45 ITAESP Puhl
Italy performed another act of escapology to reach the last four of World Cup 1994 - down and very nearly out against Spain in their quarterfinal, Roberto Baggio calmly took the ball past Andoni Zubizareta and squeezed the ball in to win the game with extra time looming large. Julio Salinas' miss of an easier chance some minutes earlier ultimately cost his nation; a golden chance for Salinas, and Spain, had passed.
Sándor Puhl was amongst the nine referees who remained after FIFA's pre-quarterfinal cull, and the Hungarian was seen to have a very decent shout of handling the final itself. Puhl faced one of the most challenging matches of the tournament here and offered - if I may say so - a very weak performance which in some quarters may have been seen as acceptable.
As time ticked away and the Hungarian referee looked like he was going to survive, disaster struck in the last minutes. Anarchy reigned and Puhl totally lost his grip on proceedings; his dream of handling the final was evaporating into thin air - or at least it should have been. After Brizio Carter and Al-Sharif, apparently it was Puhl who had the right idea.
Let's start by analysing the high volume of crucial situations that Puhl had to face.
Key Match Incidents
3' - Serious Foul Play by Spain no.5?
Abelardo Fernández takes a heavy touch and stretches in over the top of the ball with his studs loaded. Straight legged and the potential to cause his opponent serious injury, this tackle should have resulted in a red card.
His management doing nothing to calm everyone down, Puhl only issued a caution - which was not enough.
CRUCIAL MISTAKE
20' - Violent Conduct by Spain no.15?
A rather agricultural kick by José Luis Caminero, but not enough for a red card, not least in a World Cup quarterfinal. A yellow was just right.
63' - Penalty to Spain?
Luis Enrique gets to the byline in a promising position before being tackled from behind by Antonio Conte. Enrique tries to make a play at centuring the ball and fails - only because Conte kicked him from behind. Conte even turns towards Puhl and momentarily puts his hand up in apologising for the foul!
The ball spins up as if played fairly, which probably deceived the Hungarian referee. A penalty should have been awarded.
CRUCIAL MISTAKE
78' - Penalty to Italy?
Abelardo Fernández makes an unwise tackle on Daniele Massaro - but crucially actually misses the Italy attacker in doing so. Running wide without much chance to generate a promising chance, Massaro does his best to order to create a penalty - but Puhl sees it for what it is and awards a goalkick. Well assessed by the referee.
83' - Penalty to Spain?
José Luis Caminero and Alessandro Costacurta are involved in a highly interesting situation in the penalty area. Costacurta at first seems to reach the ball fairly and kick the ball against Caminero's boot, resulting in the ball flying away a small distance. In the playing of the ball, the Italy defender's second leg comes around - with the ball still in some reach for Caminero by the way - and traps the Spain player's leg between his left and right legs.
Very dangerous and nowadays a clear penalty (and a yellow card at least) - not only acceptable but expected in 1994 that the referee would simply play on, as Puhl did.
+94' - Penalty to Spain? (Violent Conduct by Italy no.9?)
The match's famous incident.
With Spain scrambling at the death to try and equalise, Mauro Tassotti prevents Luis Enrique from reaching the end of a promising cross by striking him in a manner that clearly used excessive and extortionate force.
There is no doubt that the correct solution would be to eject Tassotti for violent conduct. It is harder to say conclusively that a penalty should be awarded, though Enrique's strong pull of Tassotti's shirt seems to occur only after the Spain player is violently struck.
The incident does take place in Puhl's visual control. However, while on a expectation-perception-recognition level a holding offence might be detected by a referee, such a violent strike while the Italy player had won the position was totally unexpected - indeed, no other players actually seem to realise what has happened as the ball sails out for a throw-in.
It is understandable that Puhl simply missed the incident on a perception level - though being appointed to a World Cup final is not ample reward for doing so.
CRUCIAL MISTAKE
Approach
Sándor Puhl unfortunately failed to be a preventative leader on the pitch with both his decisions and his presence. One could analyse his disciplinary control and manner separately, but that is to miss the point - Puhl simply failed to take the initiative in his matches with preventative officiating and it came to a head here.
Hungarian referee declined three further opportunities to issue a calming caution, one situation in particular was extremely blatant. His verbal warnings did not assist him in either correcting the behaviour of the players in question nor in managing the game more effectively. Foul detection was not optimal, especially in terms of it's predictability. Puhl failed to deal with the players in a convincing manner in the two most important conflict-resolution scenes of the afternoon - 3' and +94'.
Even if you would support the way Sándor Puhl handled the rest of the match, he totally failed in the dying embers which should definitely have resulted in the end of his tournament. At +96', he does not even whistle what seems to be a very clear Spain violent conduct; he was absolutely not in control as Puhl let the players do what they wished as he waited for time to play out in the hope the whole thing wasn't going to go t*ts up. It was by sheer luck that Luis Enrique was the only player seriously hurt at the end; his deficiencies at the end were quite painful to watch in all honesty.
Puhl's style very nicely complimented his fair-spirited, fast-flowing second match Sweden - Brazil. However, in the Norway - Mexico game, the same warning lights that were flashing here were evident, and he finally sank in his quarterfinal. Ostensibly, that view was not a consensus shared by everyone at FIFA.
Both Gordon Dunster (17'; minus 0,3) and Luc Matthys (11'; minus 0,2) made important mistakes as linesmen; Dunster played nice (15') and very important (83') onsides besides.
| Sándor Puhl - 7,0 Gordon Dunster - 8,2 Luc Matthys - 8,2 Ali Bujsaim HUN, AUS, BEL | Italy 2-1 Spain Quarterfinal |
 Abelardo (3') - Tackle Caminero (20') - Tripping |
As I've mentioned to you, I was in the stadium as a young teenager. Fascinating to watch the refereeing highlights all these years later.
ReplyDeleteOn the penalty appeal against Italy (63'), while I don't necessarily disagree with your conclusion, I do disagree with what Conte is signalling. Note he stays down injured. I think Conte is signalling to Puhl that he felt immediate pain and was hurt. It would be downright bizarre--particularly for an Italian in that era(!)--to accidentally admit culpability for a penalty.
I do disagree on 78'. It's an uwise tackle and, though the replays aren't great on the issue of contact, he takes away all the space toward which the attacker is moving. This type of penalty essentially decided the WC90 Final. It seems like it should be given but I suppose I can understand the opposing view.
While I agree on 3' being an SFP red card in a vacuum, we cannot ignore the fact that FIFA simply would not want a red card in the 3rd minute of a WC QF between two global juggernauts. I don't think a single referee in the tournament would have given it, Brizio Carter included. And I'm not sure it would be given in today's game either (WC18 or WC22). If a referee were looking for an excuse, they would say the leg is not as locked as it could be (slight bend) and the force isn't as bad as it could be. Don't misinterpret what I'm saying. It's a 99.9% red card for me and it's a red card in any match I've ever done. But in this situation? I don't think FIFA wanted a referee to show red.
To this day, fascinating that Puhl got the Final after this performance. I know you'll have more to say about that when you get there. But it launched his career further to include the UCL Final, the famous Germany-England EURO semi, and eventually the horror Irwin tackle. Was Puhl truly one of the best referees in the world for the mid 90s, prior to the Collina era? Or did his one lucky assignment for the 94 Final inflate a reputation that did not warrant such esteem?
The similarity of 78' to the penalty that decided WC 1990 did indeed not go unnoticed by me :)
DeleteI agree about 3' (especially about Brizio Carter). That is the problem of assessing performances with just marks, so I would invite readers to take more notice of the analysis itself! I maintain though that 3' encapsulated a lack of preventative refereeing throughout the game.
My view on your two questions at the end will be addressed in due course :)
In my mind, Puhl simply wasn't a good referee and moreover one of the "old school" variety that clashed with FIFA's apparent idea to crack down on heavy tackles and therefore more cards. I do not even want to analyse his performance here further but speculate a bit about the context.
ReplyDeleteListening to the commentary, we learn that the rise of YCs in this tournament and the new tougher line were not appreciated by the so-called experts and newspapers. The reaction of the English commentary crew to the scene in 3' - a crystal clear SFP with no regard for the opponent's safety - is telling. They even try to go "it wasn't a card" at first.
I think FIFA's new line was torn between two: On the one hand, they wanted to eliminate rough play to protect star players while on the other they wanted to avoid having unpopular card debacles like Al-Sharif's match. Here is where Puhl comes in: In a tournament where other referees like Brizio Carter, Quiniou or Torres Cadena actually applied FIFA's guidelines, he did not. As such - as the commentators say - Puhl, regardless of mistakes or lack of skills, was seen as an acceptable referee. The man we can use for a time period until the other referees and the tougher line becomes more accepted or just "the way it is".
Puhl's way of refereeing (ridiculous card showing procedure, do not whistle to offend anyone) was the relict of a bygone age, but it still had its uses. No amount of poor refereeing and missing penalties would change that. In fact, you will notice that only a few major decisions during the tournament were really contested afterwards. Decisions that would be now revealed to be wrong thanks to more replays simply "passed by" back then.
I have some sympathy for Carlos Velasco Carballo in 2014 in a way - his hands were tied by FIFA guidelines. Puhl had different ones, but what got him the final was that he was "ignoring" them. In the end - and the comments above regarding 3' prove it - the right decision outside the law book is the one the people (FIFA, fans, players) want. Act against that on your own peril.
Oh, and about the game: Poor refereeing, total anarchy in the final minutes, missed pk + VC, potentially more pks missed, missed RC for SFP.
Who was really the worst performer? Karlsson? Bujsaim? Al-Sharif? Brizio Carter? Mottram?
In my mind, Mottram was simply poor. Bujsaim was not ready for such a WC, but he had at least had the signs to be a decent referee even if I strongly disagree with his way of refereeing. Karlsson was poor with a lack of prevention. Al-Sharif simply a poor decision maker more often than not. Brizio Carter made mistakes in his match, but he had the hardest match that was only waiting to "kill" him. He was in my eyes a brave and very good referee.
Puhl was poor in all three of his matches. In my book, he was the worst overall performer. The cleverest for sure - his career went through the roof. It boils down to the question: Do you want to be succesful or do you want to do what the LoTG intend? Any referee must ask this question himself each and every game.
Excellent comment! You brilliantly touch on the juxtaposition of FIFA's directives at this tournament and the only logical consequence being, ultimately, what we discovered in 2014 and still have today.
DeleteI agreed most with "the cleverest for sure" :)