Friday, 12 June 2026

2026 FIFA World Cup Match 2: South Korea - Czech Republic (discussion)

Second game of the tournament, and it's the debut for the Egyptian referee Amin Mohamed Omar. 




Match #2
Group A
12 June 2026, 04:00 CET
Estadio Akron, Zapopan
SOUTH KOREA - CZECH REPUBLIC 
Referee: MOHAMED Amin (EGY)
Assistant Referee 1: ABOUELREGAL Mahmoud (EGY)
Assistant Referee 2: HOSSAM TAHA Ahmed (EGY)
Fourth Official: CALDERON Juan (CRC)
Reserve AR : MORA Juan Carlos (CRC)
Vidéo Assistant Referee: ASHOUR Mahmoud (EGY)
Assistant Vidéo Assistant Referee 1 : DICKERSON Joe (USA)
Assistant Vidéo Assistant Referee 2 : DI BELLO Marco (ITA)

60 comments:

  1. The first 20 minutes have been played at an extremely high tempo speed with rapid transitions making for a very exciting match with High line. Both assistant referees have performed well so far, each sprinting four or five times to keep up with play. As for Egyptian referee Amin, his fitness has been outstanding, consistently staying close to play and matching the game’s intensity.

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    1. I agree. So far, so good for Amin. He is doing a great job, in full control of the game. Not to take anything away from him, but we’re talking about two teams that are focused on playing football and nothing more and will really respect your decisions. Nevertheless, I’m impressed because Amin has earned that status very quickly, and its well-deserved given what he is doing in FoP. Very impressive by him.

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    2. Alright, I agree with you regarding the first 20 minutes, but in the last 10 minutes he was not successful in his positioning. His fitness also declined during counterattacks, as he was far from the play. If he continues in this manner, the match will become difficult for him in the second half. Overall, it was an acceptable performance by the Egyptian referee in an average first half.

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    3. For the first time in many years i see omar runing and not walking in the pitch . We will see if he will continue with the same physical performance

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  2. 59 min i dont know if people will agree wwith me but the cezek player was in ofsside and interfer with goolkeper

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    1. The decision was correct or at least supportable. The goalkeeper had a clear line-of-sight to the ball the entire time after the header.

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    2. One thing is for sure, the TV broadcasters were making moviola pressure on that... Showing so many angles and replays. I dont think he interferes, sure, he is offside, but no impact on the goalkeeper whatsoever. We are seeing this type of situation every now and again on UEFA RAPs and this is easily marked as not an obvious action of the attacker with impact on goalkeepers.

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    3. Full-Sequence:
      https://streambug.org/cv/a130e9

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    4. If you look from the best camera for assessing that, you see that keeper had free view on the ball, and in case, he also had free space to make a save.
      Could have been punishable offside only for the position of the player, because close and in front of keeper, I think an offside would have been accepted if called by assistant referee, but if not, it's correct to allow the goal.
      It's very important to observe that VAR didn't intervene in this incident.

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    5. Funny fact: If the goalkeeper had made just 2 steps forward he would have forced the refs to decide for offside!

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  3. I hope they gave the CR a triple espresso at the last hydration break to wake him up. He's had a dream game - no critical decisions to make as of 74'

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  4. Maybe If we wanna be harsh: YC missed at 74’?

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  5. The flag go up after moments of doubt

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  6. Very delayed flag after goal scored at 77... Advice in earpiece with new semi automated offside system? Seems to have a slight delay... One must now expect top assistants to help the referee more in kmi situations if offsides have safety net of automation

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    1. Yeah it's clear if you saw the replay omar make signal in to the middle with eye contact with ar1 until the player celebrated the flag go up

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  7. In total
    Good game no physical chalange bouth team focused on play nothing else and highly we will see omar in md3

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  8. An overall acceptable performance in the match, with some reservations regarding the yellow cards. What I did not like today was the movement of the Egyptian referee, which was not good. I believe he will be given the opportunity to officiate another match.

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  9. As a high level CR, is this a dream game or is it a nightmare? He literally had no critical decisions to make. There weren't any flops or nonsense time wasting. Any complaints on this forum for this game are extreme nitpicking.

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    1. Your premise is incorrect, Brian. There was one key decision: to not penalize the Czechia attacker for offside on the scoring of Czechia's only goal.

      It was a good performance from Amin Mohamed Omar. The game did not ask so much of him, but "not creating a mistake out of nothing" is a useful skill in a referee! He knew his role in this match, and he "played" his role very well to facilitate an entertaining display from the teams.

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  10. The referee has today presented a good performance in a simple match. The main story of this game, from a refereeing point-of-view, is that FIFA should be very pleased with the unobtrusive approach adopted by this referee, helped by the fact that both teams were focused on playing the beautiful game, football, and nothing else.

    There was only one situation where I felt a yellow card would have been a better decision than the call made by Omar on the field: this being, the 74th minute foul by Czechia #7.

    Omar presented a good physical fitness and confident body language. One small thing if I may "knit-pick" a little: there were several clear fouls for which it seemed like the referee played advantage, but did not actually make the advantage signal (15', 50', 90'+3').

    Both the referee and AR1 should be praised for correctly assessing the one big decision in this match, choosing quite correctly to allow the Czechia goal in the 59th minute, as the proximal attacker did not block the goalkeeper's line of vision.

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  11. Amin, in my opinion, showed a clean performance: very dynamic athletically, he always issued the right decisions with a consistent metric (supportable offside) and a confident and authoritative approachas well.
    Clearly other appointments in this WC would be possible for him.

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    1. “What a pleasure it is to read your assessment; I hope to read more. You have an extraordinary ability to interpret situations.

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    2. Leggerò con molta attenzione tutti i tuoi interventi

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  12. 74' missed YC, the Egyptian referee didn't realize that it was a reckless action.
    https://streambug.org/cv/4ebdd1

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    1. ... which was his only clear mistake. Generally he convinced me with great physique, clear signals, a good body language even giving him some charisma which he should use in more difficult games with self - consciousness. Well done!

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  13. On the first day, two completely different matches in every aspect . Mohamed Amar with easy match (in relative terms). one clearly missed YC, apart from that nothing to report really. Only mandatory YC was given in stopage time.

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  14. 77' Delayed flag (no reasons because goal already scored) by AR1, maybe he was not sure about the offside?
    https://streambug.org/cv/2698f3

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  15. VIDEO CLIPS:
    https://files.fm/u/at8gky8af8

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    1. Great work!
      Very evident that the referee has an excellent physical condition, some sprints we can see are remarkable.
      Rather easy first half for the Egyptian.
      In 70' could have been a YC as well, for the intention by player.
      For sure he will get a second game.

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    2. To repeat here what I wrote on the Telegram group: Amin was good.

      His approach to the throw-in count was absolutely perfect and should be replicated by all (WC) referees!

      It was clear that he put a lot of effort into the game and I think this showed in the last 25-ish mins when his accuracy decreased a little bit: 70' ought to have been a YC (but he knew he was about to stop the game, like Vincic in Benfica-Chelsea for those who remember), 74' should have been a YC, and then Korea 'retaliated' with a deliberate foul themselves at 76'. I don't think this was Busacca-ist leniency, he was just tiring a bit, trying to get the game through to the end. The YC given was okay. Punt obstruction in 90' should have been whistled, it would have been better to give the fk to Czech at +91', at +92' Korea kicked the ball away to waste time and at +97' there was a very clear offence before the fk taken by Czech that the referee should have seen. 51' was also completely missed by the officials. Calderon should have given the Korea manager a very firm warning at 59' when he craftily stopped a quick Czech throw-in from happening (no players really clocked what happened). The incident at 25' showed that Amin doesn't have the best soft skills, shouting at the Czech player to leave when he had been himself fouled (and advantage ought to have been applied); he should have interacted with the player more empathically. I think this incident panicked the Egyptian ref a bit (pressure to maximise effective playing time) because he didn't even make the IFK signal for the offside restart.

      Ashour did (very) well to allow the Czech goal, because there was a clear reason to allow it - the ball went the other side of the deliberately-placed attacker and didn't influence the goalkeeper's inability to save the ball. However, in my teaching, this should be a Law11 offence because the Czech player stood there deliberately. However, it would be a travesty for refereeing to impose 'our' rules on football like that and to disallow the goal through an intervention. Abouelregal was correct to disallow the goal at 78' and this was well-seen.

      Overall: Amin clearly passed the implicit test that this appmnt offered and the Egyptian crew did well. Congrats to them!

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    3. how to find this telegram group?

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    4. @AR1:
      https://t.me/wc26refs

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  16. Predications 15 June:
    ESP VS CPV - Penso
    KSA VS URU - Letexier
    BEL VS EGY - Tantashev
    IRN VS NZL - Zwayer

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    1. It'll be interesting to see how FIFA will use Tori Penso: 'equally' with her male colleagues in crucial group stage matches or 'save' her for a meaningless game on the last day of the group stage? 'During prime time' on a weekend afternoon (I know, that's relative given the time differences) or 'hidden' sometime on a weekday in the middle of the night, etc.

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    2. Agreed, we shall see! I predict maybe this one sided game and a dead rubber in the 3rd round.

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    3. My theory is that Tori Penso isn’t being 'held back' or put in a 'meaningless' game like Stéphanie Frappart was four years ago, but rather she’s being showcased in a pretty attractive match with a high TV audience. For example, the all-UEFA Netherlands vs. Sweden match comes to mind, especially since both countries are considered 'liberal.' Most people here suggest (at least for a first assignment) a comparatively less sonorous match. I can understand that, but I think FIFA will probably avoid appointing her for games involving teams from countries that define women’s roles in a more 'traditional' way. (This isn’t about your specific prediction. Similar to how I wouldn’t nominate Alireza Faghani for a USA game given the current political situation, I don’t think FIFA will demonstratively assign Tori Penso 'as a socio-political statement' to certain teams.)

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    4. I think POR-DKO, CZ-SAF or maybe UZB-KOL would be a good choice...

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  17. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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    1. To all readers, you should alwas specify when you write "predictions" (and not real appointments), to avoid confusion.

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    2. OK.That's right, absolutely correct!
      Prediction:
      Spain-Cape Verde Al-Jassim
      Saudi Arabia-Uruguay Turpin
      Belgium-Egypt Ramos
      Iran-New Zealand Pinheiro

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  18. Share comments on Egyptian referee performance. Mohamed with a YC forgotten at 74’ but in general very good performance with good line on foul detection and also impressive dynamic physical evolution on pitch. Agree with no offside goal with goalkeeper vision not biaised. Second match for sure for egyptian crew with top assistants referees too.

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  19. Amin omer i am not watch the game but i am not see controversial decision so i believe he gets another match

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  20. My predictions for 15th June...
    ESP-KVE Al Jassim QAT
    BEL-EGY Faghani IRN
    SAA-URU Eskas NOR
    IRN-NZL Pinheiro POR

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    1. How faghani for Belgium vs Egypt although Iran play in the same group

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  21. Actually haven’t watch the game but from what I read there is a possible offside blocking keeper vision. FIFA said that for this type of situation a 3D animation would be provided from the keeper perspective to explain the decision, do this animation was deployed last night ?

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    1. Never in his line of vision. No offside.

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    2. Agree but i was just asking for the animation which can be very helpful to the understanding of every spectators.

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    3. I don't believe they've used the animation last night. They also didn't use the offside animation in either game, which is supposed to have a 3D avatar of every player. You would think they would at least demonstrate it once during the opening match so everyone knows how it looks, but I guess not.

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    4. Ok thanks for your answer, also surprised that they are not showing those, especially at the beginning of the tournament, will see in the next couple games.

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  22. I did not watch the match, but on watching the replay of the second goal, with the delayed offside flag, I think it would be better for referee not to signal goal with straight arm pointed to half until the decision is confirmed. Maybe something still to work out with the semi-automated system?

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    1. I mean the on field decision is goal so he have to do it. Pretty sure it's the audio alert that make AR1 raise his flag. But maybe just wait until the potential audio alert from SAOT, they probably need to adapt from this new tool.

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  23. Saudi Arabia - Uruguay: Mariani (ITA)
    Belgium - Egypt: Abatti (BRA)

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