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
Read moreHere’s a special edition of “Ask Jenna”, World Cup style! As always, these questions are all in random order and the answers are just made up. 1.) “Who’s the sexy World Cup referee?” (Actual quote.) Yeahhhhh…..that’d be Felix: 2.) How does the vanishing spray actually vanish? You know, I don’t really know. Nor does anyone else. Everything you read about it just
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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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UPDATE: Cuneyt Cakir (above) of Turkey has been announced as referee for Brazil v Mexico. As of this moment (9am Pacific Time), the referee has not been officially announced by FIFA for the Brazil v. Mexico game. For all the talk swirling of Brazil getting an easy ride from the referees in the opener and Mexico have at least one, and
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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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As the first full day of group games wraps up, here are my thoughts on the World Cup referees: Wilmar Roldan (Colombia), Mexico v. Cameroon – The talk of this match are the two Mexico goals that were disallowed for offside. Though Mexico ended up winning 1-0, the disallowed goals were a huge talking point. The truth is, though, Roldan actually
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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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PLAY THE ADVANTAGE 