Undoubtedly the biggest match – Atletico Madrid v. Juventus – goes to Dr. Dreamy himself – Dr. Felix Brych of Germany (above). Not only is the good doctor quite easy on the eyes, he’s a damn good referee, having officiated the last Europa League final and at the World Cup. My only hesitation is that Brych is not the paciest
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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
Read moreThe second semifinal of the World Cup will be officiated by Cuneyt Cakir of Turkey. This isn’t a huge surprise, for me, at least. Cakir’s well-respected by FIFA and he does have quite a bit of experience. He’s done pretty well in this tournament. Here’s what he’s been in: Brazil v. Mexico Algeria v. Russia Fourth official will be Jonas
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The final two games of the knockout stage showcased two pretty solid refereeing performances. Jonas Eriksson (Sweden), Argentina v. Switzerland Usual disclaimer: The Swiss are my boys and any referee starts at a disadvantage, even one of my favorites like Eriksson. I must say, he does tower over pretty much everyone on the pitch, and he doesn’t take a lot
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I appreciate the fact that FIFA has seen fit to give Switzerland two of my favorite referees of late: Bjorn Kuipers and now Sweden’s Jonas Eriksson (above). Djamel Haimoudi gets the Belgium v USA game, which I find a little bit surprising. The quarterfinal appointments should be quite interesting… Referee: Jonas Eriksson (SWE) Assistant Referee 1: Mathias Klasenius (SWE) Assistant Referee 2: Daniel
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Great performances from the referees today in some very physical and exciting games. Bakary Gassama (Gambia), Netherlands v. Chile First time I’ve seen Gassama (above), but I was fairly impressed with him. He was pretty good at foul detection, not missing much. These two teams are prone to, shall we say, over-exaggerating. He didn’t fall for much of that. Not
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It all starts to get real now; we’ll have four games a day until the end of the group stage. On Monday, we’ll see two newcomers and a couple of referees who’ve already seen action. Both Bakary Gassama of Gambia and Nawaf Shukralla of Bahrain get their first matches of the tournament, with Netherlands v. Chile and Australia v. Spain.
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Another great day of games in Brazil. Here are my thoughts on today’s referees: Milorad Mazic (SRB), Germany v. Portugal Mazic (above) is not a big guy, and he hasn’t been an Elite referee for very long, but he pretty much towered over this game. He called an early penalty for Germany after a tug in the box (more evidence
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The Atletico Madrid v. Chelsea Champions League semifinal will be officiated by The Big Swede: Jonas Eriksson. Eriksson has been very active in European action this season. In addition to some Europa league matches (including Tottenham’s), he refereed Manchester City v. Barcelona in the Group of 16 and Bayern Munich v. Manchester United in the quarterfinals. He’s performed pretty well in
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It’s the attack of the middle-aged bald(ing) referees for Champions League on Wednesday, April 9. Jonas Eriksson of Sweden will referee Bayern Munich v. Manchester United, and Howard Webb of England will officiate Atletico Madrid v. Barcelona. The last time Jonas Eriksson officiated a Manchester team in the Champions League, he had a really hard time of it (see above).
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