Whistleblower

Third night in front of the Euro 2008 and so far not much to say - except the Italians have gone berserk over the dutch 1-0-goal tonight.
I have to say: Fröjdfeldt made the right decision to allow the goal.
Think about the consequences if that had been flagged as an offside: We would have one freaky kind of new offside trap - the one where the defense players start throwing themselves off the field as to "not count" as markers of the defense line. When Nistelrooy scored, he was behind the defense line, aka the italian lying on the grass behind the goal. That's how it is.

On another note: Why didn't Pieter Vink throw out that Austrian #4, Emanuel Pogatetz, yesterday ... what was the guy on? The player I mean...

And on yet another note, thanks to Tom Henning Øvrebø for the cute little-league gesture of letting the polish player retake the throw-in that he dropped on the touch line...

 

 

 

The talk of the day is Eric Braamhaar, the dutch referee.

See video

When Ajax scored a goal against PSV in the dutch league yesterday, he was seen cheering. Well, it might have looked weird if you don't understand what ref had gone through, but the thing is, you can be pretty sure that a ref doesn' go out in a national league game and cheer because one team scored a goal over the other.

What you should know is that the three refs are a team of their own and when they have a good game and make the right decisions, that gives them real kicks.

This is what happened in this case:

Ajax's De Mul was hit by a PSV player but his team managed to keep the ball. This is one of the difficult decisions for a ref: Is there a better advantage for the team if they get a free kick, or if they can continue playing? Braamhaar let them keep playing, and so did the assisting referee, by putting their arms forward. When the decision turned out right, and Ajax scored, Braamhaar turned to his AR and cheered: YES!

The only thing he did wrong was to lose his pokerface a bit – a ref should not be caught cheering because it might give the wrong impression, hence the big debate yesterday and today.

But sorry folks, you didn't catch him supporting Ajax.

You only caught him supporting his own ref team because they read the game well and were right on with their work.

 

 

... As does David Elleray, former referee.

Times online: World Cup cheats have damaged game

It's the players and coaches, not (only) the referees, who bear responsibility for the beauty of the game. A I said in a previous post: How come the players do everything to con the referee, and then get mad when he gets conned? The same goes for the coaches who often have successful cheating as a theme for many of the training camps.

Well, England is out against Portugal and thank goodness Elizondo did a good game. Too bad though that we know it's not enough when it comes to the English. They're probably gonna fuss about Rooneys card. I can imagine the English fans don't care about the fact that no one of them actually heard what kind of verbal abuse Rooney had piled up this time - even though English press has reported that it's normal for mr. Rooney to say "fuck you" to the ref about 25 times in one game. Just kick him out! The brat needs to learn.

I just hope Elizondo doesn't need two bodyguards tonight. That was what Urs Meier needed after the England-Portugal game in the Portugal 2004, after he disallowed an english goal. He made a correct call, but his life was destryed by english fans and press. Urs Meier begged Uefa to put pictures on their website of the incident when Terry was obstructing goalie Ricardo, something that made Meier disallow the goal. I suppose not many English had put their glasses on that day, that blind people. Weird, since Terry himself knew exactly what he had done: He was the only one who didn't celebrate the goal - instead he turned to look at Meier. So, he knew...! He could have told the fans, too, before they started harrassing Meier even around his house in Switzerland, probably the most awful abuse aganst a referee ever after a European Cup game.

"Usually we have one bodyguard per three refs when we leave the game. Now there was two only for me", Meier recalls.

Doesn't anyone think it's too much with one bodyguard for the refs?
Without the English it probably would'nt be needed at all.
Strange how that country is still allowed around civilized football events.

So now, may the force be with you now, Elizondo, and don't read the English press tomorrow. It's all written by .. the English, anyway.

One thing that definitely should be cardedin the World Cup is that annoying tendency of players who tap the ref on the shoulder, sort of thanking him for carding the other team. I've seen Germans do it twice now. Podolski tapped Carlos Simon when he flashed the red for Swedish Lucic, and today it was Lubos Michel who got tapped by a German. Michel did a good game otherwise - even though Ballack should definitely have been cautioned for that blatant acting - but I would be satisfied to see cautions also for the shoulder-tapping. It's bad sportsmanship.

 

If we need more card sthere, we certainly nedd less in the history of Graham Poll... because he is history now. Graham Poll announces he is quitting, because of the incident when he cautioned the same player thrice in the same game. "I could'n sleep at night", comments Poll. 

These are the referees in the quarter final. I'm happy to see Lubos Michel still going strong. Maybe he'll make it far. Luis Medina Cantalejo has also been trusted by FIFA, even though many fans of the "socceroos" can't forgive him (see my previous post).

Germany-Argentina: Lubos Michel, Slovakia
Italy-Ukraine: Frank De Bleeckere, Belgium.
England-Portugal: Horacio Elizondo, Argentina.
Brazil-France: Luis Medina Cantalejo, Spain.

Two games are maybe gonna be argued about when it comes to choosing refs:
An argentinian team for England-Portugal, even though England and Argentina are historical enemies both in football and beyond. And a Spanish team for Brazil-France, right after Spain lost to France in a game where the spanish feel the second french goal, after Zidande's free kick, was granted by the ref for an incident where Henry allegedly dived.

These are the twelve referees still with us for the quarters, semis and the final. Note that Valentin Ivanov is gone, and also Carlos Simon who was critizised by the Swedes and by others for smiling maliciously in a pretty non-neutral manner when he gave Swedish defense player Teddy Lucic a red card.

Toru Kamikawa, Japan
Coffi Codjia, Benin
Benito Archundia, Mexico
Horacio Elizondo, Argentina
Jorge Larrionda, Uruguay
Mark Shield, Australia
Massimo Busacca, witzerland
Frank de Bleeckere, Belgium
Luis Medina, Spain
Markus Merk, Germany
Lubos Michel, Slovakia
Roberto Rosetti, Italy

Since spanish referee Luis Medina-Cantelejo has been critiziced a lot for granting Italy the last minute penalty kick I think I have reason to explain something about the nature of a penalty kick.

Ask yourself: If Neill’s foul on Grosso had happened outside the penalty box, and resulted in a free kick - had it been controversial. No. But when it results in a penalty kick, it's sudedenly called a "harsch decision" by the referee.

But people: It's not the harschness of the foul, nor the harschness of the ref or ref's decision, that makes it a penalty kick. It's the fact that it happened WITHIN THE BOX. This, and only this, is the criteria for a foul to give a penalty kick. The foul in itself should not be any different than one that gives a free kick.

 

.....!!!!!

... That's about everything I can start to say even if I've had a whole day to think after the record breaking Portugal-Holland game. Referee Valentin Ivanov's amount of cards was record breaking in World Cup history; 16 cards, four reds. There's no doubt this will be the end of Ivanov's cup since he's now too argued about and too distressed to take more games, after all, a meltdown like this has never been seen before and inevitably bears his name no matter what.

But after clearing my head I'm not so sure focusing only on the ref is fair. Yes, Ivanov could have avoided the worst heat by being absolutely consistent. I'm sure many portuguese players became irritated when the first yellow card came within only minutes, and the second soon after for a foul that forced Christiano Ronaldo to leave the pitch later with an injured thigh, a foul which gave only a caution even though it could have been a red if you compare it to those later in the game. Ivanov actually mostly followed the strict style of refereeing that has gained some thanks in the cup (if you don't believe me: notice that e.g. shirt-pulling has been a rare phenomenon because of the strict way of calling those), but his mistake was to miss a couple of incidents similar to those he had called.

Referees are always told that if the spirit of the game gets bad, you could always have saved it earlier.
Too many cards are a sign that the ref has lost his touch, it's said. This has also been said about Ivanov. He should have had a better way with the players, better communication, better spirit and so on.

But is it so?

I'm writing the question mark since this is supposed to be the World Cup. The ref's responsibility for the level of fury in the game might be an issue in a junior game, but come on. With the world's best adult players - is it REALLY the ref who: 1) makes a team captain like Figo smack his opponent with his forehead right behind the ref's back; 2) makes a player take advantage of a drop ball that has been granted under the unwritten rules of fair play, like when Holland was granted the drop ball by Portugal who expected to have it softly played or even get it back like it usually goes. This is something the referee can't do anything about, since the ref doesn't have a role when the players grant each other drop balls as part of gentlemanship. If the players want to be childish - does he have to become a daddy for them? Like a referee said in another forum: When the players always try to con the referee - how the hell do they have the nerve to get mad when he gets conned?

Since everything got out of hand there's really nothing to do about the amount of cards. To say that he should have avoided giving out so many is impossible - if the going gets mad, the mad comes around, so to speak. He handed out the cards according to the rules, so softening the line here is no answer.

Marco van Basten crowned the childishness by saying the ref didn't allow them to play football. Hello! Did you see the game? The dutch kept passing the ball amongst themselves on their own side of the field for about a third of the game! Ivanov wasn't behind that crap.

If it was a poor game by the Russian official, I have to add that it was an embarrassingly sh*tty performance by the dutch, and an even more embarrassing lack of dignity shown by a team captain (Figo with his skull) in a world cup.

Grow up!

PS. In my last post, I hoped the russian would be reffing the final This won't happen now. My two other favourites are Ruiz and Michel.

Yesterday the Swedish coach Lagerbäck went out in the press with a stupid comment before the Sweden-Germany game. He said - because the referee is likely to be extremely pressed by the German home audience - he kindly advices FIFA to put in "a referee with lots of experience of big games".  Huuh!!? Wait, let's see! We've picked the best dozen in the world and arranged extra training for the cup. Wonder if we can find anyone! Oh, nope, there's no one on earth that can match the glorious Lagerbäck's enquiry, so let's scan the rest of the universe.

I know, many would say the same as him, but in retrospect, for someone with a team that does such a horrible game with so many mistakes it's ugly - and especially since he continued the ref-bashing afterwards: Blaming the two warnings for defence player Teddy Lucic. When Germany had about fifty-to-one in the shots against goal stats. But, as we know, the referee is the one who meddles with the game, not the bad team...

It's time for a look at the refs so far since we're over the group phase.

Biggest disappointment: Graham Poll, England. You can be one of the top-three in Europe, likeable and respected, but you just don't give a player three yellow cards in one game (!) Yes, the fourth ref could have noticed, or someone, but on this level, it's ... incredible.

Best habitus: Oscar Ruiz Acosta, Colombia. If I was to draw a referee as a cartoon hero he 'd look like this. Steady, doesn't talk much, wide jaw and impeckable hair that seems painted on the scalp. On second thought, I don't know if I've seen him talk at all, so he's of the classic kind. The best latin american ref.

Best speed: Lubos Michel, Slovakia. Must have been Fred Astaire in a previous life. The fastest one, and in a dancing manner. Fast on the whistle. Gains respect that way.

Best placement: Marco Rodriguez, Mexico. He seems to always stand next to the one committing a foul. In front of you, behind you, beside you. Gains respect that way.

Most likeable: Markus Merk, Germany. Takes to smiles, laughter and chit-chat ( but not that weird, evil smile Carlos Simon flashed for the said Lucic). AND he's a well-doer. He has his own charity Kaiserslautern India Aid and spends part of the year in India helping kids. Bless his heart ;) No, really, he's officially voted best referee in the world two years in a row. And you can see the players respond well to him.

Most likely to referee the final: Well, well...! I put my bet on someone with classical qualities, you know, the oldfashioned teacher-like guy, maybe someone who a ctually is a teacher; soemone who is reffing his last championships due to an age creeping close to the deadline of 45 years; someone with reputability to his name; and someone from a country whose team doesn't make it far - like a country that isn't even in the cup finals: I say Valentin Ivanov, Russia.