Friday, 25 November 2022

Game 19 - Mustapha Ghorbal in Netherlands vs. Ecuador (discussion)

Algerian official will be on hand to officiate this Group A tie. Let's see how he performs!
 


Game 19 - Al-Rayyan (17:00 CET)
NETHERLANDS - ECUADOR
Referee: Mustapha Ghorbal (ALG) 
Assistant Referee 1: Mokrane Gourari (ALG) 
Assistant Referee 2: Abdelhak Etchiali (ALG)
Fourth Official: Said Martínez (HON) 
Reserve Assistant Referee: Helpys Feliz (DOM) 
Video Assistant Referee: Shaun Evans (AUS) 
Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Rédouane Jiyed (MOR) 
Offside Video Assistant Referee: Ashley Beecham (AUS)
Support Video Assistant Referee: Muhammad Taqi (SIN)
Standby Assistant Video Assistant Referee: Anton Shchetinin (AUS)

61 comments:

  1. Surprisingly the red referee kit in spite of the orange Netherlands kits. Purple looked like the more obvious choice.

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    1. Unusual. If you've ever seen the red adidas kit in person it's very close to orange

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    2. On TV it looks fine. The purple would probably too close to Ecuador's navy. Maybe the turquoise. But the red works too.

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    3. I know it's not one of the choices. But a white top would work fine and it would look elegant/sharp at the same time.

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  2. 26' Looked liked SPA to me, and there was another one committed a few minutes earlier by the Dutch that looked borderline.

    27' No impeding foul?

    Optically the Algerian looks good but I'm not totally sold on a few of his decisions yet, though they are minor decisions for now. Let's see how the game continues.

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  3. The worst referee of the tournament so far

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  4. Missing fouls both ways. Blocking players, to hard on the whistle

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    Replies
    1. And not because I am Dutch.

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    2. I agree on the whistle tone. Every foul is a long and hard whistle, it is too much. There is not much room left for a bigger whistle when a big foul comes. The foul detection and disciplinary control has been quite lenient so far. I'm waiting for him to draw a line in the sand. The longer he goes without doing so, the hotter this game will get. The temperature keeps rising. It's not *bad* yet, but he's playing with fire IMO.

      39' another potential SPA that would get given in other games maybe but definitely not based upon what is established so far. In general, I feel like SPA has gotten far more lenient as the tournament has gone on than what we saw (particularly from Orsato) on day 1.

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    3. @smala you hit the note right there about SPA being lenient as the WC progresses,dont know why.

      Orsato and his performance was perfectly fine,maybe they want to protect players from possible suspensions(2 yc's -miss 1 match)or they just dont want to be in spotlight.
      But by not booking players they are doing opposite,they are exactly in spotlight as the persons who are not doing their job correctly...

      I really dont know what's the reason but I wish there was a clear line and not one game one line,other game some other line for fouls...

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  5. 38'
    Sorry how is that not a booking?

    Handling the ball,preventing FK?

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    1. I would love to see a caution on this sort of play for DR. However, players have gotten away with delaying the restart all tournament, sadly.

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  6. He's surprisingly good, and calm too.

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    1. Good?? My opinion is the complete opposite

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  7. He blows his whistle like he is giving a YC each time. Keep it down please

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  8. Not convincing Ghorbal at all,and I'm his fan.

    Too much small altercations not being totally solved,missed 2 bookings.

    When you have 2 teams that are not likinf you approach to the game,then you have to wonder am I the problem?

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  9. Spot on decision to disallow goal,#35 was in front of GK when goal was scored.

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    1. Was he interfering with play? Keeper couldn't have saved this shot anyway

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    2. Keeper had 0% chance to save the shot. On replay we can see that he already started to fall down on the right hand side before the scorer touched the ball. All the time until he fell down he saw the ball. For me wrong decision.

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    3. That goal was valid, the goalkeeper's vision was not blocked by the opponent standing in an offside position.

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    4. Correct decision. Law 11.2 clearly states if a player standing is standing in an offside position and is in the way of an opponent (in this case GK) and interferes with the movement of the opponent toward the ball (in this case blocking his view and movement in general) - this is an offside offense. It is a tough offside but correct as LOTG.

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    5. Laws says lot of things, but we see different application even here on the WC. The case here is that the keepers view before he fell down was not blocked! Dutch ref - you can see this from the angle (camera) behind the goal.
      And now Ecuador scores without any obstruction.

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    6. @Nole
      So it's a wrong decision because it's right according to the LOTG but not all rules are followed strictly, even if these rules have nothing to do with offside? That's ridiculous, especially since we don't even know the guidelines for situations like this (it's the first this World Cup)

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    7. Zero effect on the GK's ability to play the ball since the ball suddenly changed direction and we all saw the GK would've never reached it anyway. Completely incorrect offside.

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  10. OT - UEFA Women's Champions League was played this week (Wednesday and Thursday). Match official appointments posted under "Domestic Competition Appointments"

    https://law5-theref.blogspot.com/p/domestic-competitions-appointments_78.html

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  11. Not SO bad IMO, but much room for improvement in 2nd half.

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  12. Finally a YC,I think for foul on Memphis.

    Shown very late...

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  13. Bravo to the ARs in this game. Sensational offside at the end of the first half, great onside at the start of the second.

    57th minute: correct yellow card, as needed, though the delay in showing it after the whistle makes it not as convincing as I wish it had been. Perhaps he was looking for the player's number after playing advantage.

    I did think that the foul that finally caused a stoppage in play was SPA, but in line with the others this game, he didn't sanction it.

    Very curious to see how this game turns out. His permissiveness raises questions, but there are yet still ways he could answer them effectively.

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  14. Clear yc not given to Gakpo,71'

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  15. 71' Another really cynical foul, which only happens because he hasn't punished SPA at all today. This SPA line is starting to feel like that of a local U15 game's referee when they don't even know that SPA exists.

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  16. 3 meters offside and delayed flag! What if someone got injured? So stupid not to raise the flag for blatant offside.

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    1. Wait for goal. Than VAR does check. Assistent will call in in the headset so VAR can already do a check. It is the rule with VAR present

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    2. Delay the flag is the instruction only for tight offsides, this one should have been stopped immediately IMO. It was simply too clear to delay.

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    3. What goal man and what VAR check? THREE METERS OFFSIDE! Not small but so blatant offside.

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    4. So, we can see that none of you ever used VAR system or refered match with VAR...

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  17. Bad lenient line,he should be happy that game equally bad...

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  18. There are obvious comparisons you can make between Ghorbal's game and Escobar's game. I have to wonder what Collina told his referees last night.

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    1. Lahoz was no there obviously 😀

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    2. Has Lahoz ever listened anyways? XD

      He does his own thing no matter what, even when it is to his detriment.

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  19. What a shameful behavior from the Dutch players and the ref who didn't want to stop the play while the player was on the grass.

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    1. Disagree! Valencia walked around apparently without any serious problem, before he decided to sit down on the ground. No need for the Dutch nor for the referee to stop play.

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  20. Collina will not be statisfied with 6 minutes added time and final whistle 10 seconds too early

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  21. I am very surprised about all these negative comments regarding Ghorbal's performance. IMO it was a very good display. He certainly had an approach and none of the mentioned SPA situations were 100% clear and you could always find a reason for why not the caution certain players. And then he was totally consistent with the approach, which supported the gameflow and his overall work.
    The only negative point what I noticed was his positioning, otherwise brilliant teamwork and a strong performance.

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  22. OT:Another set of appointments:

    Japón vs Costa Rica
    A: Michael Oliver

    Belgica vs Marruecos
    A: Cesar Ramos

    Croacia vs Canadá
    A: Andres Matonte

    España vs Alemania
    A: Danny Makkelie

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  23. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I've counted 3 YCs that should have been given for my taste (26', 71', 85'), maybe even the fourth one (38'), but let's give him the benefit of the doubt there. Disciplinary line for SPA left a lot of room for improvement, IMO.

    As for the rest, the only real problem for me was his positioning, interfering with play (players or the ball) on a number of occasions. Everything else was fine for me.

    Both ARs with some nice onside/offside decisions (correctly disallowed goal for ECU, IMO).

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  24. I don't know what happened but the level of officiating decreased drastically during last days:
    Rapallini - very weak / terrible
    Elfath - terrible
    Escobar - terrible
    Ghorbal - terrible

    Comparing to above mentioned referees, widely criticized Sikazwe was much better.

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    1. Could you explain why in wour opinion sikazwe was much better than Rapallini and ghorbal. For my taste they Just had a very different approach.

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    2. Sikazwe was way better in terms of disciplinary control,other crucial decisions we know what happened.

      Rapallini,Ghorbal,Turpin and Escobar had one thing on their mind-to end match with no YC's or as few as they can show.

      In that aspect,and that only aspect, Sikazwe was better.

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    3. @Euro Soccer Ref Yeah, but they wrongly don`t trust Kovacs, Ortega, Martinez, Ning and N`Diaye. And some the ones you mentioned above, plus Vincic, Beath (I guess not Sikazwe too) will get undeservedly get their second game. Every referee that I wrote should have been planned for one game, and then the meritocracy criterium should have decided who gets more. I already start to feel disappointed by their approach, I hope it will not became worst.

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  25. Analysis

    KMI:

    48': Goal disallowed by AR2 for offside:
    Good decision/teamwork from the Algerian officials, Etchiali brillantly detected the attacker illegal position, influencing the GK reaction.
    Nice call taken with a rather quick timing and without the help of the technology, well done.

    Balance:

    What a demanding game in terms of assessing duels ! Arguably the match witnessing the higher number of challenge situations to analyse. Unfortunately, Ghorbal was very unconvincing in this aspect.

    In a busy 1H, he missed several offenses (21',27',37',45') and couldn't draw the line on what was allowed, or not. He struggled on a similar level in a much easier 2H (other FKs missed in 61',73',83').

    His disciplinary control was poor, he only cautioned in 57' for a reckless kick after a (quite poor) advantage, but missed mandatory bookings in 22'(DtR),71'(blatant LoR/SPA) and 86' (reckless tackle), and didn't react to borderline offenses in 26',38' and 90+4'.

    The most annoying part was his reactionless and unpreventive attitude against almost everything: DtR (22',37'), player confrontations (31',41',61',88'), dissent (21',22',90+4'). I'd highlight the "dismissal" of the Ecuadorians arguing after the disallowed goal: hands behind his back, smiling and asking players to go away... His managing skills were close to non-existent today.

    Both ARs ran the line optimally: AR2 disallowing the goal before HT, AR1 playing an excellent onside before Ecuador's equalizer.

    It pains me to say this as I like him a lot and saw him much better in recent times, but Ghorbal don't deserve to be appointed again as referee in this WC, the main reason being his non-control of the players' actions, who got away with pretty-much everything.

    Marks: (4 - 7 - 7 - III)

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  26. Absolutely excellent offside flag for disallowing the goal by AR2 Etchiali, this decision would be already enough to get a second game. A pity that Ghorbal decided to officiate the game without a clear line, I checked the videos of the minutes in the report and indeed I must agree, he just waited that players wanted to solve the questions by themselves and the disciplinary was rather poor.
    It will be very interesting to see whether he will get another game, in this case I'm torn because the offisde call is extra ordinary and Collina will be absolutely content with that, I think it is possible, also because there weren't other crucial situations, that Ghorbal will get another game despite of his rather poor display. That's also because I think committee considers him as one of big African names...

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  27. This was the best officiated game of the WC so far. Although there were lots of hard tackles and hard fouls that in many other games would be given yellows, the players clearly demonstrated on both sides that they were okay with - and wanted - a physical game with a higher threshold for bookings. The referee managed the game impeccably. He allowed both teams to play hard, and he didn't insert himself into making any game-changing decisions that weren't warranted. He should be seriously considered for important knockout round matches, and his style of officiating is perfect for a WC Final consideration, too. (I just wish other referees were as good as him, and could keep their cards in their pockets and manage the players vocally so we don't have lots of yellows when they aren't needed, and that we could also have that consistency, too.)

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