Well, this was an exciting match, wasn’t it? Milorad Mazic, the Serbian who has taken refereeing by storm the last few years, had complete control over this match from the start, physical pushing players around (mostly Portuguese players) when they got out of hand. But, like it or not, he had a big impact on the game with two calls
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We have our first repeat referee of the tournament, and it’s a bit of a delightful surprise: Mark Geiger of USA. As I mentioned earlier, Geiger really impressed in his inaugural performance between Colombia and Greece (above) and I expected to see him again. But not quite so soon, and in quite so big of a game. Spain v. Chile
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Ravshan Irmatov (UZB), Switzerland v. Ecuador – I’ll be completely honest: I support Switzerland, so I’m biased. But I do sympathize with fans of teams like Croatia and Mexico, who’ve been hard done by referees, because Irmatov’s team were pretty awful. I counted no less than three Ecuadorian handballs in the box, without a single call of any kind on any of
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Luckily, the referees appear to have moved past their nervy start and the four referees today performed admirably. There was one big penalty call and a red card (both from Felix Brych in Uruguay v. Costa Rica) but neither could really be disputed. Mark Geiger (USA), Colombia v. Greece – Geiger did really, really well. Very solid performance, and he looked very
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The big game Monday is undoubtedly the Clash of the Group G Titans: Germany and Portugal. These two are expected to battle it out for supremacy in the group, with Germany an early favorite to reach the final. In yet another nod to how highly FIFA thinks of him, Milorad Mazic has been given this game. Mazic has only been
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The group stage gets started in earnest on Saturday with four matches. Arguably the biggest (at least in terms of attention) will be England v. Italy. Bjorn Kuipers of the Netherlands has been given the reigns of that one. Kuipers (above) had a solid Champions League Final, despite popular perception, and his strength in man management makes him a good
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On this, the opening day of the World Cup, I thought I’d take a moment to talk about what is really important when it comes to the referees: Hotness. Yes, there are some right cuties amongst the 33 center referees this year, and I would be amiss if I didn’t point them out to you. So, welcome to Jenna’s Top Five
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The referees for the first two days are a very pancontinental bunch, with one referee each from Asia, Africa, South America and Europe. Friday sees one of the biggest matchups of the early stages: Spain v. Netherlands. This repeat of the 2010 final will have huge implications for how the tournament shapes up, and has been given to Italy’s Nicola
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FIFA has put up short YouTube videos of each of the center referees who will participate in the World Cup in Brazil beginning this Thursday. They’re pretty fascinating and a great way to get to know these men who will have such an impact on the tournament. The referees themselves are pretty adorable. And because I know you’re dying to know,
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Here’s a very interesting interview with the head of FIFA’s refereeing, former Swiss referee Massimo Busacca. It breaks down his thought process on not only how to prepare referees, but how he thinks of refereeing as a whole. Busacca was one of the great Swiss referees, and has made some pretty substantial changes at FIFA since he arrived. Among them are
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