Sunday, 10 June - Gdansk - 12:00 EST Spain : Italy Referee: Viktor KASSAI (HUN) Assistant referee: Gabor Erös (HUN), György Ring (HUN) Additional assistant referee: István Vad (HUN), Tamás Bognar (HUN) Fourth official: William Collum (SCO) Reserve official: Alasdair Ross (SCO) UEFA Delegate: Christian Schmöelzer (AUT) UEFA Referee observer: Jaap Uilenberg (NED) Kassai has his full Hungarian quintet assisting him. The fourth official is Collum of Scotland. 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.
The 2011 UCL Final referee, Kassai first rose to significant prominence in Beijing, where he did the 2008 Olympic Gold Medal match. He then took charge of the Germany v Spain semifinal in South Africa, which he handled without any cards. He's only 37 years old and could be on the world stage for some time. His major matches recently: UCL: Real Madrid v Bayern (SF), Milan v Arsenal (R16), Bayern v Man City, Basel v Benfica, Bayer Leverkusen v Chelsea EURO 2012 qualifying: Spain v Czech Republic, England v Bulgaria, Belarus v Bosnia, Estonia v Republic of Ireland (playoff)
If he does and it's credible, I will apologize, reinstate the post and retract the warning I issued. But I'm not holding my breath.
I don't really find it an attack if he's engaging in consensual relationships. It also doesn't really belong here, but I'm just wondering where this came from at all.
Come on. Really? An anonymous internet user posts a rumor about a referee's alleged sexual orientation, and you don't view it as an attack? You're taking the "not that there's anything wrong with that" mantra from Seinfeld to some illogical extremes. It doesn't matter what Kassai's sexual orientation is--that's not the point. What was the purpose of the post from the perspective of the poster? And ask yourself if it's accomplishing that purpose this very second. Let's just let it go. If you wonder where it came from, do some Googling. But I hope that's the end of discussion here.
Thanks for the PM, SimpleGame6. Understand where you were coming from now and sorry for presuming what is essentially the opposite.
Great advantage in the 11th minute, but will Kassai come back to caution for it? Think he should, but it's typically not his style and a long time has already passed...
Thought it was a caution but the game moved on and he probably just felt that a caution served no purpose at that point. The Spanish didn't seem upset at all either.
Anyone think that Motta's injury was a foul? The foot was slightly above waist level, but the commentators (in their infinite knowledge) thought that it wasn't much.
Italy seems to be doing a lot of calf-kicking. Almost as if their "careless" fouls are by design. I think Kassai should be considering PI at some point in this match if the pattern holds. But he likely won't. In a lot of ways I like Kassai, but I think some teams have figured him out. He's very much a "path of least resistance" referee, which makes matches entertaining in a lot of cases, but can lead to problems when there are situations where the referee has to step in and he doesn't.
What on earth was that move by the Italian player just kicking the Spanish keeper? I'm beginning to this that Mass Ref is right about designed fouling...
"You can't get booked for beating the turf in frustration" Wanna bet? I think BAlotelli will solve that "who gets the PI" yc issue for you.
Well, there is the PI card. Was wrong about that. But I think it's because he has identified Balotelli, rather than a pattern by the team.
hmm looked to me that balo reached the ball before pique and it wouldve been a pk , can understand balo's frustration i guess and that shouldve been a yellow for cesc , the ref is taking it easy for our players i guess yellow for balotelli now although he caught the ball first
If you look back from WC10 through today, I think this past of least resistance yields the best results to ascending the elite list
Right. And why wasn't it given? Because Kassai knows he didn't give that very first yellow, which was much worse. Because he applied the advantage and didn't go back, he effectively set the bar too high. And now he's been waiting for the "perfect" opportunity to card. Perfect, as we know, is the enemy of the good. He could have solved all problems by just giving the first caution on the advantage call.
That would be a very, very interesting debate. In some cases you are right. In others, I'd argue not. Thomson, Rizzoli, Brych and Atkinson would be examples of referees who have risen pretty high in UEFA since South Africa and don't fit nicely into that category at all.