BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa — Germany’s latest World Cup victory over England will be remembered not for any of the brilliant goals, but for the one that didn’t count.
Ask anyone - players, coaches, thousands of fans in the stadium and millions watching on television - and there is little question that Frank Lampard put a shot in the net late in the first half that would have tied the score.
But referee Jorge Larrionda waved play on, and Germany used two second-half goals by Thomas Mueller for a 4-1 victory Sunday.
The Germans are headed to the quarterfinals, while the English are shaking their heads in disbelief.
“It’s incredible,” England Coach Fabio Capello said. “We played with five referees and they can’t decide if it’s a goal or no goal. The game was different after this goal. It was the mistake of the linesman and I think the referee, because from the bench I saw the ball go [in].”
Germany Coach Joachim Loew couldn’t argue that point.
“What I saw on the television, this ball was behind the line,” Loew said. “It must have been given as goal.”
It wasn’t.
“The goal was very important,” Capello said. “We could have played a different style.We made some mistakes when they played the counterattack. The referee made bigger mistakes.”
Larrionda and assistant referee Mauricio Espinosa were not made available to comment. FIFA said in a statement that it “will not make any comments on decisions of the referee on the field of play.”
Soccer’s rules-making panel agreed in March not to pursue experiments with technology that could help referees judge goal-line decisions.
Germany went up on goals by Miroslav Klose and Lukas Podolski before England’s Matthew Upson made it 2-1 in the 37th minute.
Lampard’s nongoal came a minute later. After the ball landed across the line, it spun back into the arms of Germany goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. Capello initially celebrated what he thought was an equalizer by clenching his fists and shaking his arms, but his face changed when he realized the goal had not been given.
ARGENTINA 3, MEXICO 1
JOHANNESBURG - Carlos Tevez scored twice - once on a disputed goal- and Gonzalo Higuain added another as Argentina beat Mexico to advance to the quarterfinals.
Tevez was offside when he headed in a pass from Lionel Messi in the eighth minute. The referee awarded the goal after consulting with his linesman, the pair surrounded by angrily gesturing Mexican and Argentine players.
Mexico’s Javier Hernandez scored in the 71st minute.
Sports, Pages 13 on 06/28/2010