20 DENSEN Batres
HIGHLIGHTS
Wow! What an extremely feisty game that Carlos Batres had to face here. To square off all of the positive and negative facets of his performance is quite a big job! There were three important periods of the game:
Minutes 5' - 12'
Batres made a poor start to the game. He was correct to punish a reckless tackle at 7' with a caution, but he could have easily made a strong signal that he wouldn't tolerate tackles like that when a probably more reckless one was committed two minutes earlier; really surprisingly, he seemed to totally miss the situation.
Then, Batres then failed to recognise a problematic duel between Senegal no.10 and Denmark no.6, where the Denmark player was clearly successful in winding up his opponent who committed two violent conducts on him, the second one clearly visible, which Batres punished only with a caution. The latter incident triggered a mass confrontation: both were highly avoidable with preventative and tactically proficient refereeing.
Minutes 14' - 19'
Two incidents in the Senegal penalty area in quick succession - foul, and penalty, Denmark; disallowed goal, handling, Tomasson. Both calls were spot on in my view. In the latter scene, replays at first seem to suggest that Tomasson controlled the ball on his chest, but on closer inspection he uses the top of his bicep in order to achieve that. Batres looked out to his AR Ferenc Székely in the second scene - I wonder how well the referee could see the situation himself from a nearly zero angle. If the referee went only on his ARs flag, then that's an excellent call by the Hungarian. Well done.
Minutes 80' - 84'
The final intense period of the game was instigated by Senegal no.15 committing a brutal foul on his opponent. Batres was close, actually probably too close, but nonetheless sent him off, and quickly too, helping him keep control - excellent. The reckless tackle a minute later could have been avoided by punishing a pretty ugly-looking ball-playing tackle (in my view, an SFP) seconds before, but Batres again showed his worth by aggressively (read: brilliantly) breaking up a player-player conflict that had potential to trigger another mass confrontation. A strike by Denmark no.17 into his opponent's chest might actually better have been punished by a red rather than yellow card, but the referee did well to spot it at all.
There are further interesting scenes in the highlights including some more agricultural tackles, penalty appeals and an expertly managed small freekick at 36'.
For sure, this was the trickiest performance to assess so far in terms of marks, I decided on two possibilities: 7,6 or 7,8(2). All things considered, I think he did pretty well to keep a hand on everything that happened, and the accuracy of his crucial decisions in the medial eye (penalty given, disallowed goal, Red Card given) is the decisive factor in awarding the higher mark.
ARs did not have that many offside situations to assess. Székely's two came within a few seconds of each other, clearly correct at +46', just wrong at +47'. Visva Krishnan might have (very) wrongly raised his flag at 45', but the pictures do not offer us any help, as Batres had already awarded a defensive indirect freekick. AR from Singapore was correct when he flagged at 5'.
Wow! What an extremely feisty game that Carlos Batres had to face here. To square off all of the positive and negative facets of his performance is quite a big job! There were three important periods of the game:
Minutes 5' - 12'
Batres made a poor start to the game. He was correct to punish a reckless tackle at 7' with a caution, but he could have easily made a strong signal that he wouldn't tolerate tackles like that when a probably more reckless one was committed two minutes earlier; really surprisingly, he seemed to totally miss the situation.
Then, Batres then failed to recognise a problematic duel between Senegal no.10 and Denmark no.6, where the Denmark player was clearly successful in winding up his opponent who committed two violent conducts on him, the second one clearly visible, which Batres punished only with a caution. The latter incident triggered a mass confrontation: both were highly avoidable with preventative and tactically proficient refereeing.
Minutes 14' - 19'
Two incidents in the Senegal penalty area in quick succession - foul, and penalty, Denmark; disallowed goal, handling, Tomasson. Both calls were spot on in my view. In the latter scene, replays at first seem to suggest that Tomasson controlled the ball on his chest, but on closer inspection he uses the top of his bicep in order to achieve that. Batres looked out to his AR Ferenc Székely in the second scene - I wonder how well the referee could see the situation himself from a nearly zero angle. If the referee went only on his ARs flag, then that's an excellent call by the Hungarian. Well done.
Minutes 80' - 84'
The final intense period of the game was instigated by Senegal no.15 committing a brutal foul on his opponent. Batres was close, actually probably too close, but nonetheless sent him off, and quickly too, helping him keep control - excellent. The reckless tackle a minute later could have been avoided by punishing a pretty ugly-looking ball-playing tackle (in my view, an SFP) seconds before, but Batres again showed his worth by aggressively (read: brilliantly) breaking up a player-player conflict that had potential to trigger another mass confrontation. A strike by Denmark no.17 into his opponent's chest might actually better have been punished by a red rather than yellow card, but the referee did well to spot it at all.
There are further interesting scenes in the highlights including some more agricultural tackles, penalty appeals and an expertly managed small freekick at 36'.
For sure, this was the trickiest performance to assess so far in terms of marks, I decided on two possibilities: 7,6 or 7,8(2). All things considered, I think he did pretty well to keep a hand on everything that happened, and the accuracy of his crucial decisions in the medial eye (penalty given, disallowed goal, Red Card given) is the decisive factor in awarding the higher mark.
ARs did not have that many offside situations to assess. Székely's two came within a few seconds of each other, clearly correct at +46', just wrong at +47'. Visva Krishnan might have (very) wrongly raised his flag at 45', but the pictures do not offer us any help, as Batres had already awarded a defensive indirect freekick. AR from Singapore was correct when he flagged at 5'.
| Carlos Batres - 7,8(2) Ferenc Székely - 8,3 Visva Krishnan - 8,4 Kim Young-soo (GUA, HUN, SIN) | Denmark 1-1 Senegal Group Stage |
 Sand (7.) - Tackle Tomasson (20.) - Handling (Goal) Helveg (82.) - Tackle Poulsen (84.) - Striking | Fadiga (10.) - Unsporting Behaviour (Strike) Diao (62.) - Tackle |
 Diao (80.) - Serious Foul Play (Tackle) |
An absolute cracker of a match to referee, especially as I recall that amongst all these ill-tempered scenes there was lots and lots of football in it. I'll do this review in sub-points for more coherency.
ReplyDeleteManagement/Match control:
Very strong performance. Batres was firm, not scared to get involved and physical (11', 83') and it was what this game needed. He was no pushover and the players had to realize it early. Simply excellent DtR prevention in 36', very close to play at times (80', 84') but he was able to quickly intervene and dish out cards here. However, his gestures can be seen as inflaming, especially the "be quiet" finger across the mouth (8', 45'). It's part of his attitude and I guess the players got it, but it would never fly these days. It wasn't always great though, I wished for a stronger showing in 11' (dropping the card) and 63' (Danish player provokes and had to chastised for that).
Crucial scenes:
For me, missed VC in 10', only YC given for this kick. Situation could have been prevented by keeping a closer eye on these two players earlier, where Fadiga seemingly committed another VC after being provoked. Correct and fairly obvious penalty call in 15'. The handball in 20' is interesting, it looked more like the shoulder to me, but since the attacker obviously enlargens his body frame by pushing out the arm, calling this a handball is supportable at the very least. Both penalty appeals in 63' seemed to be solved with best solution: "play on". The tackle did not get the ball, but there is no clear evidence that it led to the SEN player's fall. The blocking in the middle was not obvious enough, although the flare up could have been solved better. Very good SFP decision later on.
Disciplinary:
I agree with all cautions given. However: Missed or potentially missed YCs (5', 11' [x2], 40', 46', 63', 64'), some for very late tackles. Scene in 82' could have been avoided if he whistled the earlier jumping tackle that seemingly got the ball as well. However, missed RC for VC in 10'. Diao could and should have been off earlier for several fouls.
Summary:
One crucial mistake (Missed VC) for me, otherwise some deductions for the disciplinary incosistency and smaller points for improvement in management. Bonus points for several correct or supportable crucial decisions, management and control in a tough-as-nails match. Not perfect, but a good showing in my eyes.