Pedro Proenca (Portugal), Netherlands v. Mexico As always when the Dutch play, this match threatened to descend into violence early. Proenca (above) is a good referee for that sort of thing. He doesn’t have the imposing visage of a Howard Webb or Bjorn Kuipers, nor does he have the temper of a Nicola Rizzoli. He’s just a very calm referee and
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The second day of knockout stage action is a good one if you are a female fan of the referees. Two lookers up: Pedro Proenca of Portugal and Ben Williams of Australia. I must say, I’m pleasantly surprised to see Williams. I thought he did really well in his last outing, with great fitness and foul detection and a good red
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Steven Defour’s straight red card was the typical “miss the ball, get the player with your studs” challenge we’ve seen punished over and over in this World Cup. Though there was a moment when it looked like Australian referee Ben Williams wouldn’t actually send the Belgian off, he produced the card in short order. At least the referees are calling
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Honestly, none of the referees blew me away today with their awesomeness. And a couple of them did some really, really strange things… Ravshan Irmatov (Uzbekistan), USA v Germany In a game shadowed with rumors of match fixing, I really expected the referee to come out swinging and call the game very tight. Irmatov did the opposite. I saw him
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Yay! Switzerland get Bjorn Kuipers!! When my Suisse play France on Friday, we’ll have the very best in the middle. Kuipers (above), a supermarket owner from the Netherlands, put on a masterclass in his inaugural game: England v. Italy. He’s a “by the book” kind of referee, but we’re a “by the book” kind of team, so that should work out
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 