Wednesday may be Tax Day in America, but at least there’s some decent Champions League matches to offset it. England’s Mark Clattenburg (above) continues his march to the big time with the marquee matchup: Paris St. Germain v. Barcelona. This is a bit of a risk for me, since my friend and rabid PSG fan, France (not his real name), will blame me
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Some big games this week, and some equally big refereeing names to officiate. Because there is so much going on, I’m trying a slightly different format for this post. CSKA Moskva – FC Bayern München Referee: William Collum (SCO) Assistant Referee 1: William Conquer (SCO) Assistant Referee 2: Graham Chambers (SCO) Collum’s actually been called on by UEFA quite a
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They’re back! In case you didn’t get enough of Dr. Dreamy and Mr. Smooth in the World Cup, the boys are back in town. That’s right, there will be playoffs for Champions League spots across Europe on Tuesday, and some of UEFA’s top referees will be in the middle. Chief amongst them will be The Man Himself, Nicola Rizzoli of
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It is now official. Here are the remaining refereeing teams for the 2014 World Cup. The next semifinal, third place playoff and final referee will come from this list. Ravshan Irmatov (UZB) Yuichi Nishimura (JPN) Djamel Haimoudi (ALG) Noumandiez Doue (CIV) Marco Rodriguez (MEX) Mark Geiger (USA) Enrique Osses (CHI) Carlos Vera (ECU) Sandro Ricci (BRA) Cuneyt Cakir (TUR) Jonas
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Note: My somewhat lame only “bright side” to Carlos Velasco’s performance in Brazil v. Colombia was that no one had a broken leg. Unfortunately, it now appears that Neymar has a broken vertebrae and will miss the rest of the World Cup. That challenge – which went unpunished – was the direct result of very poor refereeing and lack of control
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And, we’re off! The two referees for the first quarterfinal games have been announced. Nestor Pitana of Argentina (above) will take France and Germany, and Carlos Velasco Carballo of Spain will get Brazil and Colombia. I’ve been especially impressed with Pitana in this tournament, so not a surprise to see him. Velasco has been solid, if not overly inspiring, but
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I only covered two matches today. If you watched the other matches, feel free to leave your thoughts on the referees below. Nicola Rizzoli (Italy), Nigeria v. Argentina Yes, I have an enormous schoolgirl crush on Nicola Rizzoli (above), but these are the days when he reminds us of what a great referee he is. His fitness was great, allowing
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Wednesday is a very interesting day, front loaded as it is with three generally well-respected referees who’ve done well in this tournament and may well see later matches: Nicola Rizzoli of Italy, Carlos Velasco of Spain and Nestor Pitana of Argentina. We (Switzerland) get the mighty Pitana – mighty because he’s a damn good ref and also because he is enormous.
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Two of refereeing’s old guard – Howard Webb of England (above) and Carlos Velasco of Spain – came out to play today. One performed well, and one performed…well…. Howard Webb (ENG), Colombia v. Ivory Coast Webb reminded us today why he’s one of the best. He was nigh on perfect the first half, keeping his cards in his pockets but
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The most controversial moment of the 2-1 Uruguayan victory over England came at around 30 minutes. Daniel Sturridge was sprinting down the sideline toward goal, pursued by Uruguay captain Diego Godin. In what appeared to be a cynical attempt to stop the run of play, Godin reached out and slapped Sturridge in the throat, elbow first. The professional foul worked,
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 