Monday, February 6th, 2012
England coach Fabio Capello bemoans that why the FIFA did not use video technology and blindly disallowed Frank Lampard’s goal.
England were behind 2-1 when Klose & Podolski scored after 32 minutes but defender Matthew Upson hit back after 37 minutes. Frank Lampard tried a shot and it cannoned off the crossbar and it crossed half-a-metre off the goal line. England celebrated but the celebration was not for long when the fourth official & referee disallowed the goal.
Referring to the goal that was not given, Capello told the BBC: “It was, I think, one of the most important things in the game. We [could have played] a different style because we scored the second goal [and would not have to] go forward.
“I just don’t understand. We have the technology to assist the referee and we stay here to speak about this – goal or no goal. I don’t understand why.”
He added: “We play, I think, well when we were 2-1, 2-2. After we lost the third goal, we played I think a little bit disappointing. Mistakes were made because they played the counter-attack after the free-kick for us.”
Lampard said he was ‘baffled’ by the referee’s decision: “I haven’t seen the goal again but I didn’t need to see it again. I knew straight away that my shot was over the line, clearly a yard or so. It baffles me that it wasn’t given and it was a big deciding factor.
“I won’t stand here and say it is the reason why we got knocked out, but if it had gone to 2-2, and we had still come out and played the way we did in the second half, it would have been a different game.
“I think it is time to bring in goal-line technology. We had a meeting before the World Cup when we were told about a million different rule changes that hardly affect the game.
“The big one, the one that affects the game today, hasn’t been brought in so it is a no-brainer.”
He added: “Nobody can stand here and tell me Germany were a lot better than us. They were not 4-1 better than us, but the things have conspired against us and maybe we have conspired against ourselves at times. It just didn’t go for us.
England & Liverpool captain Stevie G was also disappointed that the goal was disallowed. “There were big key decisions in the game, at 2-1 we had a goal disallowed,” he told BBC 5 Live. “At 2-1 we were hurting them and we were still in the game. I think it (the disallowed goal) had an effect but we cannot use that as an excuse with being beaten 4-1.
“That would have been a big goal for us. It’s all ifs and buts. Germany are a fantastic team and they deserved their win. You go away and you have a think about what went wrong and why we didn’t progress further in the tournament.
“As a team we’ve made a big mistake today and we’ve been beaten by a good team. They were more clinical in front of goal and they made less mistakes than us and we got punished for that.”
The Football Federation added that: “FIFA will not make any comment on the decisions of the referee on the field of play. Regarding goal-line technology, the position of FIFA is in line with the decision taken by the IFAB in their last meeting in March.”
Tags: Disallowed Goal, England, Fabio Capello, FIFA, World Cup