Djamel Haimoudi of Algeria has been appointed as the referee for the third place playoff between Brazil and Netherlands, to take place on Saturday. He will be assisted by Redouane Achik and Abdelhak Etchiali. Fourth official will be Yuichi Nishimura of Japan. I feel like this is a little bit of a surprise, though he did fairly well in the games I
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
Today, we saw arguably the best refereeing performance of the World Cup so far … and arguably the worst. Milorad Mazic (SRB), Argentina v. Iran FIFA really loves Mazic (above), that much is clear. I think he’s usually a pretty good referee, but I haven’t been quite so enamoured of him as they are. He was a bit hit or
Read more
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
Read more
First of all, let me start off by saying I’m partial to this referee. And not just because he’s a hottie. I’ve watched him in Serie A and Europe for literally years, and I love his style. So there’s that. I also thought he pretty much kicked ass in this game; his demeanor, his utter lack of patience (he really
Read more
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 more
PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 