The Conspicuous Absence of Video Review

Today's round-of-16 matches were not lacking in excitement or skill, but one negative aspect of the tournament made itself quite prominent: inaccurate officiating.

Let us review the pivotal goal-scoring moments that have been incorrectly called by the match officials so far in this tournament
1: USA - Slovenia
A game-winning U.S. goal during a heated match against Slovenia is disallowed by the referee. No player was offside, and there was nothing especially rough going on in the penalty area. In fact, if a foul was to be called, it would have to be against the Slovenian defenders, who are tugging and pulling at the U.S. squad. [See Zamundinho's write-up of this situation) No clear explanation was ever issued by the FIFA officials. The game ended in a draw and the U.S. were denied two extra points that would have put them on top of the group.
2: USA - Algeria
U.S. Herculez Gomez has a shot denied, then feeds the rebound across to Clint Dempsey, who calmly places the ball in the back of the net. After the celebration begins, the players realize that the offside flag was up, and the goal was not to count. After numerous critical video replays of the play, Dempsey looked to be just level with the defender if not behind him, and if the players are level, the advantage should go to the attacking player. The U.S. team was denied the opening goal in a match they had to win to advance.
3: Brazil - Ivory Coast
Luis Fabiano has a spectacular night, but he arguably committed two handballs on the way towards his second goal. He has even admitted it:

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/world-cup/story/_/id/799562/ce/uk/?cc=5901&ver=us

I guess it's all right, cuz he and the referee appeared to be joking about it as they walked away together. Who's paying for his mortgage, then?
4: England - Germany
England are struggling to fight back from a 2-0 deficit in the first half when a sly header from Upson gets them going. Soon after, Lampard receives the ball at the top of the box and deftly flicks it in over the goalkeeper. It hits the crossbar, bounces to the ground, then back up to the crossbar, and the keeper gleefully scoops it up. No goal is called. We viewers at home, watching the play in hi-def slow-motion, can easily see the ball clear the line by a good yard or two. That goal might have brought them back into the game mentally. But instead, they fell apart and allowed the Germans to rack on two more goals.
5: Argentina - Mexico
As the play went down, I believe, the keeper came out to stop a shot, Messi hit the rebound towards the goal, and Tevez headed it down into the net. An effective move, the only problem being that Tevez was a good yard or two offside when Messi fed him the ball! The defensive players rushed back to try to meet him, but he just nudged the ball into the goal. Anyone looking at a picture of that game can immediately see that the player was offside. And if you're worried about video review technology as a time-waster, how about the absolute mugging the referee had to endure from the Mexican contingent for about 5 minutes after the play? And they had a damn good right to be upset too. Video reviews take a matter of seconds.

What other paralogical spectacles will we experience in the rest of the tournament? I am omitting, for one, any of the numerous instances of fouls being revealed as dives thanks to video replay, a matter which of course would require a bit more delicacy. And be aware that I am not primarily accusing the match officials and lines officials of incompetence; human error is forgivable, but if the technology exists to displace it, then blame lies with the governing bodies who decline to utilize these tools.

Let's hope that nothing too substantial will be the result of bad officiating for the rest of the tournament. However, if we look on the bright side, every high-stakes error creates a serious conflict between those who control the sport, those who view it, and the spirit of the sport itself. Because the viewers have a privileged view of whether or not the game is being played according to its spirit, they recognize that the way the sport is being run is somehow in opposition to the true spirit of the game. They can identify errors which the officiating body must fail to recognize because what they see is nothing more nor less than what the official calls. Every prominent mistake makes the need for video replay technology, at least at the highest levels, more obvious to the world and hopefully furthers the cause. I think it's just a matter of time.