Were you as disappointed as I was by the spectacle that Argentina and Holland put on last night? It was meant to be the highlight of the first round, but what we actually witnessed were two sides treading water before the fun really begins at the weekend. It needn't have been this way.
To blame is Fifa's flawed penalty system for accruing bookings. At present, a player is banned for one match if he picks up two yellow cards in separate games; but after the group stage, the slate is wiped clean.
With qualification already assured, Marco van Basten decided to rest five of Holland's first-team players - including Arjen Robben and Mark van Bommel - who had already been booked once in the tournament, and hence could avoid possible suspension in the knockout rounds by skipping this game. Argentina coach José Pekerman also left out three of his usually automatic selections - Javier Saviola, Hernán Crespo and Gabriel Heinze.
This meant the 48,000 poor souls who had paid goodness knows how much to be in Frankfurt's Waldstadion, not to mention the hundreds of million of TV viewers around the world, were denied the chance to watch two of the most thrilling teams in the competition go head-to-head. By playing their other superstars - including Juan Román Riquelme, Javier Mascherano and Ruud van Nistelrooy - the two coaches showed they were keen to impress and win the game, but not as desperate as they were to circumnavigate Fifa's illogical rule.
This is not a one-off. Phil Scolari omitted a quintet of big names from his Portugal line-up which eventually beat Mexico yesterday, while Sven-Goran Eriksson restricted Steven Gerrard to the substitutes bench until the need was such that he had to be thrown on to rescue England. As it stands, these players are effectively serving one-match bans for receiving one booking - Gerrard clearly would have rather been out on the pitch against Sweden - while we the fans are missing out on seeing them perform.
In fairness to Fifa, it's a tricky problem to resolve. On the one hand, it wants the best players on show to reflect the brilliance of our (its) game. But on the other, it is determined to clamp down on any sort of cheating.
It was a step in the right direction that Fifa introduced the new system of eradicating bookings from the record after the group stage. The old method which saw any two yellow cards, across what could amount to six games if a team progressed to the final, leading to a one-match ban was far too harsh in an age in which the number of bookings in some matches reaches double figures.
Too many players were missing semi-finals and finals for trifling incidents. Of course, if a player is sent off for a dangerous tackle, he deserves to be punished. But should a footballer really be forced to watch the biggest game of his life from the sidelines because he took a penalty too quickly in one match, and celebrated with too much passion in another (just two of the ridiculous bookings dished out so far in this tournament).
Not only is the system falling down around matches such as yesterday's, but there is also the inconsistency that sees a player serving a ban for being booked in the first and third matches of the World Cup, but not the second and fourth, third and fourth, or third and fifth. Where is the logic in that?
It is not easy to find a solution, but I will suggest one anyway (albeit a slightly complex one). My original thought was why not just say three bookings across the tournament and you're out. But then players eliminated in the first round who were booked in all three group games would not have to serve punishment.
So then I changed tack and thought players should be suspended only if they are booked in successive games. But of course that would lead to the same dilemma we currently have if a player were yellow carded in the second match, ie he'd be left out of the third game wherever possible so that he could start afresh booking-less.
Taking it a step further, I considered the idea that players should only serve a one-match suspension if they are booked in successive games in which they play. But, of course, coaches would find a way around this too - for example, bringing the player on during stoppage-time, when there is next to no chance he'll offend the referee, would count as an appearance.
So how about this (finally): why not say that players will be banned for a match only if they are booked in successive games in which they play at least 45 minutes. Or, to put it another (equally muddled) way: if a player is booked in one game and then booked again the next time he plays, he will be suspended; but if he plays 45 minutes or more in the second game and is not booked, he starts with a clean name in the next match.
This way Fifa still gets its message across that cheating will not prosper; coaches will play their strongest team in the knowledge they can't dodge the rules; fans get better value for their money; and players know they are less likely to miss the most important day of their careers - and if they do, they are more likely to deserve it.
Do you agree? Or can you think of a better alternative?
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