Match #26 Serbia : Switzerland Friday, 22 June 2018 20:00 local time (14:00 EDT) Kaliningrad Referee: Felix Brych (GER) AR1: Mark Borsch (GER) AR2: Stefan Lupp (GER) Fourth Official: Nawaf Shukralla (BHR) Reserve AR: Yaser Tulefat (BHR) Video Assistant Referee: Felix Zwayer (GER) AVAR 1: Bastian Dankert (GER) AVAR 2: Carlos Astroza (CHI) AVAR 3: Clement Turpin (FRA)
Video Assistant Referee: Felix Zwayer (GER) AVAR 1: Bastian Dankert (GER) AVAR 2: Carlos Astroza (CHI) AVAR 3: Clement Turpin (FRA)
This could be a terrible game of football, but I'm fascinated to see how a referee as good as Brych manages a game with two very physical teams.
Or he knows that he's the 1st and 2nd best referee in the world and doesn't feel the need to impress Busacca and he's just going to referee his game.
In the last month, Brych has been on a field where flares were being fired on the field by irate Hamburg supporters and never changed expression. I’m guessing he is not easily flustered by dumb instructions .
Well, if he lets two defenders wrap arms and pull an attacker down, then calls a foul on the attacker, then - actually I don't know what "then" is here.
That one was more blatant that Kane's. I'm guessing the foul Brych called was when the Serb put his arm up into the face, but a clear and obvious holding foul occurred before that.
Egregious non-call from the all-German refereeing crew, VAR included. Credibility of VAR is on the line here!
His arm couldn't go anywhere else because the defenders' hugs prevented him from dropping his arms any lower. Which I mean both facetiously and actually.
I'm wondering whether there would be a hesitancy among the German VAR's to flag something for the more senior German Center, whereas a non German who isn't familiar with him more likely to say something. We all have referees that we know where we know what they want help with and when to just not say anything.
On the flip side, this very same VAR seemed quite happy not getting involved with the Croatia-Argentina ref yesterday.
From a partiality perspective, what is the wisdom of putting an all German referee crew on this game?
Everyone knows my overall stance on VR, I think. But let's not pretend this wasn't reviewed and--for aerial challenges--inconsistent with the standard set thus far. Brych's call of a foul coming out is defensible, though obviously not ideal. There was no way the VAR was going to intervene there. We all may not like it (quite obviously), but it's the reality of how VR is being implemented at this tournament.