BTW, we had 4 minutes added on. In that 4 minutes we had a goal with all 23 American's jumping in a pile and you had a sending off, yet he blew the whistle at 94:10 or so.
I am ok with the match De Bleeckere called in the center. Both AR's missed calls (offsides and punch to the face). Overall not a bad result from an officials point of view IMHO.
No, that was Halliche, standing next to Yebda. Yahia was behind the two players. When De Bleeckere turned away, Yahia forced his way between his two teammates to talk calmly to De Bleeckere.
Quite often, that is the case with a caution for dissent -- and it is one of the main reasons you give it. But in this case, the match was well into stoppage time so I don't really think it applies. It was more of a case of punishing the act of dissent that had occurred, not to set the example for the rest of the players to see -- though I suppose one could say it was to show the rest of the players they should stop dissenting at that particular moment.
are you complaining?! yes, we should have gone to 95' or more after those 2 situations. Not sure why he 'cut it short.' Perhaps a feeling that something bad might happen, in light of the captain just having been sent off and Algeria needed more than 1 goal to go thru.
I'm surprised that more of you haven't commented on the Altidore yellow and the simulation by Bougherra. Altidore's challenge was not appropriate although I found the yellow to be a bit harsh. The bigger problem was that Bougherra was fouled than ran 3 or four steps and then fell as if he had been sniped. Altidore had barely touched him imo.
Yes, but Altidore didn't need to touch him at all in fact went out of his way to touch him. He certainly wasn't playing the ball. It was a deserved card. It was #5 Halliche, not Bougherra.
On the stoppage time, I have noticed occasionally that referee's don't add time when the team that is not advantaged by time wasting wastes time, ie, when a team down by a goal wastes time the referee tends not to add it. Not sure if this is intentional or inadvertent as they are more focused on the actions of the team in the lead.
Good, and most probably correct, observation. I certainly don't add time when the losing side wastes time if the only thing at stake is the win.
Uh, if I'm Slovenia, I'm lucky to have been in position to advance because the Algerian keeper fluffed an easy save, I'm responsible for not drawing England and I'm thankful that some Malinese referee appeared to have ignored my team's mugging of the entire US front line in the penalty area and appears to have made up some fake foul against the US that overturned a goal that would have lost the game. I don't think the Slovenians have anything to complain about.
I haven't been keeping current for a couple of years, but has there been a sea-change is offside rulings? "A foot" was never a standard before - it was a holistic judgment...
Depending on when you stopped following, yes. There has been a sea-change. The torso used to be utilized to judge evenness. It got changed to the part of the body (both for attacker and defender) nearest to goal that could play the ball legally. Interestingly, of course, that change to be more specific came while there was still the instruction to give the attacker the benefit of the doubt. I would think if you wanted ARs to give "doubtful" decisions to the attack, then you'd keep the standard by which to judge a bit more doubtful.
I was suprised he didn't add to the added time after the goal celebration. However at the point he ended it, he maybe should have had 1 minute more to go, US had the ball, was in stall mode and Algeria was not chasing. It appeared as if the players had decided the game was over. At the second he blew time, US had the ball wide, in the attacking half/third, Algeria was not really pressuring. At that point, what good can come?
Actually, they were pressuring, they were encroaching on the 10 yards for a US free kick hoping to quickly regain possession. They had a man sent off because two teammates demonstratively argued their case for holding against the US in the penalty area on a corner kick instead of being called for pushing as they were. Algeria was trying very hard to tie, and had they done so, Slovenia would be advancing.
On the handling, this was very similar to one in the Germany game. In that game's replay, I saw the German defender's sleeve move as the ball struck his body. Whether that movement was caused by the ball or by the slipstream of the ball I don't know. I was very surprised at the call in the US game. Regarding the caution for dissent, Yebda is right in there arguing; I thought he would get the caution. Perhaps the ref knew he was on a caution, and was being lenient. Then I saw someone else's arm wagging a finger in the ref's face. If that was Yahia, then the caution went to the right person. Alternatively, Yahia might have uttered one magic word that crossed the line for DeBleeckere. I can't fault either AR or R for missing Dempsey's slugging. His back was to the AR, and the incident occured in such a crowd that the R may have been screened or may have had his attention elsewhere for that split second. I'm sure he had the "oh crap" feeling when Dempsey had to go off to have his lip attended to. Hopefully this won't be a make-or-break incident for further assignments.
I'm not trying to argue my point, but on so many close calls he did a very weird soft whistle followed by short whistles. That just strikes me as a lack of confidence. And I know some people think he got the right guy on the send-off, but I don't. I mean the first player was almost head-butting him (it reminded me of Algeria's keeper's headbut against Coffi). I also think the blown advantage in the first half (with the same kind of weird whistle), showed a lack of composure. But I could be biased.
I don't consider it a lack of composure, but it was definitely a poor decision. Very surprising that he didn't read the play and see the obvious advantage that had already developed by the time he was blowing the whistle.
Ok just watched the end again (cause it was exciting!). I do think he sent off the wrong guy. I'm not sure I saw him becon anyone over (perhaps I missed it again), so he could argue that the caution went to the captain due to the follow. However, it did appear the captain was the last one in and actually trying to pull his guys away.
Re expecting the AR to get the Dempsey call right because this is the World Cup: that close, not really, but because it is the World Cup, I do expect a striker like Gomez to have scored on the first shot and avoided the whole mess to start with.