Officiating blunders mar Germany, Argentina wins

Jun 28, 2010, 0:02 GMT

   Johannesburg - Football giants Germany and Argentina both easily won their Round of 16 encounters Sunday to set up a quarter-final date at the 2010 World Cup, despite both victories being marred by officiating blunders.

   Three-time world champions Germany impressed with a 4-1 mauling of England, with Thomas Mueller scoring twice in Bloemfontein. A possible 2-2 equaliser late in the first half for England was disallowed in what's already being called another 'Wembley' goal.

   In Sunday's later Round of 16 match, two-time title winners Argentina beat Mexico 3-1 with two goals by Carlos Tevez in Johannesburg. The Manchester City striker's first score, however, should not have been allowed as he was clearly offside.

   The two superpowers will renew their rivalry on Saturday in Cape Town. Argentina beat Germany in the 1986 final before Germany knocked off Argentina in the 1990 final. Their last World Cup encounter saw a German quarter-final victory on penalties in 2006.

   The story of the day, however, was the officiating.

   Germany jumped ahead 2-0 on goals by Miroslav Klose in the 20th and Lukas Podolski in the 32nd. But Matt Upson halved the deficit with a header in the 37th, setting up the infamous moment for Uruguay linesman Mauricio Espinosa.

   England appeared to have knotted the game in the 38th minute on Frank Lampard's blast off the lower half of the cross bar. The ball bounced about half a metre beyond the goal line and back into the field of play, but Espinosa did not give the score.

   The non-goal recalled Geoff Hurst's famously controversial strike in Wembley when the two nations met in the 1966 World Cup final.

   Sunday's incident in Bloemfontein came 44-years later and amid growing calls for the use of goal-line technology, including sensors, to assist referees and their assistants.

   However, world football's governing body FIFA has steadfastly refused to install the technology.

   'We want to keep football as a game of the people with a human face, so we don't want technology on the field of play because we want to maintain the spontaneity of football - played, administered and controlled by human beings,' FIFA President Sepp Blatter said before the start of the 2010 World Cup.

   After the game, Lampard called on FIFA to adopt technology to avoid such errors in the future.

   Before the World Cup, players had been told about 'a million different rules and changes that hardly affect the game,' Lampard said.

   'But the big one that affected the game today hasn't been brought in,' Lampard said, referring to goal-line technology.

   No referee could have helped the English in the second half, however, as Germany struck twice on classy counter attacks, with Mueller hitting in the 67th and 70th minutes to finish off the Three Lions.

   'Germany is a big team and they played well. We made mistakes but the referee made the biggest one,' said England coach Fabio Capello.

   The World Cup proved more important than politics as German Chancellor Angela Merkel and British Prime Minister David Cameron broke away from an important summit in Canada to watch the game.

   Merkel and Cameron left a working session at the Group of 20 (G20) meeting in Toronto in order to watch the second half of the game.

   Argentina meanwhile were also beneficiaries of some poor officiating in their 3-1 win over Mexico.

   With Mexico opening the match in strong form, Carlos Tevez was clearly offside on a pass by Lionel Messi on the game's first goal in the 26th minute. But the Italian linesman Stefano Ayroldi did not see it that way in allowing the goal.

   A blunder by the Mexican defence then paved the way for Gonzalo Higuain's goal to make it 2-0 and push the Real Madrid striker atop the scorers' list with four goals in as many games.

   Tevez pushed the advantage to 3-0 with a spectacular blast in the 52nd minute before Javier Hernandez pulled a goal back in the 71st minute.

   The only bad news for the Argentinians was that star Lionel Messi, who turned 23 on Thursday, once again failed to make the scorer's list. The midfield magician has not scored for Argentina since November, when he converted a penalty against Spain in a 2-1 defeat.

In Monday's World Cup action, the Netherlands face Slovakia and Brazil take on Chile.