Rewarded for breaking the rules.

I know this is not an everyday activity, actually it may be in some parts of the world, but i have to weigh in on the ending to yesterday's Uruguay-Ghana quarterfinal World Cup game. On the last play of the extra time period, after a wild scramble in front of Uruguay's goal area, a Ghana player headed a ball that was heading straight to the back of the net for the game winner. As the ball was about to cross the line into the goal, an Uruguayan player, not the goalie, jumped and with both hands slapped the ball away. In doing so, he stopped the ball from going into the goal and saving his team for the time being. Ghana was awarded a penalty shot and the Uruguayan player walked off the field sobbing after receiving a red card and being ejected from the game. The penalty shot would be the last play of the game and if successful, Ghana would move on to the semi-finals. With the weight of his team and the entire African nation, the Ghana player kicked the ball, it hit the top crossbar and the win was lost. Now, both teams went to the penalty shoot-out to determine a winner, which Uruguay came out on top. So by breaking the rules, Uruguay is moving on and Ghana is packing up for another 4 years.

My suggestion would be for FIFA to review and change the rule for this scenario.

• If a shot is clearly headed for an opponents goal and a non-goalie player standing on the goal line, as a last resort, uses his/her hand(s) to stop the ball from crossing the goal line, the play should result in a goal for the offensive team.

Seems like a fair and simple change to a complicated rule.

Expedited Service?

On June 8th, I completed the purchase of my daughter's airline ticket to Ireland leaving July 1st. On the night of June 16th, my wife asked me for my daughter's passport and right away I knew where this was going. Her passport had expired on June 13th. I turned on the laptop and went to the passport website. I found the "traveling within 14 days" page and schedule an appointment for June 25th at the nearest regional passport agency office, which turned out to be in Miami. On the night of the 24th, I drove down to Miami from Tampa with my wife and daughter so that we could be at the office on time for our 8:30am appointment.

We arrived at the office at 8:00am with all of the required documentation and passport photos. The passport application has a Travel Plans section to enter date of trip, length of trip and countries to be visited. I filled in this section to ensure the application processor would recognize that my daughter was going to be traveling in 6 days.

When our number was called to the processor's window, the processor began reviewing our identifications, with Tampa addresses, and passport application. He circled specific fields that were filled in, including the Travel Plans section. After he confirmed all documents were fully completed, he requested payment of $145 ($85 passport renewal fee + $60 expedited fee). After taking my payment, he told me the passport would be ready for "pick-up" on Tuesday the 29th. I responded by telling him that we were from Tampa, which I'm sure he noticed on our IDs. He then said that it could be mailed and be delivered by Tuesday. I totally ignored the mailing option and asked him if there was an issue of getting the passport the same day. Suddenly, he appeared to be bothered by the fact that I asked him that and that he had to reach across his desk for the stamp to label my application "Same day Service". He then told me that the passport could be picked up at 2pm later that day.

• Why couldn't he have offered the same day service from the beginning considering travel date and my Tampa address? Its not like he needed to request supervisor approval to offer same day service option. The stamper was right on his desk.
• Why did he seem so bothered that I asked for same day service? Does he get less pay because one of the applications he processed was stamped with same day service? I doubt it. It only caused him to reach for the stamper.

Considering we were the first of many applicants that he would be seeing that day, it seems like he totally complicates the process and forces the customer/applicant to request a service that is available and should be the first option offered. Not only is it non-efficient but it impacts his attitude in a negative way that can be noticed by the applicant.

Why did this quick 5-10 minute interaction have to be so complicated?