Isn't going down with cramps seen as a pretty big fail at this level, or is it not seen as a fitness indicator?
Out of curiosity, what were your criticisms of Zwayer? The neutral reviews I've seen were all favorable. He didn't get any knockout assignments, but Germany's protests over Balogun may have factored into that. EDIT: as @Advantage pointed out, the cramps may have been a factor, too, although they didn't impact the match itself.
... which is to say, there wasn't anything that reached the level of a difficult KMI. I do think Elfath's use of YC's helped with this, especially the one on Romero early in the second half. However, England's goal is what really turned the game. Up to that point, the tone was extremely contentious, and afterward, it was smooth sailing.
There's a video of the incident here, starting at about 14 seconds into the video (91:18 or so on the game clock). Spence slides with his right foot outstretched with his left foot tucked underneath him. It's possible that there is contact on his outstretched right foot, it's hard to tell from the angle, but that's not really relevant because when Spence gets up he's favoring his left foot, hopping up and down on his right foot with his left foot off the ground. Were Messi to have made enough contact to injure him I doubt we would have seen him react that way.
Since we’re nit picking here, at the very end of the game, Elfath waves away the Argentina players pleading with him to blow the whistle, lets the Argentina goalkeeper take his time setting up for the goal kick, and then….blows the whistle and ends the game the second the ball is in the air. Why? If you’re not going allow any further play, why make the goalkeeper kick the ball at all?
You can't look at it binary of a lot of early yellows = bad and no yellows = good. We can't always come in here and excuse lack of early yellows of "well if he gave a bunch FIFA wouldn't be happy." Because it's just not true. We have games in this tournament where referees gave early yellows and there ended up being a high number of cards but the game went well (i.e. Barton and Oliver). It is okay to give early yellows and if you're a good referee the yellows will work and the game will calm down. You can't just play the result here of "Elfath didn't give a bunch of yellows and FIFA was happy that he didn't and it worked. Two things can be true at the same time. Yes, the lack of early yellows ended up "working," but also if he maybe gave a yellow or two we wouldn't be having the discussion of thinking the game would end with 10 yellow cards because the cards might have worked and the teams would have started to play soccer. The performance was fine and I think Elfath was more lucky than good as I don't really think his approach was working until England got the goal.
Let too much SPA go. Missed a pretty easy reckless foul that targeted Adams. I had a lot of similar complaints about Sampaio in NED-MOR.
Which would be a great reply if it was based on the same conditionals I was replying to. Namely "they [Law 5] think a WC semifinal having 12 yellows and multiple reds would have meant he did his job well." But hey, carry on.
Zwayer was poor. It is only the seemingly intense dislike that FIFA/Busacca have for Istvan Kovacs that saved the German's second appointment from being a dead rubber, Jordan-Argentina.
I find it odd that a grassroots level referee like you spends your time trashing Dr. Joe. While his on air commentary may make us cringe, 99.9% of the people here would be equally cringeworthy if called to speak on the air at a moments notice. And face it, there are only a handful of people on this board who even have the qualifications / resume that a network would even pay attention to. Even Clattenberg and Unkel are cringeworthy at times. Fifteen years ago Dr. Joe was a National Assessor. I am not sure when he stopped being one but he was also a college referee and I believe he refereed in the NASL. He was Director of Refereeing prior to Pro being established in 2012. He also found a way to make a living coaching soccer long before there were paid club staff earing six figure salaries. His #1 Goalkeeper Camp was the camp to attend in the 1980's and 90's and his instruction and books helped the US develop a long line of world class goalkeepers (a position that we no longer appear to excel at). 2 days after the US was out of the 1990 World Cup, Dr. Joe had Tony Meola at our camp in Atlanta. Dr. Joe helped build soccer in this country - as a player, a coach, a referee, and an administrator. I've had multiple opportunities to learn from him as a GK and as a referee and each time I learned something and became better. My last assessment by him was running line for a referee who now has a FIFA badge. So sure, he's a bit rusty on the most recent instruction, but I guarantee you, if he observed your next match, he would treat you with respect and give you a couple of solid pieces of advice - especially when it comes to player and game management. And so what that he is bragging about having mentored Elfath? I'd be proud too if someone I helped / mentored got a World Cup Semi-Final whistle.
i largely agree but have 2 opposing ideas. 1. Calling those who think differently idiots, as you did, is a way to squelch differing views, not learn from them. 2. There are ways to manage excited players that fall short of flashing cards. Multiple options to consider. More communication? Let stoppages linger till players burn up their adrenaline, talk to captains and plead or threaten. the collina stare. The smile and joke at the antics. I dont know if any of those would work for Elphath. The collina stare never worked for me… but with his size, maybe. It can be a learning exercise and instructive discussion. Or we can just try to shut others down with epithets. What he did either worked (very slowly) or the players eventually got control over themselves. Im not sure which. (I suspect the latter) i will admit that i got a bit snarky above. it was a poor response to being told i dont have a clue, or i’m an idiot for choosing to think about options.
Thanks for clarifying. In a vacuum, I wouldn't disagree with any of that. It just seemed as though there was a ton of pressure from above was to avoid showing those cards.
As expected the discussion/commentary from the English media and fans is almost entirely about Tuchel and tactics.
Ever do media training? This kind of public speaking is a learned skill. It is mostly about practice and preparation. The first time I heard Unkel, her inexperience was obvious. She got so far into the weeds that her points didn't come across clearly. In this World Cup, however, I've found her commentary to be crisp and to the point. When appropriate, she shares her expertise but doesn't snow people with it. She never worked a World Cup final like Darren Cann did, but as a rules analyst, she is superior. It isn't close. Getting back to Machnik, it's great that you've had positive experiences with him.
I knew that already but I also read it in an article by some guy in The Guardian today. Reference for folks - here.
I hear what you say, but he is horrible at his current job. He gets paid to be an expert. And he does a poor job of providing expertise. It’s OK for a retired assessor to not be up on current laws and practices. It’s not OK for someone whose job it is to inform the average viewer in the role of an expert. I’ll bet tou’re right that I would love to have him watch me ref, and I would have loved to have him coach me when I was a GK. But I really can’t stand listening to him in the role he has now.
I think it's remarkable that in a WC semifinal between England and Argentina, the post-match criticism of the referee has been quite muted.
Mostly a good account. Just a couple of corrections to your post. 1.Joe was never an NASL referee. He was the Referee Chief for the original MISL and did some games in that league.. 2. He was Head of Refereeing for MLS prior to PRO. not USSF Director of Refereeing. PRO was established to improve the refereeing in MLS and they hired it's manager from England. PRO then developed a new group of young referees, including Elfath. 3. He was previously part of the National team's coaching staff going back to the 1970s, and in particular for the 1990 WC. 4. Many people who were National Assessors/Referee coaches acted as mentors and helpers for Elfath, especially in S.Texas and Region III, and all of the other members on the US FIFA list on their way up the promotion ladder. Joe was not exclusive in that. PH
Had a chance to watch the game tonight. I'll call it a very good Ismail Elfath performance today. It was what he generally does. Managed things well. Might have had a couple of technical glitches. Not perfect on foul recognition. But he did an extremely good job in what can only be described as a cauldron of a match. Had I been watching live, I would have though he was going to lose control in the first 20 minutes or so. But the cards he issued in the final 15 minutes or so in the first half set a bar that the teams did well to follow for the rest of the game. I've seen some chatter that Elfath got lucky that the teams decided to play soccer later. Maybe that's the case, but I think once Elfath set the bar, the teams knew what he would do and responded accordingly. Atkins and Parker, as usual, were excellent. I said this with Eskas and his ARs, but the Elfath/Parker/Atkins team is absolutely a referee team. It's definitely not a referee with two assistants making up the numbers. These guys work great together. All told, they gave a very, very good account of themselves and represented the US refereeing community very well on a major global stage.
I'd also add that both teams coming out incredibly amped and then settling down is something that can be expected and managed at a match of this level.
If you gave me one performance that showed what needs to happen in an event like this, it was probably Michael Oliver's performance in the Morocco-Canada game (not saying that it was the most well-officiated game, by the way). He tried to referee "the FIFA way", realized it wasn't working, and brought out his "Sunday morning Newcastle men's amateur game" side and clamped down. I don't think Sampaio or Zwayer did that in the games I've referenced. These guys are where they are because then know when to let games breathe and when to drop the hammer. I wished Elfath would have clamped down about 15 minutes earlier than he did, but when he did I think both teams respected it and responded appropriately.
Catching up on the thread…I think Elfath landed the plane, as you guys like to put it. But was it skill, or luck? This was a moment that, at the time, I thought was a big miss, not giving a yellow for PI. But he got away with it. Luck or skill?