Match 3: CAN : BIH - TELLO (ARG)

[#FIFAWorldCup2026]
🇨🇦 Canadá vs Bosnia y Herzegovina 🇧🇦
A: Facundo Tello 🇦🇷
A1: Juan Pablo Belatti 🇦🇷
A2: Gabriel Chade 🇦🇷
4to: Khalid Alturais 🇸🇦
5to: Mohammed Alabakry 🇸🇦
VAR: Hernan Mastrangelo 🇦🇷
AVAR: Antonio Garcia 🇺🇾
SVAR: Tatiana Guzman 🇳🇮 pic.twitter.com/6zvAJRk7WT

— ArbitroInternacional (@ArbitroInteBlog) June 8, 2026

 

Bumping this up for the afternoon match. Three Argentinian referees doing a WC Final inside 20 years might be a reach, but Tello has to be a candidate. Obviously how Brazil and Argentina perform on the field will matter, but to the extent he ends up battling a South American, I think a direct comparison to Sampaio's performance yesterday will be worthwhile here (even if I continue to hold a hope/belief that Abatti will somehow rise above both).

 

But it does matter, doesn't it? You score from a corner but do you score from a foul that's 5 yards closer? Also, if you give that foul it's SPA.

Plus, there's no way that's a cross-up. The AR would be saying that he has a foul and lifting for the foul. Tello is either over-ruling him on the merits or basically saying "corner is enough here," and overruling through a path-of-least-resistance play.

I'm just cathcing up, but this is ugly from Tello in this passage. The foul at 19' was a CLEAR yellow; there's no way a warning was enough there. Then you have him choosing not to give a foul that his AR flags (and likely the yellow that needs to come with it), which leads to a goal from the corner kick. Sure, Bosnia, the fouled team, benefits, but that doesn't necessarily make it right.

I expect much more from Tello but his passage had the distinct feel of "let's not offend the home team too much and raise the temperature." Ironic, then, that the outcome was a goal against Canada.

 

Also I feel like I'm going to be banging my head against the wall all tournament, but restarting with a kickoff at 21:42 to stop for a water break at 22:06 (on a free kick) is dumb.

 

I'm going to bang the @soccerref69420 drum here. Times are very useful as very people will have the luxury of watching in real-time while following along. You're talking about 45+1' here with the prior one being 45'.

I just watched both. 45' is the one that's mandatory. I actually do agree with the commentator here; you can sell 45+1', but that's more careless, it's just a miss while he stretches... there's no real danger or consequence from the ultimate contact. Plus, booking that while not booking 19' borders on farcical.

I've liked Tello in the past. I admit to zooming through most of this as I catch-up. But I'm not terribly impressed at the moment.

 

That seems an obvious penalty at 49'.

 

How has he given nothing live? He just seems confused and it doesn't inspire confidence.

 

As someone who defended the no-call on Neuer in 2014, I've got to say times have changed. That's a penalty. You can't punch an opponent in the head like that. Getting the ball is not a justification.

 

Then we're making things up as we go along, again. All the focus on head injuries and all the teaching I thought was occuring was about goalkeeper's being responsible for the outcome when they go for a punch like this. Punching the fella square in the head like it was a street-fight seemed a very logical outcome of that play. Which is why he shouldn't punch and needs to do something different.

And yes, this is me telling my 2014 self that the world has changed. Or at least I was told it did.

 

Which one? Sorry, I'm guilty of forgetting the timestamps as much as anyone but there's a lot going on now.