Tobar took charge of Flamengo's 2-1 win over River Plate in the first single-match final of the Copa which was moved to Peru due to street protests in Chile. What a year for the Chilean.
Rapallini with eight red cards in the Porto Alegre derby between Gremio and Internacional in the Copa Libertadores. "After two rounds of group games, the Copa Libertadores, South America's Champions League, has been forced to shut down in an attempt to stall the spread of the coronavirus. And a few hours after the announcement was made, the tournament went to its temporary pause with a bang. The Porto Alegre derby in the south of Brazil between Gremio and Internacional was played for the 424th time -- and the first in the Libertadores. It all proved a bit much. Toward the end of the match there were almost 15 minutes of extraordinary madness, a free-for-all on the field that resulted no goals but eight red cards, three players and a substitute from each side. At one point it seemed Argentine referee Fernando Rapallini would have to abandon proceedings, but he kept his calm and the final minutes of a 0-0 draw were played out with 16 players on the pitch. In the end, what seemed at first to be a relatively minor flare-up descended into madness. Players, substitutes, coaches were all on the field in a generalized fracas that went on and on, gaining new momentum from every punch and kick. Some of the players who lost their heads and saw red only recently arrived in Porto Alegre. Even so, they found themselves contaminated by the atmosphere, and laid into the affray as if they had been born wearing the blue of Gremio or the red of Inter." https://www.espn.com/soccer/conmebo...nternacional-get-heated-in-porto-alegre-derby
Is VAR used in this competition? If so, can VAR be used to evaluate mass confrontation like this? Seems like if so, many more red cards could be issued in situations like this.
Copa America has been postponed to 2021. https://www.skysports.com/football/news/32506/11959025/copa-america-postponed-until-next-year
Was he vetoed by CBF for the entire Copa America or for Brazil's matches? Could you (or anyone who has info) let us know why Cunha suddenly disappeared after his World Cup semi-final and Copa Libertadores final? It is very unusual for a top referee to be overlooked in such a bad way without being injured or retired!
Thanks for your question (perhaps most imperatively because I'm happy to answer any question whilst being at home all day ) and I'm glad you asked it; I'm surprised people weren't as shocked or even angry as I was being told this! CONMEBOL is the most political of all confederations. It's low number (ten) is the reason for this - unlike OFC, all nations are fairly powerful. Indeed two in South America are ultra-powerful, suffice to say who they are. This is reflected in the way the association works in a lot of ways, including refereeing. As a further pretext, let me add that vetoes or associations rejecting appointments in CONMEBOL is the modus operandi there, and jingoism often gives way to logic - Raúl Orosco from Bolivia was replaced by José Argote from Venezuela in the Copa América Semifinal Chile - Peru in 2015 because of disputes between Chile and Bolivia going back to the late nineteenth century... Brazil were eliminated from both the 2015 and 2016 CA in Cunha-officiated games. Cunha wasn't even supposed to be at CA 2015 - he replaced his chubby compatriot Dario Ubriaco who didn't pass the fitness test for the competition. Life is quite funny like that - if Ubriaco had passed, it's almost certain that Cunha wouldn't even be a name on our radar at all and Daniel Fedorczuk would have attended WC 2018 from Uruguay; at least that was the plan. In the end Cunha was one of the few referees to come out of the competition with any credits and established himself as one of the best in his continent, more or less from nowhere. This was ascertained by a strong performance in the Brazil - Paraguay Quarterfinal game; I believe he gave a penalty to Paraguay that was correct. Brazil were eliminated in a penalty competition. By 2016, Cunha was one of the most trusted referees by CONMEBOL. Hence, he was appointed for the decisive group stage game, Brazil - Peru, at the Centenary CA in the United States. I guess everyone remembers what happened in that game, missed handling for the Peru goal that eliminated Brazil, and chaotic scenes of the long wait before Cunha gave the goal (seems weird as that's status quo nowadays in the VAR-era). WC preselection played in his favour here - despite being out from CONMEBOL top (Fedorczuk was the in-guy in CONMEBOL after a very good performance at CA 2016 in the Chile-Argentina group game), he was clearly better than the Venezuelan, Bolivian, Peruvian candidates and Roddy Zambrano's star had fallen (and now has totally fell) so he was one of six South Americans in Russia. I was quite taken by him in the World Cup to be fair, whether he deserved a Semifinal perhaps should be a different question altogether, but we all know that politics is the name of the game at FIFA level. I think he was immense in the Libertadores Final in Madrid and showed to be one of the best referees in the world, but vis-à-vis his veto it's important to return to the Semifinal he handled in that competition. If you can find it, watch the full sequence of both the penalty given after OFR and the attacks on Cunha after the final whistle in Grêmio - River Plate. Probably, this was the caesura for Cunha, eliminating a Brazilian team was probably did too much to irritate the CBF and Brazil. I guess CA 2019 being in Brazil didn't help him. But also it's scandalous, simply scandalous what happened and happens in CONMEBOL. Especially considering the vast numbers of referees (including two from Uruguay) there, it's a joke that Cunha got totally vetoed. And it seems CBF have a sense of humour or are particularly cruel: they invited Cunha to handle the early June pre-Copa América friendly game between Brazil and Honduras in Porto Alegre... Since that Final in 2018, Cunha hasn't handled any more Libertadores games, he's only been appointed for a handful of Sudamericana (Europa League) games. Brazilian political lobby on - not in - the referees committee led by a Brazilian, Wilson Seneme, is clearly vast. On a pragmatic level, he has been replaced by Roberto Tobar from Chile as the reliable non Argentine-Brazilian referee of the time, so there is no need for Seneme to threaten his own removal by his federation by trying to defend Cunha. If you are particularly interested in him, he handled the most recent edition of the Uruguayan Clásico between Nacional - Peñarol. It was an extremely busy game for him with a lot of very rough and dangerous play. To be honest I don't his performance was very good. Andrés Cunha is 43 and not in contention to attend the next WC, so the trajectory of his career from this point on seems bleak and obvious. His career is one of the most interesting of all top referees of his generation! A career at a FIFA level that was essentially an accident, even twice over, and yet a simply amazing 2018 for him with three WC games including a Semifinal and a brilliant performance in a mission impossible Superclásico Libertadores Final. The good turns in his career had clearly run out by the time CBF scandalously vetoed him for Copa América 2019, but for a guy the thesis for who's career is essentially a failed fitness test by one of his compatriots, I think he can reflect on a career that wasn't too bad after all
It's noteworthy that when he shows the red card, he holds the yellow card in the same hand (even for a straight red). Don't recall seeing that from any top-level referee, let alone a FIFA and WC one.
The sequence from 9:01 to about 10:30 on the video is pretty amazing. For those not watching the whole thing, it seems his comms system had given out so any VAR interventions had to go through the fourth official (who then had to hail the CR through the AR?). The non-penalty after intervention is one thing. The apparent lack of a card for the foul by #9 at 9:25 (ref played advantage) is another. Did that truly not get a card?
I highly doubt that's his standard practice (or what actually happened). We see from the rest of the game that he keeps his yellow in his top left and red in his top right. Pulling out the yellow to show the red seems completely unnecessary and against all good instruction. It would be more believable if both cards were in the same pocket. I think it's far more likely that he was initially going yellow and then realized (or was told by AR) it was red OR the goalkeeper was already on a yellow and we never saw it. That is the goalkeeper who ran 65 yards to join a mass-con, after all... highly plausible he got a yellow in that situation.
Look at minute 20:00 where a 2CT happened. He clearly pulled out a yellow from top left, showed it, then another yellow AND a red from top right, and showed both of the latter cards.
Wow. I missed that other yellow. That's really, really, really strange. The point of cards is clear communication. On that 2CT, the back side of his red looks yellow. I don't understand why he would do this. It's not like he's putting both cards in the same pocket for a quick 2CT (as he, you know, used the card in the other pocket for the actual yellow). Really weird.
That's bizarre. Only similar thing I can recall is when Busacca sent off Van Persie in his last ever CL match (maybe his last ever match period?) But with Busacca it actually kind of made sense. He kept his yellow in his right breast pocket and the red in his left breast pocket. And Busacca seemed to be consistent with it. (4:50 mark on the video) From an ergonomic perspective, there is a logic to what Busacca did. You save motion and time, by not putting away the yellow and just reaching for the red card in the same hand and motion after you show the yellow card. With what Cunha did it makes no sense. It seems like he has 10 different cards in his breast pockets. Why have another yellow card in the same breast pocket where the red card is in. See the first sending off. He just looks all over the place. By the way, I can't imagine the difficulty in refereeing a game like that, but those highlights were shocking. Bodies on the floor 80 yards apart, shocking tackles and shocking body blocks with seemingly no misconduct shown. How he got a World Cup semi-final can only be explained by South America and Uruguay demanding that it was "their turn" to have a World Cup semi-final referee. A South American referee had not done a World Cup semi-final since 2006 prior to the France vs. Belgium game.
Prior to maybe like 1993 (could be earlier) there was no official instruction that you show the second yellow and red consecutively. In matches I saw in the early 90s a referee would either show a yellow and red simultaneously (Serie A) or ONLY show the red, even if it was a second yellow (England, Scotland, etc.). Then the LOTG themselves said the yellow must be shown before the red. After awhile, it just became a known instruction and got dropped from the LOTG. So Busacca's move is sort of a remnant of that old school Italian move (though, admittedly, he shows yellow then red--he just keeps the yellow up). Cunha's move is simply bizarre.
This could be useful for a quick 2CT. However, the way Cunha used it, by pulling out another yellow from the other pocket first, completely destroyed this purpose. Then for the straight red later, he again showed both cards simultaneously. Really confusing (though admittedly, no one on the pitch seems to be confused!) It would already be strange to see a referee do this in a local league. Certainly didn't expect it from a WC semifinal referee.
Also, while many referees keep more than one yellow card, it is very rare that more than one is out at the same time. The only other instance I can think of is the (in)famous two-handed yellow by Thomas Metzen in the German 2nd Bundesliga.
Marco Rodriguez did it as well and I think he got it from the German referee. Either way, quite ridiculous and, I think, both referees got suspended/reprimanded for that stunt and rightly so.
Oh yes, forgot that one. Referees with a strong character like Chiquimarco are rare these days. Just look at the swagger with which he brandished the first red. In terms of style, pulling out the yellows straight from the pockets like Metzen is better though. Definitely surprised a lot of people
Shortly after his retirement, he had a discussion about this moment in a Mexican TV show. As can be seen in the video, he pulled out the second yellow several seconds after the first, and even looked in the wrong pocket.
Wow! You must have inside sources! Thank you for such detailed response. Out of curiosity, I have 3 further questions: (1) why would CONMEBOL, in spite of his big problems at the Centenary CA in 2016, choose him for FWC 2018 and not better-performing and CONMEBOL-preferred Fedorczuk? At that moment, CONMEBOL had the opportunity to support their own favourite, Fedorczuk, if they really wanted that. (2) If Brazil had enough of Cunha after Gremio lost the Libertadores semi-final, why the CONMEBOL Referees Committee, led by a Brazilian, would appoint Cunha for the final? If they wanted to get rid of him, why they did not do that right after that semi-final? (3) In the current context, Cunha is, of course, out from the FWC 2022 selection, but only his age (43 now, 45 in 2022) would have not prevented him from being eligible. I agree with you that his rise and fall are very rare, if not unique, at that level.
Nice discussion! I believe that the 'yellow card' in his right shirt pocket is what he uses to write his notes on; equivalent to the German match-cards that I myself use in my games. Why he doesn't have it in the other pocket, or has a red-coloured one, I cannot make sense of. Cunha assessed the tackle at 9:25 as fair, you can see he points at the ball. Bad mistake. In my opinion a penalty should have been given in this scene, however Cunha probably reasoned that the attacker had no chance to gain possession of the ball in spite of this careless trip, but probably persuaded him not to give a penalty. Leodán González, top CONMEBOL VAR and WC 2022 candidate, was VAR for this game, by the way. For a bit of context - it was a league final game too, so a pure top clash for Cunha. I agree with you, after a good start, he should have done more to prevent the rough play and had more courage to eject more players who committed Serious Foul Play tackles. Ultra-challenging game though. And people say games in Europe are hard! I agree - current generation (Ramos, Guerrero, Ortíz, Escobedo) are simply poor, with Ramos being the least bad, and I still think he's very poor for FIFA highest level. The last top Mexican was Roberto García Orozco, but he was unfortunately a bit chubby. It's terrible what CONCACAF are doing in the region by prescriptively forcing referees to be educated to be ultra-lenient. What did you think of Rapallini's performance? In my opinion: * Great charisma to survive those first minutes * Maybe he could have been more rigorous in the 2H? But no signals that a confrontation like that was going to happen * Could he have prevented the second huge confrontation by issuing the first four Red Cards differently? -> This match overall confirmed by positive impression of Rapallini as a big talent on the road to the next World Cup. I disagree! I think Cunha was really good in Russia. Very calm, assured performance in France - Australia and then furiously (and impressively) keeping control of a combustible Spain - Iran game. Who else could have gotten the France - Belgium Semifinal? Shukralla, maybe? If you say Faghani, I totally agree, but he was planned for the Final until some non-refereeing people got involved... If I'm not wrong, pre-selected list was made at the end of 2015, where Cunha was clearly top. Also, I guess Fedorczuk didn't impress FIFA at U20 WC 2015, and that was the end for his WC 2018 chances. Here is the penalty from that game. Also note the problems from his card set-up here! Again, politics. Cunha was the choice of both River and Boca - and Tobar had gotten the first leg, so there was no other option really (besides an Argentine, but CONMEBOL banned that since 2015). A nuance perhaps you missed - Seneme doesn't really care for decisions against Brazil, but his federation do. He is only trying to protect himself. CBF have the power to remove Seneme if they wish; he is only trying to save himself. Like other top referees Çakır, Mateu, Skomina, Pitana et al. he is not on the preselection list. I don't know the specific reasons. In any case, my feeling is that all referees mentioned above will have retired by the time the next World Cup kicks off.