Saturday 16 June 2018

2018 FIFA World Cup Match 8: Croatia - Nigeria (discussion)

Let's discuss here the performance of Sandro Ricci in Croatia - Nigeria. Good luck to the officiating team! 
Match #8
Kaliningrad, 16 June 2018 21:00 CET
Croatia - Nigeria
Referee: Sandro Ricci (BRA)
Assistant Referee 1: Emerson de Carvalho (BRA)
Assistant Referee 2: Marcelo Van Gasse (BRA)
Fourth Official: Antonio Mateu Lahoz (ESP)
Fifth Official: Pau Cebrián Devís (ESP)
VAR: Daniele Orsato (ITA)
AVAR1: Wilton Sampaio (BRA)
AVAR 2: Carlos Astroza (CHI)
AVAR 3: Artur Soares Dias (POR)

66 comments:

  1. Too early whistled foul. Should give an advantage to Nigeria.

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  2. Looks like a missed offside for AR2 in 21'

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  3. Looks like a penalty for Nigeria. Elbow to the face of Balogun.

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    1. Seems like VAR only cares to intervene based on players reactions and protest. Because by law that’s a penalty and yellow card.

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    2. Don't know why that's not enough for Orsato to intervene!

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    3. Sorry, never a penalty for me

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    4. On more replays looks like a natural jump to me... No intervention seems rather correct decision in this case!

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    5. Maybe I‘ll have another look at it. Seemed not fair to me at first glance.

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  4. In my opinion, a missed penalty in 22‘ for a reckless use of elbow.

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  5. 22' possible elbow to the face, NGA played with nose bleeding, VAR said nothing to review

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  6. Without generalising, I must say that Italian VARs seem to be very defensive in recommending an OFR. I‘m convinced that with German VARs, we would have had at least two more OFRs.

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  7. Correct booking for Rakitic.

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  8. Now YC Rakitic. Not enough in my opinion. Should have been a red one.

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  9. 29' good YC for CRO right in front of Ricci

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  10. Never a penalty in 22’. Natural jumping movement, just look at the defender directly in front of the “offender”, symmetrical movement. A clean winning header.

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    1. The header was the cleanest thing I hace ever seen. The elbow to the face though......

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    2. There is no additional movement or intent. As I said look at the Croation player directly in front, they have the exact same motion with their arms.

      Next people will be saying you have to jump like a penguin.

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    3. Completely agree with Gerry. Vida jumped into the height in a normal, absolutely natural way. The contact with the elbow (which was not excessively used as tool or which did not go out significantly) was an accidental collision for me. I have the feeling that some people start to see interventions in everything. Very wise by the Italian team to keep their fingers away from this incident.

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    4. *correction: Italian-Brazilian-Chilean-Portuguese team :)

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    5. Good analyses, I agree with you.
      No penalty, best decision for football

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    6. Totally agreed also from my side! In my opinion a normal football action resulting in an unfortunate contact, nothing more and nothing less.

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  11. Too early half-time whistle.

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  12. On a quick note, after almost 8 games, I must say I'm impressed by the standard of refereeing so far. You can discuss isolated decisions but the big overall image has been very good. The best start into a World Cup in recent times!

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    1. And most excellently, very contrary to most (at least, my) expectations.

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  13. About VAR - interventions... In German Bundesliga we often had comments that there are too many interventions. Italian VAR seem to be more defensive and that in principle makes sense in my view cause it strengthens the authority of the referees on the field.
    Ricci very solid so far. My only criticism: Many little fouls after a while should lead to YCs, too. From him even no clear warning here so far. At least Rebic is begging for YC by many little offensive fouls.

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  14. This is turning out to be a really boring match 😪

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  15. Correct penalty for embracing. Brave decision by Ricci.

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    1. Yes. I can imagine a lot of officials ignoring that. Good call.

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  16. 70' : Penalty assigned to Croatia by Ricci... Confirmed by VAR too!

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  17. Replies
    1. Yes. Similar to situation from Uefa RAP, I think that Falcao was fouled :)

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  18. Only if we could see more penalty area decisions like this. Well done mr Ricci

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  19. Great, correct and much needed call by Ricci. However, we must be honest with ourselves. These type of incidents happen on each and every corner. But very few Referee's do the correct and brave thing by whistling for a PK.

    In this particular case. That call by Ricci led to there being no "wrestling" on the subsequent Croatian corner.

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    1. Not on each and every corner. Only when there is no clear warning to the defensive players in the beginning. And that is up to the ref.

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    2. Nobody calls it because it has become a tradition to ignore it, just like the 6-second rule. If they make it a tradition to call these things players will never do it again or at least we will see a significant decrease of holding and pulling during corners and free kicks.

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    3. Agreed Victor. When a referee is actually brave enough to make the correct call and not spend the whole match simply warning the players corner after corner. It leads to a decrease in such actions. But as you correctly say. Referee's for too long have cocenc to ignore it thus allowing it to become the problem it is.

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  20. I have feeling that Sandro Ricci would be good Champions League referee.
    Really like his european style of refereeing.

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    1. +1

      He really looks out of place in CONMEBOL sometimes. He has a complete European style.

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    2. He reminds me of great Nicola Rizzoli. Running, gestures, body etc

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  21. IMO, Ricci showed fantastic performance today. Every CONMEBOL referee was good so far

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    Replies
    1. The experience of Ricci showed. Particularly in the penalty whistled.

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  22. 84th min
    Clear ellbowcheck in face and not even YC for Nigeriam player by Ricci. First serious mistake. For me near to RC.

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    1. Illegal use of arm/elbow is the only point to improve so far.

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  23. Really excited to watch Diedhiou, Faghani and Ramos tomorrow in their games. All 3 really good referees and I am very eager to watch each of them perform well in their important games tomorrow :)

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  24. I was very happy with Ricci. You didn't notice him much, all three cards correct and I love the penalty decision. Clear and obvious, but still you don't see that given every time. Also, excellent and very calm how he made the decision and faced the protests.

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  25. Refereeing at WC, after three days of games, has been good. We can say that the standard is high or at least above standard.
    Without VAR interventions, I tink that in normal conditions it would have been the same. Positive sensations.
    If we remember the disaster at the start of Brazil 2014, that's already a success... but well, let's wait for the next games.

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    1. Agreed. The overall refereeing standard is high. Well done to Busacca and Collina. I start to think that all those absurd recommendations were the idea of previous Chairman of the FIFA Referees Committee (I don't rememeber the name) and not Busacca.

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  26. I am not so impressed like others here, but it's a matter of opinion. In mine it was a mixed bag performance. Some lacks in advantage use at the beginning, no reaction on clear simulation (66'), missed YC for reckless elbow (84'), not so motivated body language on the one hand and well spotted holding in the penalty area (penalty), correct play-on call after an accidental hit in the face (22') and very consistent lenient line towards SPA-like fouls. 8.3 would be my mark.

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  27. For me, 8.4. Good performance, well done and different than in 2014, I liked his style.

    OT: Bas Nijhuis just explained that the decision of Kuipers not to give yellow for diving was one that the FIFA would like. He said they don't want too much cards for that.

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    1. The only way to get rid of diving is to give yellow cards for it. If that’s what FIFA says then shame.

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  28. And the most important situations from this match following this link:

    https://vimeo.com/album/5235731

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  29. Wonderful display from Ricci. Almost flawless. It was arguably the best performance so far, considering the level of difficulty. Pitana did very well too but his match was a walk in the park.

    I'd say Brazil national team is the only thing standing between Ricci and the WC final.

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    1. Pitana, Kuipers, Cakir, Faghani and maybe Geiger all are big candidates...

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    2. With due respect to the teams, a match between Croatia and Nigeria cannot really seal the final for any referee having 8.4 level performance :)

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    3. You definitely have no point. A match can always be tricky, regardless of the status of the teams involved. Plus, Croatia-Nigeria was really challenging at times. Not everyone would give that penalty, for example. It was fast.paced clash with tough duels but Ricci was in a class of its own as usual. Absolute control. And certainly Brazilian national team will be his main "obstacle" going forward.

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  30. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  31. World Cup: Lessons learned from Nigeria Vs Croatia Match

    It wasn’t the most aesthetically pleasing victory, but Croatia earned the full three points by defeating Nigeria 2-0 in Kaliningrad on Saturday. Juvenus forward Mario Mandzukic’s diving header caused an own goal in the first half, and he drew a penalty that Luka Modric converted in the second.
    Here are five focal reasons why Nigeria lost against Croatia.
    Read @ https://www.thekillerpunch.com/world-cup-lessons-learned-nigeria-vs-croatia-match-video/

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