Lo & behold, a belgian ref is chosen for USA - Algeria: Frank Debleeckere. He's pretty good, but still human off course. People who don't like soccer because of the mistakes a referee can make must hate watching the NFL. Soccer has 4 refs, no cameras. Football has 7, cameras and often they still screw up.

It must be said that the refs were at a very high level at the beginning of the tournament. The last couple of games they have been screwing up terribly. The card for Kaka is just a prime example of that.
Bad reffing in the early stages has been a constant in World Cup history. The FIFA wants to be politically correct and thus invites the best referees of each continent, but the best ref in Africa is not exactly of the same level as the best ref in Europe. It's a bit part of the folklore of a WC, but when the consequences are this severe, it should not happen. I'm all for having 'grizzled vets' with experience in the top competitions in the world as referee at the biggest sporting event in the world.

Now about the French team, that's completely insane. They arrived with a lot of controversy in South Africa (like I said, they needed a hands-goal to qualify) and a couple of weeks before the World Cup it was discovered that a few players took the concept of teamspirit to another level when they made use of the services of the same underage prostitute. When you look like Franck Ribéry, I guess your options are limited...


Now it seems like the whole team is on the verge of implosion. Incredible for a national team to behave like that.