New Euro 2016 Qualifying Rules Makes Holland’s Journey Less Panicky.

Despite Netherlands losing their opening European Championship qualifier, the journey to the 2016 tournament in France has been made easier by UEFA’s new rules.

The second Guus Hiddink era kicked off last month with disappointing back to back defeats for the Netherlands. Sure, some players were missing because of injuries and the loss to Italy was a friendly that was over after three minutes following the sending off of Martins Indi. Their subsequent defeat to the Czech Republic in their first 2016 UEFA European Championship group stage match though, was embarrassing thanks to some sloppy defending and uncharismatic football from the Oranje. However, this loss did not carry the weight that the Oranje have an uphill challenge ahead of them and that’s due in large to UEFA implementing new qualifying rules which eliminated the suspense in these qualifiers.

Of course, any loss by Holland is never acceptable, especially in qualifying group stages for the UEFA European Championship. In the past, a loss would cause some concern since the last thing any fan wants is to see their team fail to finish as group leader and automatically qualify and end up in a playoff. Well, good news Oranje fans. Those days are over. Thanks to Michel Platini and UEFA for changing the rules in ensuring that the top two teams qualify for Euro 2016 automatically along with the third place team getting a shot at a playoff spot. Sadly, a change in the rules of allowing 24 nations in Euro 2016 killed the suspense of these qualifiers.

So basically, you have a better chance at qualifying than missing out on Euro 2016. So have no fear, Holland would need to fall into a total coma to make qualifying impossible. Holland’s next two opponents are Kazakhstan and Iceland. Hiddink and his players will have a chance to redeem themselves for last month’s showing. The one benefit of this easy qualification process is that perhaps this will allow Hiddink to bleed in the younger players and give them significant playing minutes. This would ultimately shed some light on which players got what it takes to play for the national team in two years’ time in France.

As much as I feel comfortable in knowing these guys still have a shot at qualifying, even if they finish third, I’d prefer if they right the ship and finish as group leaders. The first step towards redemption starts Friday against Kazakhstan. One can only hope that the Oranje have learned from last month’s mistakes and start living up to expectations.

Time for Iniesta to be recognized as one of the world’s best.

Barça fans have long stated that Iniesta has been one of their best players for the past few season and also argued that he should be up there with the likes of Messi and Ronaldo. With Iniesta winning Euro 2012 Player of the Tournament award, he has earned the right to be considered one of the current great players in the world.

Us Barça fans have been blessed for the past decade with some great players. When Frank Rijkaard was named manager of the club back in 2003-2004 season, many of the young youth players were given their chance to impress. One of them was our own Iniesta who had made his debut under Louis van Gaal the year before. Under Rijkaard, the young player with the number 24 on his back impressed Barça fans and allowed us to brag that although Arsenal had Cesc, Barça had Iniesta. Those claims would be backed up in the 2006 Champions League Final in Paris where his dazzling performance as a halftime substitute caught eyes. He was involved in the buildup on Eto’o’s goal for the equalizer with his pass to Henrik Larsson that resulted in the assist for the goal.

Unfortunately, Barça’s performance following that amazing night in Paris were ones to forget with the team struggling to win any domestic or European honors. However, during that time, we got to see the young Iniesta grow and dazzle us with his great vision and ball control while a young Messi was slowly starting to show us a glimpse of what he would become.  Iniesta performance for the national team took off in Euro 2008 after only appearing in one game in the group stage in the 2006 World Cup.

His performances for club and country took off following Euro 2008 where helped Spain end their long drought for international success by being named on the Team of the Tournament and one of his highlights being setting up Xavi for the opening goal in the Semi-Finals against Russia. With Guardiola as his club manager, Barça won a historic treble, with Iniesta’s goal in the Champions League Semi-Final still fondly remembered by many Cules and was an inspiration for many baby deliveries in Barcelona hospitals nine months later. However, the best accolade he would receive came after Barça defeated Manchester United in the 2009 Champions League Final in Rome with United’s Wayne Rooney proclaimed that “Iniesta is the best player in the world at the moment.”

Since that magical season, Iniesta has done it all for club and country with the midfielder’s pinnacle moment being his goal in the World Cup Final that finally gave the title they had long waited for.  For some, that moment would change players forever but Iniesta remained the same humble man who decided to celebrate that goal by taking off his jersey to reveal with a message written on his shirt to honor his fallen friend, Jarque.

There is no need to list his accomplishment over the years. You can see them on his Wikipedia page and his success on the pitch speaks for itself. He has been amazing and Guardiola saw that back when Iniesta was still a young lad. Graham Hunter’s book , Barca: The Making of the Greatest Team in the World, mentioned the story of when Guardiola observed Iniesta’s talent for the first time during the 1999 Nike Cup.  Guardiola presented Iniesta his medal and the trophy and told him, “One day I’ll be up in those stands watching you do what I do for Barça.” The story then goes on that he Guardiola told Xavi, “Xavi, you are going to replace me, but watch out for this young guy, because he’ll retire all of us.”

Without a doubt, Iniesta has been one of the greatest players to play for the club and it won’t be long before the rest of the world confesses that Iniesta is has been one of the greatest playmakers to play the sport with the likes of the Zidane, Scholes, Xavi, Pirlo, Platini and Maradona. The 28 year old still has many years ahead to continue to shine and impress and earn the accolades to be named up there with the best.

 

Time for Fútbol to join the club and use replay.

As we enter a new year, an old dilemma still haunts our beloved game of football. Just these past few weeks, the calls of ref bias reared its ugly head again. The big surprise though, was that it was coming from Barça fans this time. The missed calls on the obvious handball in the Espanyol game coupled with the booking to Iniesta after he was fouled inside the box in the Betis game and the missed calls in the Madrid Mallorca game upset many fans who believe the gap between the archrivals should be down to two points. I don’t think there is a bias by the refs. It’s just incompetence. I also think that the idea of instant replay has to become a reality in the near future so we don't have to witness another poor decision like Iniesta's booking against Betis this past weekend.

This debate has been going on for a while with those for and against instant replay. There was even a very lively discussion about it on twitter between me, ESPN Soccernet’s Eduardo Alvarez and the infamous Barcastuff this past weekend. The discussion went back and forth between us regarding the issues that refs are not intentionally favoring any side; past or present in recent history. Eduardo made the point that referees need to be full-time professionals and not part-timers. He made the strong point that if they remain part-timers, then the pressure on the referees will keep growing, and they will remain unprepared and amateur as they are nowadays.

Barcastuff countered that the pressure though is coming from Real Madrid, its fans and the Madrid press. I have to say I agree with that statement. One of the best examples was during last year’s Champions League Semi-Finals. Madridistas were upset with Wolfgang Stark’s decision to send off Pepe. Afterwards, ITV’s Andy Townsend was threatened by angry Madrid fans who thought he was Stark. If this is what Townsend went through, imagine what the Spanish refs go through then. It is not that farfetched for referees to feel the wrath of fans. It wasn’t that long ago that Anders Frisk retired following Mourinho’s accusations that resulted in threats made at him and his family from Chelsea fans.

Now back to Eduardo’s comment that referees should be full-time professionals. I agree and this is something that many others have said before and the NFL is currently thinking about making their referees become fulltime. I don’t think the referees are biased. They just are not that good. It seems like the game is advancing every year while they regress backwards. I don’t think referees becoming full-time professionals is enough though and that more needs to be implemented to aid the referees and provide just results.

More referees was one suggestion and perhaps it might work. However, we all agreed that instant replay/TV technology is something we all want to be implemented someday.  Of course, that topic has ruffled the feathers of the purists for a long time. I can understand their views against it. It’s not part of the game, it slows down games, and it takes away from the game. I agree with all except the latter. I am sorry but I didn’t buy Platini’s explanation that human error is part of the game. Sorry, but this sport is now a business where managers lose their jobs and players might end up losing out on success. I don’t believe Mexico’s and England’s national teams were too pleased with FIFA’s apology after their elimination from the World Cup.

The neutrals might say they prefer it that way but I would be hard pressed to believe any fan shares that view after seeing his team get the wrong end of a call. We are now in the year 2012 and NCAA Football and Basketball use instant replay. Heck, even Major League Baseball uses instant replay and that sport has been around just as long as fútbol and has its own share of purists. Yet, I never heard any of them complain about it when it has been used to get the call right. Now some argue how can we rely on instant replay when the NFL can’t seem to get calls right with the use of replay? Valid point but the NFL is a different sport where they can challenge for many things unlike football where we want it just for a few things such as off sides, hand balls, did the ball cross the goal line and foul or dive for a penalty. I prefer we compare it to NHL’s use of instant replay since the NHL and fútbol share many similarities.

NHL’s instant replay applies to only goals. There are basically eight things they can review and guess what, I can’t think of many instances where they got a goal wrong with the minor exception of the Dallas Stars Buffalo Sabres series clinching goal involving Brett Hull skate in the crease during overtime in the Finals controversy. Other than that, they have gotten it right and if I am wrong, please let me know. Now, for fútbol, it would be used for the following reasons. Did the ball cross the goal line? Was it a handball to score or deny a goal?; Was the player onside or not and was it a foul or a dive inside the box? You can also make the argument for off the ball decisions like Zidane’s head butt. I can’t believe that fans would rather see a game be decided by a blown call. Maradona’s Hand of God anyone? Instant replay is the way of the future and FIFA needs to get the ball rolling on it quickly. Every sport seems to have it now except our beloved sport. Of course, this would mean more cameras, more camera angles and even a video goal judge so the referee doesn’t have to go through the peep show booth that NFL referees go through. Let someone upstairs review it like they do in the NHL.

The problem though is that this issue has to be brought up by the players. Players whining to the media about bad calls is not enough. They have to demand it. Barcastuff made the argument that players union have other concerns such as protecting the players. I beg to differ and think the players and their unions have to make their voices heard along with the league presidents. It’s a win-win situation for everybody. Clubs and fans no longer have to witness their team suffer a bad call. Leagues and teams can make money from the TV time used during the instant replay. I don’t buy into the argument that it stalls games by affecting continuity and momentum since we go through that already from players wasting time for injuries or protesting a bad call.

Until then, we have to sit back and watch referees make horrible calls such as the missed handball in the Barcelona derby or the wrong call on the disallowed Mallorca goal for off sides or the missed Sergio Ramos handball near the end of the game.  We cannot continue to live at a time where teams could get relegated or lose its chance at winning a trophy from a bad referee’s decision. Eduardo made the point that he didn’t think the Spanish league has been decided by refereeing mistakes. I agree with him when he said that there will be tons of ref mistakes after 38 matches but ultimately, the best side always wins. He detests this sort of debate and made the obvious claim that both Real Madrid and Barcelona get way too many calls to complain about it. I concur and think that’s the case in all the leagues when it comes to big teams getting the benefit of the calls against the smaller teams.  In case you didn’t know, Eduardo is a Real Madrid fan who is very fair and level headed in my opinion.

I agreed with him about the best side always wins and that’s why I don’t blame the referees for Barça being in second place. Much of the blame lies with their away from albeit some of the referee calls have not helped either. With that said, we should not accept incompetence from non-fulltime referees that affect the outcomes of close games that could lead to teams being relegated or hindering teams from winning a title when there is video technology available. So I hope that the push for video technology grows stronger. Please make it happen FIFA!