Tuesday, 12 June - Warsaw - 2:45 EST Poland : Russia Referee: Wolfgang STARK (GER) Assistant referees: Jan-Hendrik Salver (GER) , Mike Pickel (GER) Additional assistant referees: Florian Meyer (GER) , Deniz Aytekin (GER) Fourth official: István Vad (HUN) Reserve official: Gabor Erös (HUN) UEFA Delegate: Geir Thorsteinsson (ISL) UEFA Referee observer: Hugh Dallas (SCO) This thread is for all pre-, play-by-play, and post-match discussion of the referee and other officials on the match. Only news and analysis or other facts/information related to the referees and the officiating should be posted here. This is not a team or rivalry thread and will be heavily moderated to ensure it remains that way. Please read the stickied thread at the top of this forum if you have further questions. Thank you.
Webb may have the more impressing resume, but Stark is the veteran at this tournament. Long in the shadow of Merk and then Fandel, Stark has actually been a FIFA referee since 1999. He's got a long list of major internationals, including the 2010 World Cup. This year, his resume is a bit thinner in the Champions League, as his countrymate Brych got more assignments. But he was assigned to referee the Europa League Final. UEFA obviously trusts him with big matches, as this game is sure to be a tense affair. Stark's recent games: UCL: Inter v Lille, Ajax v Lyon, Milan v Barcelona EL: Man City v Porto (R32), Sporting v Metalist (QF), Atletico Madrid v Athletic Bilbao (Final) EURO 2012 Qualifiers: Montenegro v England, Israel v Croatia, Portugal v Bosnia-Herzegovina
Did anyone else catch that Stark pointed to the (or I assume the) "Respect" patch on his own left sleeve as he was talking with the captains? Interesting.
Interesting. Right at the coin toss, Stark pulls the captains back and shows them the 'Respect' logo on his arm, and gives the 'no more' arm signal. Don't think I've seen that before. Tensions must be running rather high over there....
"Cant be kicking players in the face in the box" - but it's ok out of the box? sorry, first time color commentators drive me nuts....
Wasn't completely paying attention but that had a sense of a player putting his head in dangerous spot rather then a player putting his foot in a dangerous spot.
hahaha, I like the simplicity of this post. Interesting call, but honestly, what are you gonna do in that situation? Ducked down his head, high boot = no whistle. Personally I think that's the right call given the situation.
After reading that I got "Cool Runnings " going through my head. "I see pride! I see power! I see a bad-ass mother who don't take no crap off of nobody!" The refs probably did this in the locker room before meeting the players.
There's been a lot of deserved harping on Keller this tournament, but I thought he conveyed the right sentiment there. His point was that you can't be going in wildly like that without risking a penalty; I would hope it's obvious you can't do that out of the box either. The head was slightly down, but it was a ball that is always expected to be headed or chested. And the Polish player should have been able to see that. If you were to argue one of the players went in "carelessly" (or even recklessly), the choice is pretty obvious. Maybe. Again, I think Keller hit the nail on the head: it's just a very tough call to make given the gravity of the moment and the totality of events. At a micro-level, the ball is played away, it didn't really have an effect on a goal-scoring situation at all, and no one is really asking for the penalty. At a macro-level, it's the 15th minute of the biggest soccer game ever played in Poland, which makes it a bit tougher than normal to give a "soft" penalty. All that said, in a vacuum I think it was a foul and a penalty. But not here, probably.
Hmmm, funny call there. Clearly not a foul on the attacker. I thought he was giving a penalty at first, seemed obvious, especially for the AAR. At the least he should have not called anything, at most it's a penalty.
In all seriousness, yes it would have been a soft penalty. But... you have an AAR right there who presumably does nothing. Yet the AR calls a phantom foul coming out. Why is the AR involving himself there at all? It makes absolutely no sense. No call I can live with, but you just look foolish calling a foul coming out.
I didn't realize the AR called that foul. Very odd that. I don't think anyone would have protested a no-call there, especially since the defender headed the ball clear. But to call a foul going out was all wrong.
no. this is different. NO call. I understand. The other player headed it away already. Big boy soccer. But a foul? This earns a solid WTF?
Problem for Stark & co. now is that they've turned down two decent--but by no means stonewall--claims for penalties for Russia. If the match continues as is or if Russia opens up a lead, no worries and all will be forgotten. But if he has to point to the spot for Poland later, even if it's the most obvious thing you've ever seen, we'll never hear the end of these two incidents.