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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These appointments came quite late compared to the other appointments, which usually came early in the morning two days before the match was played. The one other exception: Brazil’s second match against Mexico. Officials had been accused of favoritism in Brazil’s first game, including a soft penalty, and had disallowed two onside goals for Mexico. Cuneyt Cakir was announced for
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Yesterday was an exciting day (who knew Iranians were so passionate about football?), and exciting in the refereeing world is never good. Today was much more calm. Dr. Felix Brych (GER), Belgium v. Russia Brych (above) was his usually dreamy, yet insouciant, self. He just mostly loped around the pitch, looking pretty, but not really being tested too much. The first half
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All the ladies will be glad to know that Dr. Dreamy is back! Yes, Dr. Felix Brych of Germany will referee Belgium v Russia. These teams have everything to fight for, but after shaky outings for each expect it to be ugly. At least the referee won’t be. (I love the above photo, from dw.de. He looks like he’s posing
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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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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 