44 ECUCRO Mattus
HIGHLIGHTS
What a weird game - both nations had a chance to progress, and yet both played as if they were already eliminated, which they were thanks to the result of their game. Ecuador's celebrations, hardly excessive, showed that they had executed their plan to win their first World Cup game; Croatia on the other hand with a win would actually have gone through - they played a terrible match.
This game was hardly what William Mattus needed either: not an opportunity to show many skills, contrary to his (and Japan's) opener, and he joined Ecuador and Croatia in this being his last game. It was a good evening for the ideology of Busacca-ism (FIFA Refereeing c. WC 2010), which Mattus essentially practised. Referee from Costa Rica its central tenets: it makes boring games more interesting! Not a terribly poor performance, but Mattus did not show a preventative piece of refereeing (being involved as little as possible in every sense, but whilst staying in control), and it was fair all-things-considered that his competition ended here.
Both ARs, Miguel Giacomuzzi and Roland Van Nylen, made mistakes (68' and 83' respectively) but on the whole performed well.
What a weird game - both nations had a chance to progress, and yet both played as if they were already eliminated, which they were thanks to the result of their game. Ecuador's celebrations, hardly excessive, showed that they had executed their plan to win their first World Cup game; Croatia on the other hand with a win would actually have gone through - they played a terrible match.
This game was hardly what William Mattus needed either: not an opportunity to show many skills, contrary to his (and Japan's) opener, and he joined Ecuador and Croatia in this being his last game. It was a good evening for the ideology of Busacca-ism (FIFA Refereeing c. WC 2010), which Mattus essentially practised. Referee from Costa Rica its central tenets: it makes boring games more interesting! Not a terribly poor performance, but Mattus did not show a preventative piece of refereeing (being involved as little as possible in every sense, but whilst staying in control), and it was fair all-things-considered that his competition ended here.
Both ARs, Miguel Giacomuzzi and Roland Van Nylen, made mistakes (68' and 83' respectively) but on the whole performed well.
| William Mattus - 8,2 Miguel Giacomuzzi - 8,3 Roland Van Nylen - 8,3 Mark Shield (CRC, PAR, BEL) | Ecuador 1-0 Croatia Group Stage |
 Chalá (86.) - Tackle | Tomas (71.) - Lack of Respect (Holding) Šimunić (90.+2') - Unsporting Behaviour |
Looked like a game nobody really needed and while I liked that Mattus had clear signals and decisions, he was never really interested in taking charge. I wouldn't say he missed many cards: Most of his no card decisions were either not clear enough to say (3', 22', 49'), borderline (31', 37', 65', 84') or were not considered reckless back then (46').
ReplyDeleteI would argue he missed a penalty in Croatia for handball in +91' though. In my eyes, the defender clearly shields the ball with his arm and plays it while falling down - IMHO even intentional.
86' is a case of Serious Foul Play.
ReplyDelete