Matchday 2: Review (II)

A small review of the final eight matches in matchday two at the twenty-third FIFA World Cup.

A match-by-match review of games forty-one to forty-eight.

Match 41: Argentina vs. Austria (Amin)

Having already outlined a view on the two big incidents in this match previously, there is still much to say about the overall manner in which Mohamed Amin handled this game - and, I think it is fair to argue that Argentina-Austria did not constitute a great triumph for the Egyptian official. However, neither did I see the unmitigated disaster that was written of in some quarters. I would make the following points:

1) Much of what happened in this game, was always going to happen in this game. FIFA appointed, in accordance with confederational neutrality, a referee who is a quite strong official technically but not a great manager on the field of play, and disarmed him in an ex ante way with 'the FIFA philosophy'. In the preview pieces, I said that Amin was something approaching 'Carlos Batres of the 2020s'; Batres was a very good referee, but were he to be (hypothetically) present at a modern World Cup, he too would probably be reduced to trying to merely survive the games, in addition to very often shouting at players.

In 1998, Saïd Belqola was given charge of a somewhat comparable World Cup group match to this one, between Croatia and Argentina. The Moroccan was surely quite a big underdog in that game, but by applying the laws of the game in a very skillful way, Belqola handled the match in a strong and impressive manner. Belqola was also helped back then by the fact that big tournaments in those days were much better-run than in today's football, and certain behaviours by players were very clearly off-limits (with isolated exceptions, of course). Amin did not have that luxury in 2026, and it showed.

2) Not everything can, or indeed should, be blamed on FIFA though. The way in which Amin tried to handle the first half simply didn't really work. The warning that the Egyptian official (correctly) gave Argentina no22 in 21' simply didn't work (none of the 'calm' warnings, putting his open palm towards the ground, worked); just before the water break, an Argentina player deliberately pushed an opponent toward the advertising hoardings, when Amin saw the offence but did not give any warning; and match control was tested to the limit, and probably beyond it, with the sequence that began with two missed fouls starting in 37'. The result was the borderline-to-VC charging offence by Austria no5, and the unpunished reckless play by Argentina no22 in first half additional time. The accusation 'Argentina players appeared to have relative impunity to do what they wanted in the first half' is, actually, a relatively fair one. The second half was easier to handle, and mostly okay.

3) The analogy to Batres did prove more apt than I perhaps realised; it was quite easy to glean from this match the impression of an 'honorable' person for whom match control, and preventing the worst disorder on the field of play, was not solely an important tenet of his job but also something that registered as important for Amin personally. He was fast-sinking in this match for the reasons aforementioned, but the Egyptian found an apparently unlikely saviour that prevented this game from degenerating completely: with the palm-open warnings being more-or-less functionally useless besides being pointers for borderline incidents, Amin was forced to resort to genuinely furious warnings where he shouted loudly at players. You will not find this management skill in the refereeing textbook, but in my opinion they worked quite well for the Egyptian, who managed to actually set some kind of line for permissible behaviour in so doing (clearly, it was a lot lower than it ought have been!).

I would deem this match, and performance, as a watered-down version of Ravshan Irmatov's failure to keep Argentina-Croatia under control in 2018. Irmatov was appointed again by FIFA after that, and I expect the same for Amin. However, taking everything in this singular performance into account, given that the Egyptian handled the match in a pretty weak manner and missed an incident leading to an OFR, the most appropriate numerical score for Amin is below that of a passing grade.

Grade: 5

Match 42: France vs. Iraq (Fischer)

Drew Fischer refereed well in this match. He immediately, and quite rightly, issued a yellow card (in the sixth minute) for a deliberate foul in a SPA scenario - I didn't see any clear missed sanctions in the match after that. It would have been nice to see replays of the previously-discussed penalty area incident, but in any case it seems very likely that Fischer decided on-field in accordance with FIFA's wishes. 

This was a good performance in a normal difficulty match for the Canadian match official.

Grade: 7

Match 43: Norway vs. Senegal (Sampaio)

The area of criticism I would have for Wilton Sampaio's refereeing in this match is that he (and his crew) seemed a little too insecure, a little too often, in making relatively low-importance restart decisions. Besides that aspect, this was clearly a good performance by the Brazilian referee - to have awarded a penalty for arm use in the 74' incident would have been very soft, if not simply a wrong call in my book. He showed very good feeling for the game (well-addressed push at 16') but perhaps optimally should have booked the Norway player for lunging at 88'. The game was perhaps not as challenging as predicted.

Grade: 7

Match 44: Jordan vs. Algeria (Vincic)

There was one incident in this game where Slavko Vincic was a little fortunate - the foul he missed at 34' occurred just outside the Jordan penalty area, not inside it; I think a review would have been triggered had the offence been inside the eighteen-yard rectangle. That aside, this was a second good performance by the Slovenian referee, in which he showed (characteristically) very good management skills. 

Grade: 7

Match 45: Portugal vs. Uzbekistan (Jayed)

I disagree with the consensus written about this match - in my opinion, Jayed managed to disabuse Germany-Curacao as 'first-night nerves' and he handled this game in a good, or at the very least, decent manner. He showed good alertness from the start of the match, used yellow cards in a good manner, and I don't think either the positioning or acceptance elements were actually (that) bad.

Taking all of the eight group matches into account, one could guess that FIFA have come to the conclusion that the Moroccan official is the 'no2' referee from CAF, and his selection for a round of thirty-two match was one that thus made sense. This would have been a performance at expected level, had Jayed detected the clear foul prior to the potential Uzbek goal himself, and not only after an intervention. 

His next assignment will evidently be a (big) test for him, but Jayed should be praised for stabilising his level in this match; after an indifferent first appearance, he did well on his second showing.

Grade: 6

Match 46: England vs. Ghana (Martinez)

FIFA's appointment for this match was very good - after a convincing piece of refereeing in Qatar-Switzerland, Said Martinez was designated another match of a similar format, but higher difficulty, in the form of England-Ghana. Martinez equipped himself well, and realised a satisfactory performance. 

The referee from Honduras was necessarily alert from the early stages, but he would perhaps have benefitted from sometimes departing from his always-stern expression having given a freekick; if the decision is clear and easily accepted by both teams, then focusing so much on maintaining authority through facial expressions gives an over-angst impression. In general, Martinez navigated the first half quite well I would say; though: the restart at 26' was not acceptable, not dealing with Queiroz's behaviour at 39' increased tension in the match further, and not dealing with Bellingham's late charge just before the halftime whistle (a YC wasn't needed but Martinez should have issued a warning) caused a little bit of spill over as the teams left the field of play for halftime. 

Technical accuracy waned a bit in the second half, but I think his ruling in the 67' incident between the England gk and Ghana no25 was justified. The missed foul prior to 'famous' penalty area incident at 79' was quite a clear one, and was maybe slightly indicative of some missed decisions after the break. Given the not-insignificant level of difficulty, Martinez should be happy with how he fared, even if there were some mistakes in the technical picture and acceptance in this match was not always the best - he focused on refereeing according to his strengths (calls and tactical approach) and away from his weaknesses (manner). 

I will watch with curiosity to see if the Honduran official will gain a third World Cup inset.

Grade: 6

Match 47: Panama vs. Croatia (Atcho)

Pierre Atcho justified his second appointment at this World Cup with a generally adequate performance in this close match between Panama and Croatia. As in his first fixture, Atcho showed a mostly decent foul recognition and disciplinary control, with the ability to differentiate between the severity of offences and act accordingly. The referee from Gabon solved the first difficult period of the match (the opening minutes) okay, chose a perfect opening yellow card mid-way through the second half, but struggled at the end of the match - starting with the non-caution to Panama at 80', it felt like as the match became more chaotic with time running out, Atcho himself also became more erratic in his decision-making.

I would imagine that this constituted the Gabonese referee's second and final match of this World Cup; if so, he finished with a decent piece of refereeing in this encounter.

Grade: 6

Match 48: Colombia vs. DR Congo (Mariani)

And finally for matchday two - you can pinpoint the exact moment that the refereeing of this game, good and reliable for the most part, transitioned into panicky and somewhat doubtful in the final stages. Mariani, presumably not wanting to face wild protests from the Colombia players, did not immediately whistle down a very flagrant push by Colombia no14 on DR Congo no18 at 82:31. Colombia no14 should clearly also have been booked. In trying to solve this incident 'meekly' with an in-play warning, the Italian referee needlessly injected chaos into the last period of the game - the penalty area incident at 87' which was very confusing, the contretemps before the corners in additional time and the very reckless charging foul at +94' were all downstream of the temperature increasing, due to the referee's inaction in that 83' episode. The Italian official still managed to bring the game to a decent conclusion though. Overall, I would classify this as a solid piece of refereeing by Mariani in a quite difficult match.

Grade: 6

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!