10 NEDKSA Díaz Vega

 

Manuel Díaz Vega faced a highly interesting football match as the Netherlands defeated Saudi Arabia only by virtue of an eighty-seventh minute winner; it could have been much worse for the Dutch team, they were one-nil down at halftime. The Spanish referee solved it all satisfactorily and had a decent game. That being said, it was not the best candidature for a further game either.

The biggest problem that Díaz Vega had was his rigidly central positioning. This impeded his ability to assess duels, especially those on the flanks of the pitch. His leadership style was not bad, but it was quite charisma-less and I don't think he had any more munition to shoot than that which he presented here (+ positioning, I don't think he could really increase his presence on demand). Opening caution for delaying the restart was not technically incorrect, but was not typical of an astute tactical approach in my view. 

I would support him not assessing incidents at 36' and 48' as Serious Foul Play (caution given) and Violent Conduct (assessed as an accident / missed) respectively.

Rather quiet afternoon for both linesmen - Valentin Ivanov and Sándor Márton running the line for the second time in two days - with the Russian with a very good raised flag at 41'. Sándor Puhl, in charge of Norway - Mexico, was a noticeably attentive fourth official who presented the same strict manner as he did as referee the day before. Puhl also cracked some smiles too and presented himself as reasonable at the same time. 

Manuel Díaz Vega - 8,3 Valentin Ivanov - 8,4 Sándor Márton - 8,4 Sándor Puhl ESP, RUS, HUN	Netherlands 2-1 Saudi Arabia Group Stage
van Gobbel (36') - Tackle F. de Boer (75') - Tackle	Al-Dosari (29') - Delaying the Restart Al-Jawad (32') - Tackle Amin (61') - Tackle