Match #61 - 8 July 2014 - 16:00 EDT - Belo Horizonte Referee: Marco RODRIGUEZ (MEX) Assistant Referee 1: Marvin TORRENTERA (MEX) Assistant Referee 2: Marcos QUINTERO (MEX) Fourth Official: Mark GEIGER (USA) Standby Assistant Referee: Mark Sean HURD (USA) This thread is for all pre-match, play-by-play and post-match discussion and analysis of the refereeing team. Per the forum guidelines (http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/welcome-forum-guidelines.2003380/), this thread will be heavily moderated. For more general or partisan discussions of the match, please go to the general Group thread or the individual team forums.
It will be interesting to see Brasil's approach to this match. Does Marco Rodriguez receive orders from FIFA not to hold back on the issuance of misconduct for persistent infringement, tactical and hard fouls? I would imagine without Silva and Neymar Jr. Brasil will cede space and possession and as a consequence, be forced to foul to break up German attacks. Depending on how much leeway Rodriguez gives the teams will affect if Brasil wins or loses. Clearly Neymar Jr. has been Brasil's most dangerous attacking player. Fred has been nonexistent since the first match. Unless Brasil improves their play and others step up I don't see how Brasil can win.
FIFA announced that they refused to consider the appeal of Silva's YC so he is indeed out of the match. Also said that they won't punish Zuniga on the Neymar challenge.
I think that it is odd that FIFA brought people to the tournament specifically to be 4th Officials and reserve ARs, yet now that the final few matches have been reached those people are no longer being used and people who were brought as regular crews are stepping into those roles. It is not as if any of the reserve people have been said to have done a poor job.
No, but if one of the crew gets hurt I'm sure FIFA wants a replacement who, you know, has actually been working games.
Kicking in big games and targetting selected opponents has been Brazil's strategy under Scolari in recent years with 2 DM's similar in a way to Netherands last time around. Germans are capable of retaliating too. Will be interesting how Rodriguez manages that. Both him and Brazil will have to play the balancing act.
Obviously FIFA did not hold the Suarez biting incident against Rodriguez, which is kind of surprising....
I'm not really that surprised, it was difficult to see even on slow-mo video. Maybe the AR could've seen what he thought was a head butt, but from 40-45 yds you're not going to be able to see that it was a bite.
I feel like Marvin Torrentera should have changed his name to some version of Marco (or a language variant) so he could fit in with the rest of the crew. (Match doesn't kick off for another 7 hours. Just tryin to help pass the time )
Should also be noted that some of the referees and ARs brought to do games did work as 4ths and reserve ARs earlier. Geiger already did a 4th.
Right. Of the 25 referees, it looks like 17 have had 4ths in the QFs or prior (some had more than one, like Roldan and Vera). Looking at things now, Gassama starts to really stand out. He had one whistle and that's it. No 4ths. Every other single official has been involved on two games at least (save the Colombian AR1). Gassama's minimal participation in this tournament is fascinating, particularly since he did so well on a big game that determined who won a group.
Last red card in a WC semifinal was 1998, when Blanc got sent off by Garcia-Aranda. That got me thinking, are red cards in semifinals rarer than in Finals? There have been 5 red cards in the Final. 1990 (x2) SFP & VC, 1998 2CT, 2006 VC, 2010 2CT. Here's what I've got for semifinals... 1998 VC - France (team went through) 1994 SFP - Sweden (team eliminated) 1990 2CT - Argentina (team went through) 1966 ??? - Soviet Union (team eliminated) 1962 ??? - Brazil (team went through) 1962 ??? - Chile (team eliminated) 1958 ??? - West Germany (team eliminated) Data gets a little murky prior to that but I don't think there were any before 1958. In theory, there have been twice as many semis as finals, but that's not actually the case due to secondary group stages at a couple tournaments. But it is almost 2-to-1. Yet the red card seems to have come out only twice more than in the Final. And the trend seems to be that it is more common now in the Final (after all, the first ever red card was in 1990) and less common in the semis, as we haven't had one in three full tournaments. Are players on their best behavior in semis now, or are referees just less likely to pull red in those matches? Watching the last few tournaments, I actually think it's the former. But now we have a tournament where the referees have been reluctant to show cards, players have grown accustomed to that, and you have a referee who happily dishes out cards. What's the betting line on reds for this game?
Sorry Brazil but I'm pulling for a Germany/Argentina final. Its our best chance. (If you know what I mean)
Less than a minute into the game and a FIFA AR on the World Cup semi-final has gotten a ball in/out wrong on the goal line. Nerves? edit:grammar
Tactical foul not YC, keeping it consistent with the rest of WC My bad. I have a question about tactical foul, can it be TF if Marcelo was still on his side of the field or you need to be closer to the midfield