The night before every match, I take out my cheat-sheet of verbiage and Addl Inst for Refs, as I learnt from other [good] referees and umpires.

This practice has saved me lots of grief on the pitch when doling out sentences. It also brings me in the proper frame of mind for the league matches in our community. Very good players all, some hotheads but only due to their youth, all know now that I am only there to follow and enforce the rules fairly, not make them.

But what has helped the most are the regular post-match meetings with the Refs, Coaches and players. This has improved both, the quality of refeering and the level of on-pitch play. Not much to be done from the verbal abuse from the sidelines though, alas!

Game over, c’est historie, move on, FIFA will do its business its own way.

لینک مربوط به عکس هموطنان عزیز در حمایت کشورمان
http://www.farsnews.com/pic.php?ph=Media-8503-ImageReports-8503100585-6_8503100585_L600.jpg&dsc=تماشاگران%20فوتبال%20ايران%20و%20بوسني

As an aside to offside, I do like the cut of the grass on these fields. The five yard wide stripes (and stop action) make it a little easier to “judge” a replay even at an askew angle.

Watch the replay closely. PM clips the ball or comes very very close to doing so. He was clearly going for the ball, not the guy’s foot. It was not excessive force or brutality. Period.

Take a look at Spain’s Puyol and a cleats up foul he wasn’t even booked for the other day against Tunisia. The ball was about 6 feet in front of the Tunisian, and Puyol clearly went for the guy’s foot with his cleats. The foul was called, but no yellow. PM’s foul clearly deserved nothing more than a yellow. It was a make-up call by the ref who had lost control of the game. Pure and simple.

Now, all I can do is give you one referee’s opinion as to what might have been going through Larrionda’s mind:

1.) Mastroeni got all player and no ball. Want proof? Watch the replays from both angles. Especially in slow motion, Pirlo plays the ball with the inside of his left foot before…
2.) Mastroeni slide tackles from outside of Pirlo’s left. He would have to go through Pirlo’s foot to even get a touch on the ball. There is very little protection here either on the ankle or the leg.
3.) The top to Mastroeni’s shoes are not facing into Pirlo’s body. That is, there was no way Mastroeni was going to sweep from the front to deflect the ball away from Pirlo. In other words, the cleats were turned into Pirlo instead of away from him.
4.) Pirlo is clearly in no position to do anything with the ball. The direction he was going was into three USA players. He was of no threat. There is no reason for this kind of challenge, especially because of the location on the field, and what little time was left.
5.) Pirlo might not have seen the tackle coming. His head is solely looking at the ball. He doesn’t look around before he touches the ball.

Given these couple things, Larrionda could have felt that Mastroeni’s intentions were to hurt the player and not make any attempt at the ball, hence serious foul play and then the red card.

As to comparing to other games, it is really impossible because each tackle is different. What would probably make this a yellow card? Say if Mastroeni decides to slide on his right, thus turning the tops of his shoes to the player and the studs away. Then one can assume he was making an attempt and got there too late and would be shown a yellow for a reckless tackle. That’s all it could come down to.

It’s very hard to compare these kinds of tackles because they look so similar with a standard camera angle, but on the pitch, given the atmosphere of a game, can look so different. And unless you’re looking for the kinds of things I described above, you’d just assume they’re so alike that they should be sanctioned as such. Furthermore, it s difficult to compare different refs in different games because they’re human and every game is different. What is truly important is that Larrionda is consistent with himself game in & game out, and that his intepretations could be considered appropriate to FIFA (and Uruguayan FA) higher-ups. That’s the thing about the Laws – they’re meant to be interpreted, not be black-and-white 100% of the time, which is hard for a lot of people to understand.

I think what it comes down to is that, as viewers, are we willing to be impartial enough to look at a game from a referees point of view? Besides, if that had happened to a USA player, we’d be screaming for a red card from now until the end of the world. I’d encourage everyone to step back some times and look at it like its Country Y v. Country N (ie two countries you really dont care how either does) and see what you’d think, because that’s all the referee is doing.

–Travis

“In the definition of offside position, ‘nearer to his opponents’ goal line’ means that any part of his head, body or feet is nearer to his opponents’ goal line than both the ball and the second last opponent. The arms are not included in this definition.”

In reality, it can be a very small difference between being offside and onside – literally just one player’s foot.

Secondly, 99 times out of 100, the camera angle is not directly in line w/ the last defender and perpendicular w/ the length of the field. Especially at this level, if a referee are not at that specific place the moment when the ball is kicked, their call could be completely different than if they had been. When the call could be about half a foot, and they’re not right on, they cannot determine that a player is offside – nor can anyone from most of the replays. We sure like to try, but in the end we cannot be sure. Until someone would have a camera in those spots, the only person who can make that decision is that AR.