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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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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FIFA has a serious problem. There have been four goals wrongly disallowed for poor offside calls in the World Cup so far, and we’re not even out of the group stages. Four! They are: Two against Mexico (v. Cameroon) One against Switzerland (v. Ecuador) One against Bosnia and Herzegovina (v. Nigeria) The first three goal decisions did not change the
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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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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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Sunday should be a very quiet day for the referees, and there are no particularly huge games. Therefore, there are no particularly huge names. Of course, Switzerland are playing and that’s always huge as far as I’m concerned. My beloved La Nati have pulled Uzbekistan’s Ravshan Irmatov. He’s fairly well rated, so I’m optimistic. At least he’s not one of my
Read moreIt’s Sunday, so that means it’s time for me to make all your dreams come true. Or answer your refereeing questions. Either way. Still have questions? Try Ask Jenna, Parts the First and Second. 1.) Why were five minutes added to the Champions League Final? Still lots of questions about why Bjorn Kuipers added five minutes onto Real Madrid v.
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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 