Rough Going for Ref in Gelsenkirchen…and a Goal-less Dud in Frankfurt

My notes were pretty sparse during the opening twenty minutes of Portugal’s group stage finale with Mexico as Slovakia’s experienced Lubos Michel took charge of things in Gelsenkirchen. I began to wonder if he might have a fairly easy time of things as Busacca had had in the England – Sweden match a day earlier.

In only the game’s 6th minute, Portugal took the early lead when a wide-open Maniche finished things off with a stunning strike from the penalty spot after starting things off near midfield. In between his two possessions, it was Simao who dribbled up the left flank before slotting the ball square to his onrushing teammate for the spectacular finish.

A few minutes later Michel was on the scene to warn Mexico’s Bravo about any further transgressions. Then, for nearly a quarter-hour the game seemed to go on auto-pilot. After that, though, there was a string of three cautions in five minutes with another Portguese goal sandwiched in between.

In the 22nd Rodriguez was shown yellow for clipping Maniche as he drove towards goal. The replay angle made it seem like a tough decision against the Mexican, but we’ll have to give referee the benefit of the doubt on this one.

A minute later Mexico’s captain Rafa Marquez stupidly threw a hand at the ball as it came in from a corner. Why players do this sort of thing, especially at this level, is always a mystery to me, but Michel spotted the infraction and the penalty was promptly converted.

In the 26th, Portugal’s Miguel came in too hard on a challenge to receive a booking and then a minute later it was Mexico’s Perez with a studs-up tackle on Maniche for a caution of his own.

In the 29th, Ricardo made a point-blank save to preserve the two-goal lead, but it was Mexico’s Fonseca with a well-placed header off the ensuing corner to cut his team’s deficit in half.

No more cards were issued the rest of the first half, but Michel had his work cut out for him as he struggled a bit to keep things under control. In fact, it was in the 44th minute that I thought he and his AR let things get away from them somewhat. For starters, Bravo was in an offside position and directly in the path of the shot when Pardo forced Ricardo to make a save…and then the ball was cleared quickly by a Portuguese defender because of Bravo’s proximity to the ball. In either case, Bravo should have been ruled offside for interfering with the play. Instead, the Mexicans won a corner and Ricardo was fouled by Fonseca, but Michel missed it. This whole series was a refereeing fiasco as it all could have been avoided by a properly called offside against Bravo.

Overall, the first half was a little touch-and-go for the Slovakian referee, and the second half was more of the same. On an unrelated note, I think that Rob Stone and former U.S. national team player Robin Fraser do a respectable job in the booth for ESPN as they provide fewer opinions and more facts in more dulcet tones than most of their other colleagues.

In the 51st minute it seemed like Michel gave away a cheap call to Mexico’s Fonseca when it looked like more of a slip than a foul. Six minutes later, though, his team rightfully earned a penalty when Miguel took out Perez and then knocked the ball away with his arm. A decision not to issue a card to the already-booked Portuguese defener was a good one as neither infraction was particularly egregious.

But Bravo would send the kick over the bar as Portugal held onto their lead…a miss that he and his team would certainly rue when just a few minutes later the Mexicans would be reduced to ten men for Perez’s second caution of the afternoon for a dive in the box. My friend Mike and I watched the play again several times frame-by-frame and even then it was still quite difficult to discern what really transpired. In the end, it seemed like Perez might’ve embellished the contact a bit, but since it was so hard to be sure, perhaps a stern warning might’ve been more appropriate.

Many of you are probably wondering why I didn’t feel the same course of action should have been taken against Pope when he received his second yellow on Saturday. The difference in that case was that it was CLEARLY a late challenge by Pope. The yellow against Perez for the dive seemed much more gray to me.

Then in the 65th, Rafa Marquez was shown a caution for a foul he didn’t even commit. For as Simao ran past the Mexican defender, the Portuguese player cheekily stuck his own leg ever so slightly out towards his opponent in an effort to win the call and trick the referee. He was successful in his efforts.

At this point, Angola had scored the opener against Iran – tying it up at four points apiece with Mexico, but still down on goal differential.

In the 69th, Maniche waved a hand at the ball to knock it down as it whizzed past him near midfield, earning a deserved caution of his own. Four minutes later Portuguese defender Ferreira was lucky not be called for a penalty when he obviously fouled a Mexican forward at the corner of the box near the end-line. Instead, it only went out for a corner.

In the 74th Michel told a Portuguese player to get up and stop wasting time. Three minutes later one of the AR’s helped Ricardo with the proper placement of the ball following an infraction against Mexico near the touchline.

In the 81st Iran tied things up with Angola, thus making life easier for the Mexicans who seemed poised for the Round of 16 and a date with the Group C winner. fyi – It was Australian ref Mark Shield in charge of that one in Leipzig.

There were two more Portuguese cautions in the game’s final minutes – a match in which there was approximately one foul every two minutes. Boa Morte earned his in the 88th for a reckless challenge after being stripped of the ball and then Nuno Gomes came in late, but not too heavily in stoppage time. But with time running short, Gomes’ seemed like nothing more than a mere formality.

Michel, like most good referees (and players for that matter) knows when his game is on and today was not his best outing to be sure. But I don’t think he did anything too awful to compromise his chances of working during the knockout phase, so we’re quite likely to see him again.

And since, Angola never was able to break their deadlock with Iran, they’ll be watching the rest of the tournament on t.v. along with the rest of us.

The match to determine 1st place in Group C was something that we’ve all been waiting for ever since the groups were determined months ago. If not for the fact that both of these teams had already secured safe passage into the next round, this game probably would’ve been much more exciting. Unfortunately, as the minutes ticked away with Spain’s Luis Medina-Cantelejo in the middle, this match became duller and duller.

Sure, it had a few moments of brilliance and excitement, but they were few and far between. Mexican referee Marco Rodriguez seemed to have much more to do in the Ivory Coast’s come-from-behind 3 – 2 win over Serbia & Montenegro – one in which the Africans scored on two penalty kicks and had a player sent off in stoppage time for a second caution. As expected, Tommy Smyth felt fit to berate the official for that decision, and I’ll just bite my tongue here since I fast-forwarded through the game in about ninety seconds.

As for Medina-Cantelejo’s performance…he did what needed to be done to keep things in check in this goal-less draw between Argentina and Holland. In the 4th minute one of the assistants made a good call for a handball against an Argentine defender. Three minutes later, it seemed that Ruud had a right to complain when he wasn’t awarded with a free kick at the edge of his opponents’ penalty box, perhaps one of the referee’s few bad decisions throughout the match.

For most of the first half, though, it was all Argentina. But here is more of what I noticed. In the 21st Cocu showed some studs (no card) in this, his 100th cap for his country. A minute later, it was Argentine defender Roberto Ayala protesting vehemently for a foul called against him…and the referee let him vent. The man in the middle was doing his best to keep players out of his book in the early going.

In the 24th Tevez was rightly called for being offside and a minute later Van Persie was merely warned when he committed a rash challenge after losing the ball. The feisty Dutchman should have been grateful for the referee’s hands-off style.

But finally in the 27th, the referee’s card saw the light of day as Kuyt threw out his arm to prevent Tevez from making his way past him and into the penalty box. It wasn’t the foul itself that earned the caution, but rather, the purpose of the foul and the location on the pitch that resulted in Kuyt’s booking.

The ensuing free-kick by Riquelme was driven low and hard into the goal box where a Dutch toe knocked it into the post, and shortly thereafter Maxi Rodriguez’s strike missed the far post by only inches.

Moments before Van Persie was warned by the ref that he’d had enough (in the 33rd minute), we would learn that today’s match was Van der Sar’s 112th for Holland, tying him with Frank de Boer for the all-time lead for his country.

Not much else of note occurred before the break other than Ooijer’s caution in the 42nd minute for challenging Riquelme from behind. And even though the Dutch player got the ball first, he followed through by also getting the legs of the Argentine set-up man. So this would be a situation where striking the ball first simply isn’t good enough…the correct call by the official, keeping the safety of the players at the forefront of his decision-making process.

The second half saw very few scoring opportunities as both teams seemed more or less satisfied with moving into the Round of 16 without any major injuries or one-game suspensions. De Cler was cautioned in the 48th minute for a wayward forearm to the back of an opponent’s head when they both challenged for an aerial ball.

And then in the 53rd Robin Van Persie committed his fourth foul of the game. I was certain he would receive a card upon committing his next foul – for Persistent Infringement – but Van Basten wisely took the young striker out of the game before that inevitability ever came to pass.

In the 57th Esteban Cambiasso was cautioned for something that I never saw and was never replayed. It will forever remain a mystery to me. And then in the 73rd Tevez forced Van der Sar to make his toughest save of the game on a well-struck 25-yard effort.

Things really slowed down after that and it was Mascherano earning the final caution of the match in the final minute as he needlessly came in late on Boulahrouz. One last effort for Tevez in stoppage time…but it wasn’t on frame and the game ended without a goal.

And with that, Argentina finished Group C with seven points and tied with Holland, but beat out the Europeans on goal differential thanks to their 6 – nil shellacking of S & M. This now sets up a Round of 16 matches between Germany and Sweden AND Argentina and Mexico.

So what you ask? Well, the winner of those two games will face one another a week from Friday in Berlin…a match that I have a ticket for. And you can bet that I’ll be rooting for Germany and Argentina to win their next games, thus setting up what will probably be one of the most compelling quarterfinal matches of the tournament.

Until next time…

peace,
ac