Word: defeatingly
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...black II. As is the way of sequels, the script is a rehash of the original: in an international football tournament, the losing team claims to have been done in by incompetent referees. Matters take a particularly ugly turn when a group of irate players, smarting from defeat, surround and rough up the official in front of TV cameras. Aghast, football's governing body promises to deal severely with the athletes to ensure that this kind of behavior doesn't happen again...
...Those were the events surrounding the Portuguese team after their Euro 2000 semifinal defeat at the hands of France. They gave us a graphic replay during their 0-1 loss to Korea at Inchon last week. After Argentine ref Angel Sanchez sent off forward Joao Pinto in the first half, he was set upon by Portuguese players, including their captain Fernando Couto. Sanchez says he was punched in the stomach by Pinto. The TV cameras missed it in the melee, but FIFA has its own more conclusive video of the incident...
...makes no difference whether Sanchez missed the call. The men in black are not always right. These finals have been loaded with dubious, match-changing decisions, including Ronaldinho being sent off in the Brazil-England game and disallowed goals that helped Korea defeat both Italy and Spain. But officials cannot officiate if they labor under the threat of intimidation and assault by players and coaches. FIFA last week issued a statement defending the World Cup referees and congratulating them on a noticeable improvement in officiating standards. The game's authorities should do more to protect the most vulnerable...
...There should, for instance, be a system of fines and other penalties for losing coaches who accuse referees of incompetence, or worse. The most egregious example of this sort of scapegoating came last week, when Italy's Giovanni Trapattoni blamed Ecuadorean ref Byron Moreno for the Azzuri's inglorious defeat by South Korea. In addition to questioning Moreno's professional abilities, Trapattoni suggested obliquely that the official was ordered by FIFA to ensure a Korean victory so that one of the two host nations would remain in the tournament...
...After the Poland defeat, the U.S. seemed destined to lose to Mexico in the round of 16. Over the years, the Tricolores had treated their northern neighbors like kid brothers, regularly slapping them around. But what the world hadn't realized is that during World Cup qualifying, the balance of power had shifted. The U.S. forced the Mexicans to play a qualifier in Columbus, Ohio, in frigid temperatures?far from the warmth of Los Angeles, the usual site, where 90,000 fans, most of them Mexican, would turn a U.S. home game into an away contest. The U.S. rocked...