Match #64 - 13 July 2014 - 15:00 EDT - Rio de Janeiro Referee: Nicola RIZZOLI (ITA) Assistant Referee 1: Renato FAVERANI (ITA) Assistant Referee 2: Andrea STEFANI (ITA) Fourth Official: Carlos VERA (ECU) Standby Assistant Referee: Christian LESCANO (ECU) 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.2003380/), 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.
LA Times article on appointment. http://touch.latimes.com/#section/1780/article/p2p-80783377/ From my perspective, more interesting that a US paper would run an article about it than anything the article actually says . . .
I'm intrigued by the claim in that article that Germany and Italy share a border. Well, maybe after the anschluss...
Maybe he's a really old Nazi and still has a map of Europe from 1930s-early 40s next to his desk? Either that or he's just a moron.
The LA Times article also says "Through 63 games, 178 yellows (along with 10 reds)..." Sixty-three games by July 11th? Don't think so.
The fix is in, result already known for the third place match. LA Times wasn't supposed to leak it though.
Wouldn't be surprised if the shackles were off for the final. No suspensions to worry about. If so, will be interesting to see how the players adjust.
Wait, the match won't be worked by Eriksson? There were pages and pages of posts on here with long explanations and supporting details of how it was going to be Eriksson. You mean that all of that information isn't reliable?
Just to explain this red card publicly, because it's the only one we gave out this tournament... The poster was banned last year from the referee forum. He entered the WC referee forum after a hiatus from the site, realizing there was a loophole. He has taken great pains to take jabs at the moderators along the way, even referencing things from four years ago. It seems pretty clear that he knows this was going to be his last day on BigSoccer. Rather than have him muck up the Final thread, we're issuing the ban now. If some people think that's a personal vendetta, so be it; but if it was personal, he wouldn't have been in this forum for 30 days and I would have opted to engage him long ago, which I chose not to do. Anyway, enjoy the Final.
Romero at the end of italy's line looks weird...Keeper needs to be first or 2nd. I think Rizzoli should caution him. Kidding of course.
ESPN's folks have consistently said "Rizzoli" in the same way you'd say "Pizza" all tournament. Isn't that what a double-Z signifies in Italian? Also, there's a balloon in the German penalty area. LOL.
Looked like the Argentine lead with his shoulder on that play in the box. Hard to see live but the replay looked bad.