21 BELNED Marsiglia
Without doubt the most thrilling game of the tournament thus far - the Low Countries derby produced not only a high-level of football with lots of goal-scoring chances, but a dramatic conclusion where the result was not safe right until the very end. One of the most sonorous matches for the referee in charge, who was Renato Marsiglia from Brazil.
Marsiglia offered a performance which was not on a World Cup level and he actually lost control of the game in the final stages. Weak disciplinary choices and a poor foul detection meant that he made the players more and more anxious and time grew on, and the Netherlands had simply exploded at him by the end. The story then for how this afternoon went so wrong for the Brazilian referee.
Match
7' - an off the ball holding foul, good chance to issue a clear public admonition, but nothing from Marsiglia.
10' - correct freekick on the edge of the penalty area to the Netherlands. Theoretically a case of SPA but an unnecessary card which would inflame the match. Well seen.
12' - what seems to be a clearly incorrect freekick decision in a promising area for the Netherlands (the freekick itself as nearly scored) for an apparent handling. Most interesting is how Georges Grün's manner changes after a quick conversation with the Brazilian referee - do you think Marsiglia acted empathetically or threatened him with a caution for dissent.
16' - important situation where Marsiglia started to lose the players' trust. He is very focused on getting a trickier-than-normal throw-in call correct, and to be fair does detect the last touch correctly. However, his compatriot Paulo Alves had detected an offside which would void that throw-in. Marsiglia, out of shot, probably gives an indecisive impression before eventually calling the ball back presumably for an offside.
But, Marsiglia completely missed a hard, maybe even reckless charging foul, just before that (his focus moves on to watching the ball leave the field of play and misses it). So when Marsiglia calls the ball back for the offside, all the players seem to accept that he has come back for that foul (this would be the correct / optimal solution). Belgium players then get a great surprise when they realise Marsiglia is going to restart with a freekick for the Netherlands (offside).
Hardly crucial for the outcome of the match, but an important scene.
19' - a more careless than reckless tackle from behind yields the game's first caution. Given the FIFA directive, no problem with this call, but I think it would have been better if the Brazilian referee had held his nerve and just given a freekick.
20' - a clear tactical foul levels the cards at 1-1. A perfect opening caution...
38' - a careless foul which has small arguments for SPA brings a yellow card for Vim Jonk. No card would without doubt have been the better call here.
41' - careless foul from behind; correct freekick and no card.
+47' - does Dennis Bergkamp kick out there? One wonder whether a different (Mexican) referee might have decided differently to Marsiglia.
Halftime
47' - quite hard charging foul from behind, I would still assess it as careless though. Marsiglia's card-or-nothing approach starts to fail him here, some kind of warning or reaction was required here really.
49' - a (deliberate?) careless kick by Robert Witschge sees Marsiglia admonish him with a yellow card. The foul at 47' was worse than this.
50' - Josip Weber unsuccessfully tries to win a penalty, Marsiglia correctly sees through what the Belgium tries to do. A firm word also would not have gone a miss here, much less a smily chat.
56' - having already shot his only munition (cards), Brazilian starts to find himself in trouble, borderline SPA (impeding) foul leaves him powerless. No verbal warning really possible, and a caution probably too much given the (lesser) ones he'd given before.
60' - off the ball VC offence?
66' - goal! One-nothing to Belgium.
81' - Frank Rijkaard challenges the referee's authority by kicking the ball away; he is correctly cautioned. Marsiglia is now playing for time. Showing procedure was a bit weak for my taste, it is a dissent card after all!
82' - highly interesting scene! Polish linesman Michał Listkiewicz flags for a handling offence by the Netherlands goalkeeper that if whistled would result in his dismissal. Brazilian referee very bravely waves that flag down. Ultimately I would say that Marsiglia's decision was more correct.
82' - highly interesting scene! Polish linesman Michał Listkiewicz flags for a handling offence by the Netherlands goalkeeper that if whistled would result in his dismissal. Brazilian referee very bravely waves that flag down. Ultimately I would say that Marsiglia's decision was more correct.
Goalkeeper's handling one could even argue is fully deliberate. But I would argue: it was instinctive; it made his body size smaller, and if not hitting his arms, it simply would have hit his chest. But I hardly think Listkiewicz was wrong to flag either. Very tricky situation, which both officials solved correctly according to their role (linesman wanted to draw the ref's attention to a 'clear' handling, which the referee then assessed more according to the Laws of the Game).
Shaking his finger in the air at Listkiewicz should be avoided though, and might have made for an awkward debrief.
88' - Marsiglia lost it here. Having awarded a freekick to the Netherlands for handling when the ball struck the Belgium player's face, the Oranje start an attack. Rudi Smidts then charges Marc Overmars in the vicinity of the Brazilian linesman Paulo Alves, who seems to flag in the Netherlands' favour. However, it seems he just changed the hand he flagged in in order to more clearly clearly signal to his compatriot in the middle that he had detected a handling offence.
The attacking freekick which the players thought Marsiglia had blown for was accepted by everyone. Netherlands totally exploded when they realised that the Brazilian had ordered instead a freekick to Belgium. Bergkamp leads a furious and very aggressive dissent which Marsiglia deals with awfully as a leader, though at least the protagonist of the mobbing is booked.
89' - referee is no longer in control. A very clear SPA foul is deemed not worthy of sanction.
+91' - at the end of everything, should Marsiglia have awarded the Netherlands a penalty? Well - frame-by-frame analysis shows the ball did strike the arm that Bergkamp claimed it did. The nature of his appeal though supports that such an accidental handling was not a mandatory penalty in 1994.
Fulltime - Belgium win 1-0!
Balance
Step-by-step, Renato Marsiglia lost first the trust and then the respect of the players. He could mostly get away with it in a football-focused match for the most part, but he lost it at the end. His foul detection was simply not on a World Cup level, and neither was his disciplinary control. A rather sad state of affairs that Marsiglia was apparently the best Brazil could offer in 1994. In the three World Cups previous they had sent Arnaldo Cézar Coelho, Romualdo Arppi Filho and José Roberto Wright respectively.
It was reported by a well-sourced Italian newspaper that the leader of the World Cup 1994 refereeing operation, Paolo Casarin, that he wanted to remove Marsiglia as well as Leslie Mottram after their first matches (indeed, they are the only referees to be marked below 7,8 so far by me), but the Scottish chairman of the Referees Committee David Will and FIFA President João Havelange successfully argued against it.
It was an equally poor afternoon for a man who reached the pinnacle in 1990 - Michał Listkiewicz ran the line in the World Cup final, but his performance in this game was simply poor. Four important-to-crucial mistakes is not acceptable, even if they were in crossover situations. Paulo Alves correctly disallowed a goal at 37', amongst a calmer afternoon for the man from Brazil.
I would careful to criticise them too harshly - this was the second game in two days for Alves and Listkiewicz. Over two-hundred people in the stadium during Mexico - Republic of Ireland had to be treated for heat-related problems (eight went to hospital), and they weren't officiating the game. Forty-three degrees celsius that day, a mere thirty-nine celsius on this. As I said before, a squad of twenty-two linesmen was simply not enough for this tournament in the vast United States.
| Renato Marsiglia - 7,7 Paulo Alves - 8,4 Michał Listkiewicz - 7,6 Kurt Röthlisberger BRA, BRA, POL | Belgium 1-0 Netherlands Group Stage |
 Borkelmans (20') - SPA (Impeding) | Wouters (19') - Tackle Jonk (38') - SPA (Tripping) Witschge (49') - Tackle Rijkaard (81') - Dissent Bergkamp (88') - Dissent |
Marsiglia with a rather poor performance unfortunately, although I think he wasn't necessarily a bad referee. His disciplinary choices were inconsistent, his foul detection bad and his communication skills did not work in this match as a result of the first two points. He "survived" this match - thanks to no crucial mistakes we can clearly assess albeit two could have been.
ReplyDeleteI find your analysis of the 82' situation to be lacking because it ignores the context. If a defender jumped at an attacker in that way and used his hands to defend his chest, perhaps you'd have an argument (I still would disagree, I believe). But the important point here is it is a goalkeeper, charging well off his line and outside his penalty area, in a breakaway (DOGSO) situation. The goalkeeper knows what he's doing. He knows the risk he has taken. He does not get to the ball first and he appears to use his hands in a deliberate fashion to strike a shot toward goal.
ReplyDeleteThat's a red card. Everyone knows that's a red card. The fact that the shot likely would have struck his chest anyway is irrelevant. Football expects a red card. It expects it today and it expected it then!
Now, my one caveat is that the two camera angles are poor. If Marsiglia waved the flag down because he felt the assessment that the hand actually struck the ball was wrong, that one be one thing. But if he watched this play in totality, saw handball contact, and STILL waved the flag down? That is very, very bad.
It's interesting - I would note every point you raise I would also do so myself, but I would argue it the other way!
DeleteFrom my perspective the goalkeeper has to leave his goal (and penalty area) in order to make the angle harder for the attacker and he can't really do more than he has in order to NOT handle the ball. The fact it likely would have hit his chest does remain significant IMO, especially as a goalkeeper but generally as a human being, you can't move your arms out of the ball as a ball is flying towards your chest.
Maybe we could summarise this discussion as practical ("everyone expects, even 'knows' this a RC") vs. philosophical?
//
What was even more interesting, at least IMO, is how this brilliantly touches on the different pysches of being AR and referee:
- If I were AR then I would have certainly flagged the offence as Listkiewicz did; "hey look ref, he handled it outside the box!".
- But as referee, I would have played on as Marsiglia did (in your view wrongly, but) assessing the handling as not deliberate.
That all despite me seeing the situation exactly the same, just being in different roles!
For me anyway it was an interesting nuance :)