Friday June 10, 2016 - 3:00 (EDT) - Saint Denis Referee: Viktor Kassai Assistant Referee 1: György Ring Assistant Referee 2: Vencel Tóth Additional Assistant Referee 1: Tamás Bognar Additional Assistant Referee 2: Ádám Farkas Fourth Official: Bjorn Kuipers (NED) This thread is for all pre-match, play-by-play and post-match discussion and analysis of the refereeing team. Per the forum guidelines http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/welcome-forum-guidelines.2032253), this thread will be heavily moderated. For more general or partisan discussions of the match, please go to the general Group thread or the individual team forums.
Pierluigi Collina (ITA) will observe the refereeing team. Good choice. Kassai is a safe pair of hands and can manage any match. I hope that he puts a good performance on the opener.
First caution in the 32' for a reckless tackle, given after applying advantage and ending for a different free kick. Definitely a great yellow, but I bet Kassai wishes the first card of the tournament didn't have to be after applying advantage (yes, it's great refereeing, but it tends not to have the same impact on the match overall). Anyway, he's done very well so far. Not a ton to do, but probably two somewhat hard fouls beforehand that he dealt with well. ARs are on point so far, with maybe one in/out play missed but all offside decisions on.
Of course the minute I write that, we have the first controversy. Penalty appeal for the Romanians, not given. Referee absolutely never could have seen it, but the AAR could have helped. Romanian attacker got flat-out kicked in the knee. Was on the border of the penalty area, so maybe a DFK. But definitely looked to be a foul.
65' - everyone who asks what AARs do and why they are there... here's your answer on the biggest stage they are used. Penalty awarded after the referee was un-sighted. Decision had to have come from the AAR.
Excellent decision by Kassai on the PK. (Not sure that he was really unsighted though, but got the confirmation he needed.) Couldn't have happened to a nicer defender. Good work so far by the officiating team. But overall quality of play is far better than most of the Copa matches so far, which also of course helps the referee out. PH
This link will surely be deleted, but for the moment, does anyone have a foul on Giroud during the first goal? Elbow hits the goalkeeper's arm before the ball arrives. Not something I noticed initially and I suppose you might call it trifling contact. But when the attacker leads with the elbow and it hits the arm of a goalkeeper trying to make a save, maybe it's not so trifling...
I didn't catch it live, either. But slowing it down, it's quite clear that extended elbow pushed the goalkeeper's hand away from the ball and prevented a possible save. Both of these stills are from BEFORE his header: Possible foul, but hard to see live, and hard to know how much of an impact it had.
There is no way in real time that the referee can see that. In real time it looks like Giroud just jumped up higher and got there first.
Thanks for those stills. Showed exactly what I was looking at. I think it's hard to say it didn't have an impact. If you look at the second still, which you rightly point out is before the header, the goalkeeper's arms are now crossed up with his right arm behind his left arm (whereas they were prepared to make contact with the ball and catch it beforehand). You could argue the goalkeeper needs to "be stronger" there, but with the manner in which Giroud's elbow is extended, I think you have a stronger argument for a foul. That said, as you rightly point out, difficult to catch. I think this is one of those situations where Kassai managed the match very, very well overall. But you're left with two major incidents where the correct decision is ambiguous at best and the powers that be might rule (non-penalty/DFK in the first half, first French goal in the second half) they were incorrectly called. Of course, even if the decisions were incorrect, it's mostly due to bad luck and/or the lack of intervention from AAR2. You really can't complain about the match Kassai called.
He did the same exact thing after that to a player and got a yellow card for it. the official behind the goal had a clear view of the foul ( giroud knocking the GK arm before heading it ) but didn't call it , on the other hand the other official behind the goal on the other side told the ref about the foul and the Penalty
In real time, it looked odd...like the keeper was about to make an easy catch, then suddenly his hands were in the wrong place. Makes more sense when you see it in slo-mo. Really, really hard thing to see in real time, when they're both jumping up at each other like that, but yes, I'd say that should have been a foul on Giroud.
Agree good work by the crew. After calling the penalty, Kassai seems to indicate the call came from the AAR. If you watch the highlight closely Kassai basically does not react at all when the Romanian player goes down. It's not until the AAR says something over the radio that Kassai blows his whistle. And after blowing the whistle, it looks like Kassai points to the AAR to indicate that the call came from him. http://www.espnfc.us/european-championship/74/video/2890155/euro-evra-concedes-penalty----france-64