England : Slovakia Sunday, June 30 18:00 CET / 12:00 EDT Gelsenkirchen Referee: Halil Umut Meler (TUR) Assistant Referee 1: Mustafa Emre Eyisoy (TUR) Assistant Referee 2: Kerem Ersoy (TUR) Fourth Official: Rade Obrenović (SVN) VAR: Marco Fritz (GER) AVAR1: Christian Dingert (GER) AVAR2: Tomasz Kwiatkowski (POL)
Quite a bit of embellishment in this one -- and some legitimately cynical fouls. (Bellingham? What are you thinking?) Something that often astounds me -- professional players who see a possible foul and then don't play to the whistle. England had three players just standing within 10 yards of the goal, not trying to get on the end of a pass or anything. Also, England are crap. Simply terrible.
"Guehi has the right to stand in front of the goalkeeper, he does nothing wrong." He CLEARLY moves and blocks off the goalkeeper. Landon, how do you not see that?
First one, I think, is a lot closer to DOGSO than people may have thought it looked. I think yellow is expected decision from that distance and definitely in the context of this match at that juncture. But red is not crazy there and probably is mandatory if the foul is 10 yards closer.
As a former MMA journalist, I have to say Duda's armbar technique is terrible. Good call -- I could see someone giving that on Bellingham, which would be harsh.
I really like how Meler has refereed this tournament. He identifies reckless tackles very well, as well as SPA. He's not afraid to caution misconduct (five YCs in the first half). I wasn't particularly familiar with either him or Siebert coming into this tournament. But I've been very impressed with both. Just no-nonsense refereeing.
I thought not and now think not. Could be a classic example of just doing what you’re supposed to do from the get-go and the ship rights itself.
I really do think he, Letexier and Nyberg are a very strong triumvirate for the future. Maybe add Scharer in there. Siebert, I feel, is too inconsistent right now and needs to figure out who he is as a referee. Agree he shows flashes of brilliance.
I think Meler considered Bellingham for simulation but quickly thought the better of it (it would be a 2YC)
I didn’t turn the match on until 70:00 or so, so I didn’t see any of the fouls. My reaction when I looked at ESPN’s match tracker was exactly this. 1. Wow, that’s a lot of early yellows. A hell of a lot. 2. The cautions obviously worked. Refs should take heed of this.
As noted above, there were still a lot of similar tackles throughout the match that were not cautioned. It settled for a while, but when it picked up, Meler didn't seem willing to give a second caution (either way).