France v. Germany

[AucklandRover]

As they say, "It's a funny old game."
Did Schweinsteiger actually make contact with his hand? Stupid of him to lead with it, but I couldn't tell if his fingertips reached the ball or not.
The quality of the football was up about 70% on the other semi-final.

Incidentally, Robin, because the latest comment on Grant Hanley is on one of the threads started just before the site changed, I still get an error message when I try to access it.

[robinrover]

Yes it was a great game of football even though I had a bet on Germany for the tournament win so it had a slice of disappointment.
Not sure on the technical side of this forum I guess I was being lazy not starting a new thread.

[Despair]

Yep far better and more enjoyable game than the other. The game for me hinged on that penalty.
Yes its fatal to raise your arms in the pen area (just like challenging a goalie -?), but I'm sort of with AS on this, as I also see it as marginal. That might be my anti Francia coming to the fore!, but I was not wholly convinced there was any intent to contact the ball and indeed I cannot say I actually saw any.
But these days (as with the goalie 'challenge') its so easy for the ref to call it, simply because.
Loris's saves apart, I thought they sorely missed Gomes's physicality up front, as much as Muller has boundless energy he's for me a bit lightweight.

[AucklandRover]

I think there's a weird emphasis on hand-ball at the moment. Did you see the one for Aaron Ramsey that produced a yellow card, meaning he couldn't play in the semi-final? It wasn't even in a dangerous position.
Compare that to the shirt-pulling at every penalty area set-piece that gets completely ignored - not to mention the diving which seems to be part of some players' game-plans.
I still believe that videos should be studied so that players can be given retrospective yellow cards for such offences.