More good days for UEFA - three successful officiating performances on the first full weekday of competition; after eight matches without a red card, Grzegorz Krychowiak became the first player ejected. Thoughts on that decision and the rest of the matches in this post.
Let's start in Saint Petersburg (and finish in Seville).
Ovidiu Hațegan's team in Poland - Slovakia
Big Decision
Both cautions to Krychowiak were correct according to the LotG and directives:
22' - tactical foul (stopping a promising attack); after having already held his opponent, the Poland player's arm actually makes a careless contact that finally fells Hromada. Not a dive in my opinion, in addition to the promising field position, a correct SPA yellow card.
62' - reckless challenge; I can understand why some people viewed this decision as "harsh", but I personally disagree. The treading foul is on the lighter side of the clearly reckless variety, but it remains clearly reckless, especially according to the focus on these fouls by UEFA for quite a long time. Well done to Haţegan from drawing the correct conclusion here - (second) yellow card.
The real problem with 62' is that the game was actually on edge in these minutes after a tactical choice made by Haţegan to totally ignore a pretty egregious (taking the p*ss) DtR offence only some moments before. And it was not the only such instance in the game too.
It is understandable that UEFA want to trim down such cautions (unlike WC 2006!), but when the consequence is zero prevention, pretending it never happened in so order to avoid a yellow card, we can ask whether we are on totally the right track in this regard (also visible in Ekberg's game).
22' - tactical foul (stopping a promising attack); after having already held his opponent, the Poland player's arm actually makes a careless contact that finally fells Hromada. Not a dive in my opinion, in addition to the promising field position, a correct SPA yellow card.
62' - reckless challenge; I can understand why some people viewed this decision as "harsh", but I personally disagree. The treading foul is on the lighter side of the clearly reckless variety, but it remains clearly reckless, especially according to the focus on these fouls by UEFA for quite a long time. Well done to Haţegan from drawing the correct conclusion here - (second) yellow card.
The real problem with 62' is that the game was actually on edge in these minutes after a tactical choice made by Haţegan to totally ignore a pretty egregious (taking the p*ss) DtR offence only some moments before. And it was not the only such instance in the game too.
It is understandable that UEFA want to trim down such cautions (unlike WC 2006!), but when the consequence is zero prevention, pretending it never happened in so order to avoid a yellow card, we can ask whether we are on totally the right track in this regard (also visible in Ekberg's game).
Summary
On the whole, a good performance by Ovidiu Haţegan. His approach to this game was excellent, and for me the most impressive of this EURO so far (though many referees were not challenged in this regard). A great appointment by UEFA!
He was very attentive from the start (2' - optimal verbal warning (to Krychowiak, by the way)) and acted instantly to ensure that things didn't get out of hand. Picking out problem player Juraj Kucka's deliberate charge at 15' and giving him a long verbal warning was just excellent, respect.
Caution at 20' was not mandatory (by any means), but sent an important signal which the players understood. By acting early in this particular game, Haţegan ensured that he could keep the card count low - good preventative refereeing. No penalty at 25' was quite right, the attacker puts his leg across.
Assessing duels in the channels of the field of play was not a strength of this performance (9', 25', 43', 49') throughout and the second half was a less positive impression - the Romanian was a bit more passive in assessing incidents after the break (54', 57', 73'). The verbal warning at 74' was good, but Kucka should have been cautioned at 90'.
Given that final round matches between (weaker) teams on nought-nought and nought-one points are crucial in this format where most third place teams advance, Haţegan is an extremely valuable man for UEFA at this competition. We can expect to see him in a similar profile, even higher difficulty game as this next.
He was very attentive from the start (2' - optimal verbal warning (to Krychowiak, by the way)) and acted instantly to ensure that things didn't get out of hand. Picking out problem player Juraj Kucka's deliberate charge at 15' and giving him a long verbal warning was just excellent, respect.
Caution at 20' was not mandatory (by any means), but sent an important signal which the players understood. By acting early in this particular game, Haţegan ensured that he could keep the card count low - good preventative refereeing. No penalty at 25' was quite right, the attacker puts his leg across.
Assessing duels in the channels of the field of play was not a strength of this performance (9', 25', 43', 49') throughout and the second half was a less positive impression - the Romanian was a bit more passive in assessing incidents after the break (54', 57', 73'). The verbal warning at 74' was good, but Kucka should have been cautioned at 90'.
Given that final round matches between (weaker) teams on nought-nought and nought-one points are crucial in this format where most third place teams advance, Haţegan is an extremely valuable man for UEFA at this competition. We can expect to see him in a similar profile, even higher difficulty game as this next.
Daniel Siebert's team in Scotland - Czech Republic
Big Decisions
Incidents:
32' - Potential penalty to Scotland (handling)
+46' - Potential penalty to Scotland (impeding)
50' - Challenge incident involving Czech Republic no.5
+46' - Potential penalty to Scotland (impeding)
50' - Challenge incident involving Czech Republic no.5
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Siebert was correct to go on in the two first half penalty area scenes - arm is stuck close to the body at 32', and in the latter, the attacker (running out of space) runs into the defender, not the other way around. Blowing for a spot kick in either of these two cases would have been a big mistake in my view.
The maximum punishment at 50' should be a yellow card.
The maximum punishment at 50' should be a yellow card.
Summary
Good major tournament debut for Daniel Siebert. Only some theoretical pointers from me:
- good to jump in at 5', even if he didn't connect with Robertsen, the German ref sent a clear signal to the other players, the audience
- I am not a big fan of DtR management which actually slows the game down, but his solution at 44' was fine; he was actually unlucky at 63', about to give a very good warning, but events overtook him
- acceptable not to jump on potential cautions at 9', 12'; missed stamps at 25', 26' were more careless than reckless, the former borderline; missed caution at 73' for a reckless striking offence
- I really liked how he increased his presence at 26', 57'; these were minor scenes, but showed that Siebert was ready to take the initiative and show clear leadership when tested, well done!
- he visibly worked hard to 'go deep' in foul detection which impressed me; he absolutely succeeded with that in the first half, a bit less in the second, but hardly bad at any moment
- good onsides by Rafael Foltyn at 30', 49' in a quiet game for both assistant referees
-> convincing performance by the German trio in a normal-difficulty game, a good resume for a second appointment in the middle.
Slavko Vinčić's team in Spain - Sweden
Slavko Vinčić's team in Spain - Sweden
Very little to say about this performance - a good one! Perfect verbal warning at 12', DtR management resulting in a second half caution, no clear cards missed (11', 24', 37', 45', 82', +95'). Penalty would have been rather too soft at +93'. The only negative point is Andraž Kovačič's incorrect flag at 89'. A second game for the Slovenian is a given.
Balance
More good work by UEFA's referees on this Monday. With a couple of relatively smaller exceptions, the picture is (remarkably!) almost exclusively positive thus far.
Great summary! POL-SVK was the most difficult match to handle so far but O. Hațegan made it excellent. The red card was absolutely correct. A very good chose by UEFA. QF for him for sure.
ReplyDeleteGreat performance indeed! However, I wouldn't say QF for sure since only 6 refs advance to that stage (given that the ref for the final also gets a QF). It's very hard to be among the top 6 refs (Kuipers, Turpin, Makkellie, Taylor, Brych, Orsato, Lahoz all have a higher profile)
DeleteYeah, you`re right. I was somehow too entushiasthic :) But at it is wrote ahead "Haţegan is an extremely valuable man for UEFA at this competition".
Deletetotally agree with that!
ReplyDeleteHategan is getting slammed by the incompetent and moronic media for his red card. *cough cough ESPN. There should be zero discussion about the second caution, it's nailed on. I wouldn't mind talking about the first vis a vis delayed diving reaction after slight contact. But overall I agree with you, I thought Hategan was excellent.
ReplyDeleteThere were three instances in the game where Siebert prevented Scotland taking quick free kicks. On each occasion it seemed to be that he wanted to speak to Scotland players (victims of fouls) rather than the aggressors. Minor points, but most definitely avoidable.
ReplyDelete