<p>I don’t think Germany had any case. Reversal of yellow cards might happen when the referee clearly missed the offender or wrote the wrong name in his booklet. In this case, the referee made the call he SAW, namely a handball by Muller. There were no other playesr involved and FIFA is not about to dispute a judgment call by a referee. </p>
<p>It was extremely unfortunate, but that is the way soccer works.</p>
<p>We will never know how important Muller’s absence was, but it does not matter. It’s all the fault of that darn octopus. :)</p>
<p>It looks like the world just escaped a calamity. The referee for the WC will be England’s Webb. Rumor had it that Mexico was campaigning very hard to have a Mexican referee. We can all be thankful that did not happen!</p>
<p>However, I hope that Webb does better than the last ref from England who called a WC final. Jack Taylor was the referee in WC final in 1974. </p>
<p>Webb and his team officiated May’s Champions League final in Madrid, between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich.</p>
<p>^^^Since the British have a reputation for viewing diving as borderline cheating, can we expect to see lots of “Play on” signals from the British ref after players fall on the ground, writhing and clutching various body parts? Perhaps even some cards?</p>
<p>Webb is good… he’s been in the center for:
2007 Carling Cup Final, Chelsea and Arsenal
2009 FA Cup Final, Chelsea and Everton
2010 Champions League Final, Bayern Munich and Inter Milan</p>
Howard Webb is probably the best ref currently officiating in the Premier League. He’s had plenty of big games too (a few FA cup finals and a Champs League I believe).</p>
<p>The Octopus Paul no doubt that Spain will win the World Cup
He had no doubts in choosing the urn with the Spanish flag · He ignored the box with the flag Netherlands · By now you are correct in its forecasts throughout the World </p>
<p>CARLOS BALBOA 07/09/1910 - 11:51. Paul had no doubt in his prognosis. Without hesitation or missing a beat, the German Octopoda opened the box with the flag of Spain and ate mussels was inside. Not even raised scroll box with the Netherlands flag. The consequences? Paul has predicted that Spain will win the World Cup next Sunday. </p>
<p>"The speed with which it took its decicisón might suggest a rout? Unlike the dilemma that drove to opt for the winner of the consolation final, this time there was no room to speculate on what would be the choice of Paul. </p>
<p>What is the reliability of Paul? In this World Cup this year, 100%. He correctly predicted all parties in Germany, both victories (against Australia, Ghana, England and Argentina) and their defeats (against Serbia and Spain). The only blemish on his record, yes, of major proportions: the European Championship final, where he predicted a German victory. </p>
<p>That Paul had opted for the triumph of La Red in the semi-finals against Germany caused his popularity waned in the Teutonic country while, on the contrary, has been growing in Spain.</p>
<p>But in euros 2008, he only picks Germany to win all their games (some of Germany’s opponents were Portugal, Croatia, Austria, Turkey) Most of them have lots of red on the flag.</p>
<p>Also, Germany plays Ghana in the group stage and Paul picked Germany, Ghana has red and yellow in their flag also.</p>
<p>They don’t say anything about the parakeet’s record. The octopus has only been wrong once in the past three years (he picked Germany over Spain in the 2008 European Championships). He’s way better than random. Which of course means nothing, because I’m sure somewhere there’s another octopus who has only picked losers.</p>
<p>Anyway, there’s something much cooler about an octopus doing the picking than some bird turning over a card. That’s way too prosaic.</p>
<p>I don’t care who wins the match, but if Spain wins I want to see that octopus’ swagger.</p>
<p>I’m going with the budgie’s judgment over that of the mollusk on the grounds of it having greater expertise - soccer being one of the few human games that birds could play just fine.</p>