34 BELKSA Krug
Saeed Al-Owairan scored his famous goal, clinching Saudi Arabia more than the point they needed to go through, and consigning Belgium to a match with world champions Germany in the next round. Al-Owairan scored very early and he and his teammates stoically held on for a famous victory. It is hard to explain how neither nation scored again in an extremely frantic finish, but no matter for Saudi Arabia in the end.
Hellmut Krug was in charge of his second match of the competition, after a mostly satisfying performance in Italy - Norway. As in that match, Krug showed a sometimes exclusive view of when to punish contacts, a very astute use of cards - even if he missed one at 68' (and 23', 27'?) - and, this time, some deficiencies in being a charismatic leader on the pitch (interactions with players, body tension in gestures).
Overall - good. Ultimately, in my view, FIFA treated him fairly with appointments (he deserved a fourth official appearance in the knockout stages though).
Eugene Brazzale made a clear mistake in the first half to flag at 29', but was later correct at 76' to do so. Ernesto Taibi was not really tested.
| Hellmut Krug - 8,3 Eugene Brazzale - 8,2 Ernesto Taibi - 8,4 Francisco Lamolina GER, AUS, ARG | Belgium 0-1 Saudi Arabia Group Stage |
 Scifo (66') - Tripping Smidts (80') - SPA (Impeding) | Madani (3') - Tackle Falatah (77') - Simulation (Injury) |
Another decent performance by Krug with an inconsistent disciplinary line though. Madani was lucky to stay on the pitch after his studs/lunging tackle and Smidts' booking came about an hour late (and was quite soft). Apart from that, I would ignore that the uncarded foul by Van Der Elst (68') was actually SFP.
ReplyDeleteKrug was solid in his two games, I would have given him a knockout match for sure. Way poorer referees got some.