Blind Homerism or Rank Stupidity?

Or, "How I learned to stop thinking and bend over for Landon Donovan."

Case #1: Wherein the commentary team initially makes the right call, but, owing to a slavish devotion to Donovan, reconsiders their perspective in light of his bitching to the linesman Revisiting the replay at the end of the clip, they are presented with proof positive that not only is Harris onside, but so is Cunningham (witness the defender at the top of the screen), so it doesn't matter a whit if the AR considers him "inactive" or not. That's not a "judgement call," boys. Sigh.




Case #2: Now maybe that first example is a case of them not being focused on where all the defenders are when the ball is delivered (though if you're making an offside call, that would seem to be among an observer's higher concerns). But this second one boggles the imagination. Does the defender go over a bit easily? Perhaps. But he's also quite obviously shoved in the back by — you guessed it, Landon Donovan — with nary a mention from our eagle-eyed men with the mics, even after multiple viewings. I don't know where else your attention can be focused in this instance, but there's not a single mention of a possible foul having occurred. Instead, we're encouraged to delight in Beckham's strike and the dogged persistance, of course, of Little Lord Donovan. Sigh...again.



And let's not even get into the fact that they want to give Donovan an assist on LA's second despite his cross having been headed away before it reaches Juninho.