37 GERBEL Röthlisberger

Germany defeated Belgium by three goals to two in an exciting match to initiate the knockout phase of the World Cup. The match was played in a rather alien setting for this tournament, which probably helped the two oldest teams in the competition play a highly exciting match - it was pretty chilly in Chicago!

A stark contrast then to the searing heat of Kurt Röthlisberger's first game, the well-delivered Mexico - Republic of Ireland tie. Swiss referee, thus far a candidate for the final, made one of the most (in)famous mistakes of the tournament - missing a penalty for Belgium and an ensuing dismissal for the Germany offender. Rest of his performance was pretty good, but no matter: Röthlisberger was out. 

Let's start by looking at that missed penalty.

Key Match Incident

70' - Penalty to Belgium? DOGSO?

At first - the correct solution here is a penalty to Belgium and a Red Card for Thomas Helmer (DOGSO). 

Josip Weber gets wrong side of the pair of Germany defenders, and one of them, Thomas Helmer, panics, and gives Weber a shove which causes him to lose his co-ordination and balance. Referee Röthlisberger decides to play on - incorrectly (crucial mistake) as the Swiss man later admitted. 

There are four further interesting points to discuss here:

Referee's Position? 

Röthlisberger is actually pretty unlucky to be caught well behind play here. Belgium take the goalkick quickly, seeing that there is lots of free space in order to make a promising attack. To the Swiss referee's credit, he realises that and starts high intensity running to keep up with play. 

However, he makes the mistake of trying get near where the ball is and not where the ball will be. There are no Belgium attackers on the near side, optimally, he should start moving into the right diagonal, realising that a ball was going to be played long. 

(for young referees - if you are caught as Röthlisberger is here, my strong advice would be focus on running left, as insight angles are generally more beneficial than being a little bit closer per se; at least that is what I do in my games :))

Röthlisberger is more unlucky than anything else positionally, but he could have maximised his chances to improve his insight angle better.

Contact at the feet?

Perhaps, another part of why Röthlisberger took the wrong decision here was looking in the wrong place. In these sorts of situations, it is much likely there is going to be an accidental tripping offence than an expedient push - like the one Helmer succeeded in executing. 

Though, the clue should have been: why would Weber have dived here, with such a clear chance on goal...

Linesman?

Running the line on that side, was the experienced Pole, Michał Listkiewicz. It is easier to draw such a conclusion in this era of assistant referees but I think the World Cup 1990 Final linesman should have helped his teammate here. Listkiewicz despite being quite far away has a really good insight into Helmer's push, and seeing how far away Röthlisberger was (he was barely inside the Germany half), should have realised he needed to take the lead for the referees team here. 

So, a crucial mistake for Listkiewicz too in my book. Indeed, as Röthlisberger, he was not appointed for another match after this one. 

And dissent?

Belgium players protested wildly at Röthlisberger, to such extent he probably had to adapt his running path to avoid running into them. Belgium players would have totally exploded, if they didn't anyway, if the referee had stopped the game and sanctioned them - though, that is what he should have indeed done.

Balance

Röthlisberger on the whole handled this fast-flowing game well with his particular style. Unlike his first game in plus-forty degree heat, he could follow play much more closely in this game, even if he wasn't the best athlete at the tournament. He showed some small deficiencies in managing the game, eg. how he solved dissents resulting from the caution to Martin Wagner. Swiss referee benefitted a lot from his tall stature, but did not use at as the thesis of his style, as Bo Karlsson did. 

Rather quiet afternoon with regards to assessing offsides save for five busy minutes at the end of the second half for Carl-Johan Christensen (quite how FIFA determined referee-linesman teams for the knockout games is real mystery; the two Australians were at Mikkelsen's side for his Round of Sixteen game), in which he made an important mistake. 

Kurt Röthlisberger - 7,9(3) Michał Listkiewicz - 7,9(4) Carl-Johan Christensen - 8,2 Manuel Díaz Vega SUI, POL, DEN	Germany 3-2 Belgium Round of Sixteen
Helmer (12') - Tackle Wagner (37') - SPA (Handling)	Albert (38') - Tackle