Russia - Denmark was by quite some distance the most challenging match to officiate on the competition's second Tuesday. István Kovács, Felix Brych and Cüneyt Çakır all delivered expected level performances in the other games - reviewed in this post.
A separate post analysing Clément Turpin's performance in the Russia - Denmark match can be found here. Meanwhile, we will begin with the dead rubber in Amsterdam.
North Macedonia vs. Netherlands
Good performance by István Kovács in a normal difficulty game. The only areas for development are rather minor (missed balancing, calming freekick at 18'; avoid just turning away at +46'; missed foul at 71', no advantage signal at 75').
I was impressed with his management of dissent and foul detection in this game. With this performance in the first two rounds of group matches, the Romanian would have deserved an appointment in the final round of group games. Unfortunate for him, but Kovács can be satisfied with his work on the pitch at UEFA EURO 2020.
István Kovács' team in
North Macedonia vs. Netherlands
Big Decisions
The key decision of the game is the first on the four-incident-strong video clip (24', +46', 48', 65'). I think Kovács was correct to play on, he took the preferable on-field decision, and by definition therefore VAR Paweł Gil was also correct not to intervene.
Blind fairly plays the ball, there is no standing leg contact with Pandev, and contrary to the North Macedonia attacker's later assertions, what contact there was with the ball-playing leg, was pretty trifling.
More (and better) replays would be nicer, but I am quite content with the decision of the Romanian referee to play on. In general, the only circumstance in which it would be preferable to whistle this tackle down would be if the game needed calming down, which a) it didn't and b) a promising attacking freekick would have followed.
The remaining incidents were all solved acceptably / correctly.
Blind fairly plays the ball, there is no standing leg contact with Pandev, and contrary to the North Macedonia attacker's later assertions, what contact there was with the ball-playing leg, was pretty trifling.
More (and better) replays would be nicer, but I am quite content with the decision of the Romanian referee to play on. In general, the only circumstance in which it would be preferable to whistle this tackle down would be if the game needed calming down, which a) it didn't and b) a promising attacking freekick would have followed.
The remaining incidents were all solved acceptably / correctly.
Summary
Good performance by István Kovács in a normal difficulty game. The only areas for development are rather minor (missed balancing, calming freekick at 18'; avoid just turning away at +46'; missed foul at 71', no advantage signal at 75').
I was impressed with his management of dissent and foul detection in this game. With this performance in the first two rounds of group matches, the Romanian would have deserved an appointment in the final round of group games. Unfortunate for him, but Kovács can be satisfied with his work on the pitch at UEFA EURO 2020.
Felix Brych's team in Finland - Belgium
Big Decisions
Felix Brych missed a clear yellow card in the first situation in the above montage (20', 45', 65'), but any comparison to the only straight red card of the EURO so far, is rather misleading in my view (clip).
Lukaku gets a toe to the ball, and his momentum takes him recklessly into his opponent, so the correct solution is a caution. As our user usaref very helpfully reminded everyone - there is more to assessing challenges and tackle than impact, point of contact!
The German referee was correct to play on at 45' (Hazard puts his leg across), and Mark Borsch was partly unlucky to have his onside call overruled in the second half; as Chefren said, in yesteryear, we probably would have praised him for an excellent decision.
Lukaku gets a toe to the ball, and his momentum takes him recklessly into his opponent, so the correct solution is a caution. As our user usaref very helpfully reminded everyone - there is more to assessing challenges and tackle than impact, point of contact!
The German referee was correct to play on at 45' (Hazard puts his leg across), and Mark Borsch was partly unlucky to have his onside call overruled in the second half; as Chefren said, in yesteryear, we probably would have praised him for an excellent decision.
Summary
Good performance by Felix Brych in an easy going game. His foul recognition was not really optimal in this performance (eg. 16', 20', 22', 40', 46', 59', 90'), but the German ref had the experience to steer this game through without any great problems. We can expect him in the knockout stage without doubt.
Cüneyt Çakır's team in Ukraine - Austria
What promised to be one of the hardest matches in the group stage, was actually one of the easiest for the venerable Turkish referee. The most interesting situations were a potential DOGSO incident at 35' (clip), and a conflict management scene at the start of the second half (clip).
The most visible strength of this performance was Çakır's excellently relaxed and modest manner, which clearly aroused a lot of respect from the players. The weakest part of this performance was foul recognition, which could trip the Turkish ref up in a more challenging game.
I see no reason (politics included) why Cüneyt Çakır won't receive a third appointment in this competition, to a knockout stage game.
The most visible strength of this performance was Çakır's excellently relaxed and modest manner, which clearly aroused a lot of respect from the players. The weakest part of this performance was foul recognition, which could trip the Turkish ref up in a more challenging game.
I see no reason (politics included) why Cüneyt Çakır won't receive a third appointment in this competition, to a knockout stage game.
Balance
Three good performances in these matches - for István Kovács it is surely the end of his EURO 2020 road; he can be satisfied with how his only match went.
Cüneyt Çakır might be a different format of referee than in years past, but his EURO so far has been a convincing one. And finally, Felix Brych has been kept rather quiet by UEFA so far - we can expect something very big for the German at this tournament.
Refereeing highlights:
North Macedonia - Netherlands
Finland - Belgium
Ukraine - Austria
Refereeing highlights:
North Macedonia - Netherlands
Finland - Belgium
Ukraine - Austria
Mikael could you share the links please?
ReplyDeleteOne day I will remember without prompt :D
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