All pre-match discussion of the appointment, play-by-play descriptions and post-match analysis of the officiating performance for this match belong in this thread. Analysis threads in this forum are strictly moderated. Supporters of participating teams are welcome and encouraged to participate. But all posters should take non-analytical posts to the group or rivalries forums. Thank you. Match #38 - USA v. Algeria, Group C Referee: De Bleeckere (BEL) Assistant 1: Hermans (BEL) Assistant 2: Vromans (BEL) Fourth Official: Mohd Salleh (MAS)
He reffed US-Switzerland in 2007. I remember that being a physical match with the ref letting some tough challenges go.
The fourth official from MAS... is the you, MASsachusettsRef??? MAS = Massachusetts? Just kidding around some!! DeBleeckere certainly has a better pedigree for this level of a match than Coulibaly.
Uh, Salleh is the 4th official who sat there and did nothing while Dunga agitated his players in the Brazil-Ivory Coast game. Of course, odds are that Bob Bradley will not do anything similar.
De Bleekere is one of the guys that I think has to be considered for the final if he is elgible. Seems to like FIFA wants to take all the focus off the referee by appointing him to the match. Thank god now when i go to watch the game Wednesday morning the furthest thing from my mind will be whether some guy from Mali that one time refereed some U17 national teams is going to lose his mind and hallucinate!
Interesting thought. Did FIFA assign a known strong referee to this match in recognition that there was at least reasonably perceived unfairness from the last official? Or did they assign a known strong referee to this match becuase the perception is that the USA is a bunch of difficult to control ruffians that will need a firm hand?
They assigned a strong referee because either team could go through and--thus far--their practice has been to put UEFA referees on matches that involve two European teams or zero European teams. This was always going to be a UEFA referee who's done matches deep into the UCL. I'm incredibly thankful it's De Bleeckere (Kassai or Rosetti would have been other good options) and not Benquerenca or Undiano Mallenco or even Stark.
Don't count our chickens before they hatch. Although De Bleeckere is a consistently great referee, the law of averages says that even the best will have a bad match. Let's hope that everything goes off without a hitch, but stranger things have happened. If someone told me at the beginning of the tournament that all we would have to do to advance is beat Algeria, I would have laughed hysterically, but here we are. Lots of strange thing shave been happening during this tourmament, so it's not inconceivable that something goes awry.
This is dead-on. More importantly, given what's gone on thus far in the tournament for us, we have to remember that De Bleeckere is going to call the game as he should. That means that (taking all these incidents in a vacuum)... the mugging of Terry would earn a penalty against us (assuming the ball is in play), the Dempsey elbow would definitely be a yellow and probably a red, and Findley would have been sent off for his tackle vs. England. De Bleeckere isn't going to feel that he "owes" us anything. He's out to do his job as he's in the mix to work the Final. If we are the team that commits the misconduct and infringements, we will be the team that gets penalized. It's time to erase all memory of previous matches.
I just hope Dempsey doesn't pull another stunt like he did in the first few minutes of the Slovenia game. De Bleekere won't hesitate to toss him.
hopefully the opposite is true as well, the two NASTY tackles by the english would have been reds, the slovenian take down of jozy outside the box would have been a DOG red, and there would have been at least 1 pk in the US vs slovenia game. just call it even and both ways, no imaginative calls, nothing out of thin air. call it by the book, on both teams and i will be fine.
Other than the Altidore take-down, I think this is mostly true. I haven't found a referee yet who has said Altidore's foul was red-worthy. As much as I wanted it to be a send off, I think Coulibaly got that right. Also, the Gerrard foul was very borderline. Definite yellow. Red is possible in this tournament, but certainly not clear-cut. Carragher would have walked, though, and we would have had a penalty if the third goal didn't go in the net vs. Slovenia.
Four years ago I would have said we were in safe hands with Marcus Merk in the middle for the Ghana game, then he brain-farted on that PK call and stripped the life out of the US team. Anybody can make a mistake at any time.
Wow, the commentators are on the offside like it was as bad as the phantom foul call from the last match.
I think his leg has him off. But my friends aren't understanding this (possible explanation) by text. Hard knock life being the ref in the fan group sometimes! Haha.
Last camera angle they showed was pretty clear, he was on. Think the AR crapped himself after the ball deflected off the keeper and only then saw Dempsey and by then he was behind the defender.
I thought his foot was off. Part of the body that can play the ball is off, the player is off. Good call from my perspective.