Mexico-Angola to have Asian Ref

Singapore has been dreaming to send a team to the World Cup for ages. There was once a farcical Vision 2010 plan to win Singapore a place for the 2010 World Cup (with Danish coaches and youth training schemes) but that has since been scuttled. So Singapore has to be satisfied with sending its best referee since 1974 to the World Cup.

We are all proud of Samsul Maidin, who was a fair but firm referee for the Sweden and T&T match. His red carding of Avery John was well-justified and he did not bring undue attention to himself.

The last Singaporean to feature in the World Cup Finals was also a referee. George Suppiah refereed the Poland-Haiti match in Germany 1974 and was a linesman in the semi-finals. He too has been a football icon of a nation that hasn’t distinguished itself too highly on the pitch.

Posted from  Singapore

Lets not worry about who will referee the match on Friday, those are the kind of factors that are way out of each teams control, however a very important thing is to be carefull with collecting cards, already 2 of our players have 1 yellow each, Torrado and Salcido, beware of collecting cards that could hurt us later on!!

El Tri has to stay diciplined in this aspect.

Posted from  United States

Oh, but referees can influence a match. Ukrain was totally demoralized after they got that bogus penalty and sent off against Spain.

As far as that Singaporean ref, I think he allowed the Trinitarians to hit people more than needed, so I’m concerned since the Angolans have the same naive brute force, and this ref, as seen from the last match, will allow them to hit more than usual before letting the cards fly.

Posted from  United States

mexico mexico viva mexico I can’t wait to see what happens on friday with angola but i know we can. si se puede. si se puede. si se puede.

Posted from  United States

Some food for thougt, if Mexico pulls out an early lead (winning by 2 or 3) should Torrado and Salcido purposely look to get yellow carded so that they go into the second round with a clean slate (seeing as a solid win over Angola almost certainly gets them into the next round). Or would that not be worth the risk of portugal losing to Iran and having Portugal playing for the classification against mexico. Please note that I am not saying they should go out there and hurt someone just to go into the second round clean but having one of them purposly delay the game or stand in front of a free kick is something that could be considered. Would that be good strategy or not.

Depends,

Don’t the slates come clean after the first round anyway? If that is the case, then they should either get the second yellow tomorrow, or just let them rest for the third match.

Ok someone explain the yellow card rule..

Does it carry over to the next round?

If a aplayer gets a yellow in one game, then in the next game he does not, and then he gets another in the third game is he Out?

Someone with some knowledge please explain!!!

Posted from  United States

good luck mexico. i hope you guys do well, although it sucks that you’ll have to face a Group C team next round.

Posted from  United Kingdom

as far as i know, the yellow card sheet is cleared in the next round.

some people may think i dont like mexico because i am being blunt. just the opposite, i really like this team, and the fact that i havent seen them play as i know they can play is what frustrates me. as long as they get the points, that is all that matters during this stage. next stage is when the going gets tough. first get the result, then think of playing beautifully. i think both can be done.

just make sure that torrado is kept 500 miles away from the pitch!

Posted from  United Kingdom

Torrado is a weird case,

when he is hot, he plays like the best of them, when he is cold, he makes the silly fouls and misses even the easiest of passes.

A very frustrating player to watch indeed.

Bidemi:

I actually relish the possibility of meeting Argentina or the Netherlands in the next round. If Mexico wants to play with the big boys, he has to beat them too.

We already know Mexico can give headaches to both of those teams, as recent history has shown. Heck, against Brazil in the last 8 official matches, Mexico has only lost once, and usually has had a tendency to negate Ronaldinho.

What I find exciting about Mexican football these days is that on an insipired day, Mexico is now capable of defeating anyone, unlike 20 years ago.

Food for thought: Mexico can now play poorly and still come out with a win, in European soil no less. The match against Iran showed that. Unlike mexican teams from the past, that lost to lowly Tunisia 3-1 or got scored 6 times by Germany, we are noe starting to develop that mentality that will allow the team to play bad and still find a way to win. That, my friends, is key to any team with aspirations of going deep in a World Cup.

My thoughts exactly, Rene. Well put.

Posted from  United States