the opposition or "NO YARDS" on every opposition punt. Someone should really break it to this guy that the other team doesn't break the rules on EVERY play.
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Leaf fans I just have one question to ask you. Have you given up yet?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Sports can't have replays. It just wouldn't work. It is a travesty though when everyone except the guys who make the calls can see that the goal shouldn't have counted. It makes one wonder if a fix was in.

Chris G

Anonymous said...

This Leafs fan gave up a long time ago. I am now desensitized to the pain and oh there was pain last nite. Good god!

Anonymous said...

Imagine what happens if the Riders are losing bad and fans start turning on one another with the thundersticks. Oh the horror!!
Seriously, the 13th man is loud enough and these things should just about make it impossible for Burris to do his thing. Oh well!
I wonder how many Calgary fans will be selling their tickets Sunday night/Monday morning for Rider fans making the trip.

Bill

Brad said...

Video replay should be used in soccer games with World Cup implications just as N.A fooball.

Anonymous said...

NO BASEBALL CONFIGURATION for any new stadium..come on Mitch you should know what that would do to the stadium sitelines for football..if that was part of a new stadium..I am dead against it