BLOEMFONTEIN, South Africa - Sepp Blatter must be squirming. If he isn't, he should be.

Why is it that the FIFA boss uses modern technology when it suits him — to burnish his public persona by Tweeting, for example — but not when it would do some good for global soccer, the game whose interests he is meant to be taking care of?

Blatter merrily Tweeted on Sunday that he was on his way to the historically charged World Cup match between Germany and England. Since he was at the Free State Stadium, we must assume that he saw the Blunder of Bloemfontein with his own eyes.

It was impossible to miss - unless you were a linesman from Uruguay called Mauricio Espinosa.

Fact: Frank Lampard's first-half goal for England was good.

Please, let's not fall into the trap of saying that Espinosa's failure to see that the ball crossed the line was merely 1966 in reverse, some sort of karmic retribution for Geoff Hurst's goal in the 101st minute against Germany in the World Cup final 44 years ago. All this time later, it is not possible to say with 100 percent certainty that Soviet linesman Tofik Bakhramov called it correctly when he said Hurst's strike crossed the goal-line.

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But this time in South Africa was entirely different. Lampard's lob was clearly at least the length of a player's shoe over the line and into the German goal. Not even a close call. This wasn't poetic justice for Germany. It was an English goal.

Fact: Espinosa should have seen it. Practically everyone else did, without the need for video technology. It was visible with the naked eye. England coach Fabio Capello actually started celebrating before he realized, horrified, that the goal wouldn't be given.

"From the bench, I saw the ball go over," Capello said.

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David Beckham, at halftime, went over to the referee, holding apart his hands like an angler boasting about the size of a prize salmon he caught. The message: Ref, it was that far over the line.

German coach Joachim Loew agreed: "I saw in the television this ball was behind the line, it must have been given as goal."

Fact: The goal, had it been given, would have pegged the score back to 2-2 and perhaps altered the complexion of the match entirely. Instead, at 2-1 to Germany, England was forced to chase for another score. The English left themselves vulnerable at the back as they pushed forward. The German players didn't need to be asked twice to take up the English invitation to attack them on the counter.

Fact: Germany's far younger and more coherent side was much better than England's and deserved the win that puts it into the quarterfinals. Lampard's un-allowed goal should not mask the fact that England had a poor World Cup. England has wonderful players who play in the world's toughest league but yet, as a national side, it cannot be taken seriously as a soccer power. Capello has failed in his lavishly paid job to change that enigma.