I remember that this was the ref that gave that Red...I was wondering if he was gonna spend his career not making big calls cause his ARs steal them. WHOA hell of a shot there Ibra.
Keller is just dumb. That's not "Winning the ball cleanly" he charges him from behind AND trips him in the same motion.
Much more energetic game than England v France, "chippier" as well. So far, 37" in, Cakir managing nicely.
It is a bit chippier but not ill tempered. The players are playing the game, committing some fouls but not getting hung up on anything.
Look no further than MLS for such a gesture... http://www.mlssoccer.com/news/article/de-rosario-i-deserve-more
I forgot about that, I'm glad that hasn't caught on. Actually I'd like to see a referee like Mike Riley do it after reffing a really contentious derby.
I wasn't totally clued in for Webb's second half, but my impression was that that half or this first half would probably be the best performance by a referee thus far.
Good first half. Match in control, players playing. Hoping for a goal in the 2nd half to really get things going. Hoping Cakir can keep this going for another 45.
Should be a good 2nd half - IMO, both teams feel the need to get 3 pts from this match to have a realistic chance of advancing - to that end, I expect them both to be quite aggressive in the next 45. If it's a busy half and Cakir does well, he sets himself up for meaningful games later in the competition.
geeky post: anyone else notice some unusual mechanics 1) CR caught too close to the ball handler several times. (He has a good panic button to escape) 2) ARs spending a lot of time askew to the touchline 3) ARs not staying even with 2LD
I haven't been noticing the ARs much but yeah a couple times I saw Cakir a bit close. I think he might be just overrunning sometimes and misjudging when the players are gonna break.
Sweden scores while Ukrainian player is on the ground after a challenge. That's gonna be a talking point. No arguments from the Ukraine though, that's interesting. If it was any other team I'd expect them to be calling the World Court.
No soccer comment here, but is "K" the most used letter in Ukrainian names? I think every name I've seen on the back of a yellow jersey has "K" as the second-to-last letter.
The game is afoot now. This would be the game I would want to ref, end to end, excitement, home crowd, calls to make but it's not brutal. Just plain old fun. WHOA! AAR actually talking into his mic on that call against Ibra on the end line. They are real!
Great match, I liked especially at the end the Swedish coach walking out and thanking the refs. No chit chat just a shake of the hand and a thank you. Good stuff.
Shows guts to put an extra 1:20 on in addition to the announced added time when the co-hosts are winning by a single goal. It was the right decision, but in that environment it's still a tough one. He could have easily just gone 20 or 30 seconds and not gotten too many complaints. It's a small, simple thing that won't get noticed a lot--but that's only because no goal was scored. To me, it says a lot about the kind of referee Cakir is.