Villareal vs. Arsenal

Arsenal scraped through to the Champions League final last night after a very poor display. Their usual passing game was almost non-existent; they resorted instead to hoofing the ball upfield, which just gave Villareal the chance to launch another attack. It wasn't until the 91st minute that Arsenal had a serious shot, on or off target. They will have to play much better than that to beat Barcelona or Milan in the final.

I didn't like all the blatant pushing and holding in the Villareal penalty area whenever a corner was being taken. This problem will only get worse unless and until referees start to give out yellow cards or penalties against the offenders. This is one example where having more than one referee would be a great help, as one referee could keep an eye out for off-the-ball incidents.

I also noticed that the Russian officials didn't flag for off-side until the player concerned actually touched the ball, even when that player was clearly going for the ball or drawing defenders. I know that this follows the current FIFA guidlines on the interpretation of the off-side law, but it just leads to crazy situations. This is going to be a big problem in the World Cup.