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Argentina keeper Romero says ''no'' to technology

Pretoria, Jun 29 (AFP) Argentina goalkeeper Sergio Romero went against the grain by calling for footballing authorities to resist the temptation to introduce goaline technology. The debate has been raging with world football governing body FIFA firmly opposed to electronic and video assistance for referees, but the pressure was cranked up on Sunday during the World Cup second round. England were denied a valid goal against Germany when the referee and linesman failed to spot that Frank Lampard's shot had come down off the crossbar and landed fully a metre over the line before bouncing out. In the late game, Argentina's Carlos Tevez opened the scoring against Mexico from an offside position. Again neither linesman nor referee spotted the infringement and this time an invalid goal stood. Despite the controversy, Romero believes the power of the referee should be respected. "I'm against technology in football. If you put a chip inside the ball you'll take away the vibrancy of great players and football is for living not for technology," he said yesterday. Looking ahead to their next match against Germany in the quarter-finals, the AZ Alkmaar stopper said there were plenty of reasons for the South Americans to be wary, although he said the Germans should also be on their guard. "Without a doubt Germany are a strong team and they slow down the game like they did in Germany (in March in a friendly which Argentina won 1-0), but we dealt well with that," he said. "(Lukas) Podolski has a great shot from distance and (Miroslav) Klose chases after every ball. "(Mesut) Ozil is a very good player, he's left-footed and has good technique. "They have big players who come up for all the corners and free-kicks but we know that we have great players and it will be difficult for them." Four years ago Argentina lost on penalties to Germany at the same stage of the competition. The German goalkeeper in 2006 Jens Lehmann revealed that he had a "cheat-sheet" on which he had written which way each Argentine player usually shot when he took a spot-kick. Romero said he doesn't have a similar written aid, but admitted that he and his fellow Argentina goalkeepers have been doing their homework. "All three of us have been studying all players because you can face a penalty at any time," he said. "It was sly like a fox to have this cheat-sheet but now we know how and where everyone shoots." (AFP) PM