The 2014 World Cup is barely underway, and already the officials have become a major storyline. The controversy began in the Thursday night opening game in which the Brazil-Croatia match turned on a dime thanks to a phantom foul call.
Dejan Lovren was shown a yellow card for a questionable foul against Brazil's Fred, and when asked if for his thoughts about the call he threw caution out the window. "Maybe yes, maybe no," he said before uttering some damning words. "But if it is like this, then we can give the World Cup directly to Brazil.
It is not just difficult for me to take, but for everyone who watched this game. I think it was two billion people. I think it is a shame. A big shame for this mistake. I cannot agree with this. Of course I am angry. I want to cry now but what can you do? If you saw the game you saw everything so I don't need to explain."
Croatia's coach, Vedran Corluka. backed his player fully and ripped into the referees. "I think it is embarrassing,' he said. 'I think if this continues then no one should play against Brazil. We should just give them the World Cup and everyone can go home."
While accusations of fixing and home cooking are strong, the refs may have gotten some dubious help in the Mexico-Cameroon match. Perhaps the referees aren't biased, just officiating poorly. Mexico defeated Cameroon in a 1-0 thriller, but they could've won comfortably had two goals early on not been disallowed for questionable offsides calls.
Giovani dos Santos disallowed goal Mexico vs... by ntpflora
In just two games, the officials are stealing the spotlight from the world's premier soccer players in the most prestigious sporting tournament the globe has to offer, so fans and competitors alike will surely be hoping for crisper performances from the men making the calls.
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