Matchday 2: Review (I)

A small review of matches twenty-five to forty in the twenty-third FIFA World Cup.

A match-by-match review of the first sixteen games of matchday two.

Match 25: Czech Republic vs. South Africa (Penso)

In stark contrast to the (majority of) comments on Tori Penso's refereeing, I would be rather critical of this performance, for the following reasons:

1) There was no clear line to the referee's warnings, which allowed the game to get away. The players picked this up quite quickly - for a relatively 'normal' foul at 4', the referee blew the whistle for a long period and called the offender (Rsa no4) over for a clear public warning. This was quite a bad use of the referees' toolkit - the referee had already gone too high up the 'stepped approach', too early in the match. Then, after a quite heavy, deliberate kicking foul at 17' (by Rsa no6), the referee gave a very light toot on the whistle and no warning at all to the offender - this gave the signal to the players that the referee was not reading the fouls in this game correctly. It is no coincidence that the more serious Czech fouls began happening immediately after this period! This theme was ascertained with the very random nature of later warnings (eg. 29') and card choices (78') by the referee from the United States.

2) The number of amateurish incidents (the kind that shouldn't happen in any professional match) in this game, amongst the whole crew, were higher even than Iraq-Norway: some foul/no foul calls that were genuinely quite shocking (22', 38', 46', 47', 63', 72', 75'); the crossed over throw-in call with Nesbitt (44'), and by far the worst missed offside call of the tournament by Mayo (55'). Even if you deem the management of this match as having been "strong", then you still cannot turn a blind eye to these incidents!

3) Consequent to both these points, it was visible that the level of respect that the referee(s) were held by both teams was not high. This was summed up well in the incident at the end of the game, 89'. While Penso should be praised for calling Czech no10 back to finish the mutual warning, the incident itself was comical - South Africa no4, already booked, commits a very blatant and rugged tactical foul on Czech no10, to try and prevent him being able to reach a potential centred ball. The offence is not seen, or at least not acted on, by the referee (crew). Technically speaking, this is a nailed on second yellow card for the South Africa player, but I wouldn't accuse Penso of having missed a 'clear SYC' or something like that. Because he has been so flagrantly fouled and the referee has (for the whole duration of the match!) shown no ability to stop it, Czech no10 confronts no4 himself. Penso then calls them both over and warns them equally. South Africa no4, understandably, spends much of this warning laughing. 

This incident, between the missed/ignored foul and the questionable management, sums up the deficiencies of the performance in this game. It should be added, of course, that the key penalty was not only absolutely correct, but was itself a very good decision. I feel though that to have been the exception, rather than the rule, for the way in which this game was handled. 

So, unfortunately, I cannot share the wide-plaudits that Tori Penso received - in my personal opinion, this was one of the weakest performances in the World Cup so far.

Grade: 5

Match 26: Switzerland vs. Bosnia-Herzegovina (Pinheiro)

This was a difficult match for the Portuguese referee, but he handled it in a very good manner. Pinheiro solved the two early, borderline fouls in an optimal manner (not only in terms of 'FIFA philosophy', but according simply to good refereeing), showed good alertness throughout the first half, and used cards well in the second. The red card was very well-seen. As I said on the day (here), the penalty call was at least okay, if not simply a correct decision. The only incident which could, potentially, bring some trouble for the officials in this match is a penalty area incident for holding at 62'. If that is cleared by FIFA, then this was a very good performance by Joao Pinheiro in a not-easy match.

Grade: 7


Match 27: Canada vs. Qatar (Garay)

One could surely have a lot of sympathy for the Chilean referee: something, as his head hit the pillow of the night before the game, that would surely not have even entered his worst nightmare as a possible event in his first World Cup game, did happen to him in actuality. However - that does not change the fact that Cristian Garay refereed very poorly in this match. I think this was the worst performance of the tournament so far. He struggled throughout the match:

Before Madibo's RC: 

The referee from Chile started off in a strong manner, immediately (and rightly) cautioning a Canada player who made a deliberate foul in a SPA-scenario at 9'. However, if you catch the nuance of this incident, you can see that Garay didn't really want to book him, but felt he had to. This impression was underlined when, very poorly, he didn't take the silver-platter-offered balancing YC to Qatar at 14'! The match was very much an uphill struggle thereafter, and Garay's authority over the match fell away when he didn't take any action (either in management or cards) having been mobbed on two occasions, the second quite badly by players of both teams (22' and 40'). The red card for DOGSO was correctly solved - however, on the field of play, Garay may have perceived the offence as charging, not tripping. Despite being among the younger referees at this World Cup, I also felt the referee's movement was (a bit excessively) limited to the central part of the pitch; this didn't help him in terms of making decisions. There was also a non-intervention for a potential handball (50') which the VARs solved correctly.

Madibo's red card:
From a technical perspective, the SFP red card decision is okay in my opinion - with the ball far away, Qatar no23 kicks the standing leg of his opponent in a deliberate and quite hard manner. I would compare it to the red card shown by Vagner in Chile-Cameroon. However, it is pretty clear that the rationale for this red card decision is not technical! It seems, taking the official data from live tickers, that the expulsion came as a result of a non-OFR intervention (so as to not show the incident again) from the video match officials.

After Madibo's RC:
The referee was thereafter a passenger of events for the remainder of the match. Clearly, Garay was put in an unenviable position, but he was neither able to offer the Canada players any solace that he was going to clamp down on any further rough play, nor command enough authority over the nervous Qatar players.

What was missing from all three periods of this match: control! 

As such, Garay's performance should be rejected.

Grade: 4

Match 28: Mexico vs. Korea Republic (Tejera)

Having performed in the game just after the referee whose trajectory much mirrored his (Garay), Gustavo Tejera did okay in the southernmost hosts' fixture - but had the appointments been reversed, I think the Uruguayan would have perhaps struggled even more so. As I indicated in 'Who will FIFA choose?', Tejera is almost identical in style to Fernando Rapallini. This game had a near inordinate number of fouls which the referee ignored but, by virtue of being alert, having excellent proximity to play and showing decent management skills, the referee from Uruguay brought this match to an adequate conclusion. I would be very cautious about putting Tejera's name to a challenging second match, but he did fine in this game.

Grade: 6

Match 29: United States vs. Australia (Zwayer)

This was the game which saddened me most of the first forty in this World Cup, because the referee failed to do justice to his usual level in this match. Felix Zwayer handled this match poorly. The inflection point in this performance came very early, at 8' - whereas in the previous US match, Makkelie read the nature of affairs well and immediately produced a yellow card for the first bad foul of the game, Zwayer failed in this early episode. If the German referee still didn't caution Australia no7 for his (reckless) late tackle, but issued a firm and clear warning, then he wouldn't have 'failed' - but, because in an almost-shy manner, he tried to 'underplay' the severity of this foul, Zwayer gave players a green light signal that underhand tactics were not going to be severely punished in this match. He underlined this when showing a lack of alertness in the not-retreating incident (18'), and repeatedly underreacting to clearly deliberate and premeditated offences (32', 68', 73'). This is not the Zwayer we have seen in European competitions during the last two seasons!

A logical consequence of the referee's inaction was that players then took the laws into their own hands - there were multiple confrontations in this match (+53', 78', 88'), with everything finally boiling over in the last incident. I would honestly view this performance very critically. Combined with the poor image of the cramp incident, I would not consider it unlikely that Zwayer's refereeing was rejected by FIFA. I do not imagine, however, that the big incidents in this game will cause him much trouble - Dankert acted correctly (very likely contrary to the 3D 'buzz' system) in awarding the second American goal, and it is doubtful that much consideration will be given to 62', even though in a didactic sense, it ought to be considered a pretty clear foul inside the penalty area.

As said - this performance was a pity, because it does not give a fair reflection of Felix Zwayer's ability as a referee on the field of play. We will see what happens next.

Grade: 5

Match 30: Scotland vs. Morocco (Tantashev)

This analysis should be split into two parts:

1) All of the key calls in this game were correct (-> Scotland were not robbed!). 

There were no grounds to have red-carded Diop for DOGSO at 23' due to lack of probability that the attacker would have controlled the ball, and equally, little reason to have given Scotland two penalties in the second half - McGinn was closer to being booked for simulation at 49' than being given a spot kick, and what happened at 82' with McTominay was close to nothing.

2) The manner in which Tantashev handles matches is extremely well-known and, by now, is clearly approved by FIFA. As such, there is little sense in debating the rights and wrongs of it: but, he did test match-control close to the limit in this match by, conservatively, ignoring between 10-15 quite clear upper body fouls (whilst being relatively pedantic in ruling on aerial duels). It doesn't take much extrapolation, or indeed that long-term a memory, to work out what could happen in a more challenging match. Whilst possessing a presence on the field of play clearly not comparable to him, Tantashev's approach can be compared to Sandor Puhl in the 1990s, who stated "my goal as the referee is to allow the fans to have fun". I am very curious to see what will happen in Ilgiz Tantashev's second game!

Grade: 6

Match 31: Brazil vs. Haiti (Hernandez)

The most interesting refereeing observation that I can add from what already has been said is to praise the behaviour and attitude of the fourth official, Sandro Scharer. Scharer was extremely attentive in his duties and, at least this is how it came across to me, was trying to help a less-experienced colleague to the best of his own ability (just like Peljto in Rayo-Strasbourg and Roldan/Orosco in the 2011 CA semi). Given the particular nature of this crew formation, I would say that is much the Swiss's merit. It is quite clear that the game's opening yellow card was 'given' by Scharer, and it very much seems that the other first half caution was Swiss in origin too. As for the referee, Hernandez's performance was okay - the difficulty of the match subsided as Brazil scored their goals, but in the early period, it didn't feel like the match was fully in the ref's grasp (tackles/challenges and also DtR-like incidents). I think Hernandez and the VAR crew (led by Del Cerro) will be supported by FIFA for allowing the match's opening goal. Overall, it was a decent performance by Alejandro Hernandez, which leaves open the chance of a second appointment.

Grade: 6

Match 32: Turkey vs. Paraguay (Barton)

The level of difficulty that Ivan Barton faced in this match was far in excess of any others in the first forty of the World Cup so far, but Turkey-Paraguay did not defeat the Salvadorian referee by any means. Indeed: instead, it wound up as a huge success for Barton, probably even on a 'PR' level amongst non-refereeing people. The story of the match was so:

The early goal increased the tension in this match even higher. Having been a bit too close to a number of tackles flying in, Par23 finally commits a clear reckless tackle for which he is immediately cautioned. Barton then issues a good warning to both captains. He solves a deliberate foul at 7' very well bearing in mind 'the FIFA philosophy'. The mutual warning at 9' is also good. After about twenty minutes, the game is brought to relative calm. Much to Barton's credit, he consistently applied the 'maximising effective playing time' guidelines, even when it increased tension on the field of play and it would have been easier to ignore. Par14 should be cautioned for delaying the restart (kicking the ball away) at 45', but this is more-or-less off-limits according to 'the FIFA philosophy'. The game is restarted without it being under control. This leads to the confrontation where Par10 is correctly expelled, according to the new LotG, for 'covering mouth in a confrontational situation' after an on-field review. In the consternation that followed, it was forgotten that Par25 ought to have left the FoP for one minute. The announcement after the OFR worked really well explicatively! Some substitutes were shouting at each other after the halftime whistle, but not fighting. A handful of freekicks given in the second half, especially close to both benches, were a bit soft. Barton 'won' the scene where Par8 went down injured at 63', and this was a key success for him. The warning to the goalkeeper at 66' was fine. The yellow card at 71' was outstanding and showed brilliant reading of what the Tur player was trying to achieve by that action. Par23 was correctly not shown a SYC at any point. Barton behaved bravely to cohere to the guidelines of the tournament to deny Par gk any treatment, and I think he was justified in doing so. The behaviour of the players after the final whistle seemed good, and the officials in full control.

I would deem this as the standout performance of the tournament so far - Barton managed to solve what was by far the most challenging game of the tournament so far, without contradicting 'the FIFA philosophy', and still applying the specific guidelines. I think he underlined his credentials as the leading non-UEFA/CONMEBOL referee to handle technically difficult matches. Well done, Ivan Barton!

Grade: 8

Match 33: Netherlands vs. Sweden (Oliver)

There is rather little to remark here - Michael Oliver refereed well in this match with his characteristic style; all three yellow cards were correct and well-seen. Good performance in a normal match.

Grade: 7

Match 34: Germany vs. Ivory Coast (Benitez)

Whereas in Mexico-Korea (Tejera) and Scotland-Morocco (Tantashev), the referees 'let the game flow' in accordance with their style, what happened in this match seemed different to me - Benitez seemed to just miss some offences, and his refereeing was a little 'shy'. My feeling was that this appointment was quite a big ask for the Paraguayan official, and it seems his own feeling was something similar. The other weakness shown, as in the build-up events for Benitez, is that his presence doesn't arouse authority and respect from players - the extent to which the (Ivory Coast) players tried to undermine him, without censure or reposte from the referee, would cost him in a more challenging match.

However, this was by no means a bad performance overall - the technical accuracy was mostly okay, all of the big calls were correct, and although at about 80'-ish it seems that things could go downhill, everything passed through with no problems in the end. So, after all, I would say a decent performance by Benitez.

Grade: 6

Match 35: Ecuador vs. Curacao (Ma)

Ma Ning's good (and improved) level of refereeing at the Arab Cup in November and December did not prove for nothing, as after an apparent change in consideration, the Chinese referee did act as a main referee in the World Cup after all. Ma justified FIFA's final choice too - as in Qatar last winter, while he still showed some deficiencies in managing the game and making calls, overall this was a pretty good performance in a match that was not easy; certainly, if this game would have been badly refereed, a real nightmare with lots of confrontations and trouble would have been possible. The referee from China reacted correctly when Ecuador on three occasions tried to win decisions from him by diving in the game's later stages (including two penalty appeals). The overall resonance from the refereeing of this game is better than the technical picture; it would not be undeserved for Ma to get a second game.

Grade: 6

Match 36: Tunisia vs. Japan (Kovacs)

The headline episode from this match went unnoticed in 'our' circles - Japan were denied a clear penalty by the officials in this match (many thanks to Euro Soccer Ref for the clip!). There should be no blame attached to the referee, who had no chance to see the offence through the gaggle of players, but the VAR crew (led by Fedayi San) made a clear match error in clearing the incident after a quick check.

Otherwise: the refereeing in the one-thousandth game of the World Cup was, through no fault of the referee, surely nothing to rival the best ever referee performance in this competition from forty years ago. But - I must be honest, Kovacs' handling of this game was not convincing, despite the low-level of difficulty that the match offered. I would say this for the following reasons:

1) It seemed the decision-making process was too insecure. With excellent movement, Kovacs was 'on top' of the game and gave his calls credibility, but the decisions themselves too often came too late (like the botched delayed whistle at 18'), and too many small incidents were missed (in my opinion).

2) Disciplinary control was not really existent in this match. It didn't really 'matter' in this game, as everything remained basically calm, but the absence of management was rather noticeable. There was no varied whistle tone for more borderline incidents (34', 55'), no real reaction against incidents which could easily have led to a flare up (52', 77', 78') and a late tackle at 53' was not even detected by the referee. This was not the referee is in control and taking a relaxed approach, at least as I saw it, this was the referee is just trying to survive until the end of the game. The level of control that the referee had over the players actions was a lot more limited than I suspect most people realise. The foul by Tunisia no4 at +94', again undetected by the referee, was actually not that far away from challenge as an attack!

I think this match offered some relatively significant concern for future matches that Istvan Kovacs will referee at this World Cup, even if this was something that not many people picked up on. 

Grade: 6

Match 37: Spain vs. Saudi Arabia (Claus)

If the impression from Ecuador-Curacao is "a satisfactory performance with a positive note for the referee", this was something like the contrary, "a good performance that still wasn't fully convincing". Claus had rather little to do, but missed a few too many incidents for my liking. The delay in both caution procedures suggested potential VAR involvement. The missed offside by Rodrigo Figueiredo, corrected only after a long review in second half additional time, probably cohered to the ranking of the Brazilian linesmen in this tournament (he was 5th out of five) - it was relatively clear and should have been detected on-field. I am now curious to see if Claus, as a reserve promotee, will pick up a second appointment.

Grade: 7

Match 38: Belgium vs. Iran (Herrera)

Dario Herrera of Argentina faced a match of a completely different nature to his 'equivalent' from Brazil, and amid a high level of difficulty, Herrera's performance was okay. Given the extremely passionate nature of the Iran team, I felt he should have been more focused from the beginning of the game - the play on decision at 1' was actually correct but needed much more selling, and the yellow card at 3' was evidently influenced by the heavy mobbing of the Iran players. I don't see any grounds whatsoever, 'FIFA philosophy' or otherwise, to deem Lukaku's foul as Serious Foul Play. The bad decision that stands out is the non-yellow card at 47'. It seemed like his decisions were a little too often influenced by the players' reactions, but his leadership style worked quite well. He should have been more alert to the illegal player in the wall during the incident where VAR intervened for the offside goal. All things considered, Herrera's performance was not bad, but I don't think he disabused his rating as 'Argentina no3' all the same.

Grade: 6

Match 39: Uruguay vs. Cape Verde (Eskas)

In an excellent and very challenging game, long-time FIFA project Espen Eskas rose to the level of the match, and gave a brilliant display of refereeing which was worthy of great praise. I would like to point out that one of the referees who benefitted most of all from understanding and implementing 'the FIFA philosophy' did, quite correctly, issue a fifth minute yellow card for reckless fouling! It is a real pity the great trust that Eskas evidently feels he inspires from the Busacca (and Collina) operation is, rather plainly, clearly not felt by a large number of other officials selected for this World Cup. The official from Norway was unlucky, as I wrote on the day (here), with how the events of the Uruguay equaliser came about - but Eskas should not face any blame, only perhaps a small 'advice'. How he acted at both 50' (dropped ball) and with the fulltime whistle (why would you allow a freekick when a) it was rather soft and better not to give it, and, b) time was already over anyway when the offence had been whistled) also cohered to my understanding of what FIFA are trying to achieve in refereeing. 

Overall this match was a great personal triumph for Eskas, and one that was unsurprising to me but much more relevant, surely came as no great shock (rather the exact contrary) to FIFA as well.

Grade: 8

Match 40: New Zealand vs. Egypt (Al-Ali)

The events of this game did not greatly surprise me either: Omar Al-Ali did not disperse the doubts that I had about declaring him as a main referee in the World Cup (the article I wrote on this topic can be found here), but the criticism of his performance was surely a little excessive. I would still, however, reject his performance for handling the match in too weak a manner. In the first half, despite starting off decently, he was too permissive towards New Zealand's fouling, particularly in the latter part of it. The restart he allowed after the yellow card at 20' was not acceptable. It came across like he was 'going through the motions' when warning players and his foul recognition was never fully convincing. 

In the second half, he made too many incorrect play on decisions. The potential foul in the build-up to the second Egypt goal was not one though - this was a pretty clear dive by the New Zealand player. However, Al-Ali still didn't distinguish himself though: in revenge for this attempt to try and deceive the referee, Egypt no2 deliberately stands on N.Zealand no19. The burden of proof for saying this is 'violent conduct' is clearly far from met, but in reality it is obvious to me that this was on purpose (something more-or-less identical happened in another badly refereed game, Czech-S.Africa, at 64'). As such, Al-Ali should definitely have stopped the game for this injury to New Zealand, but he chaotically allowed the throw-in to be taken anyway. This proved a key decision for the match, as Egypt scored from the ensuing attack!

Al-Ali's refereeing was not horrendous, but in a way which was not (and cannot have been) surprised to informed onlookers, fell short of an acceptable level. Very finally: I wonder if the VAR for this match, Mohammed Obaid Khadim, faced any censure for allowing the New Zealand goal; a relatively clear foul happened before the corner was taken, but the Emirati video official approved the score as valid.

 

Grade: 5

All marks are compiled according to this system. 

This post is intended as a general overview, and not a deeply exhaustive analysis of every single incident!