48 ROUSWE Don
Romania and Sweden both knew this was their time. Both nation's run to the quarterfinal could be construed as somewhat surprising, and a semifinal with Brazil would yield footballing glory in sporting historiography.
To lose this match would mean a lifetime of if only - that is why it is so cruel that this match was decided in a penalty competition, Sweden won it, after a dramatic if somewhat beliedly tepid game, fitting given its importance to both sets of players.
Philip Don was the only quarterfinal referee to be handling his second, not third match (after KSAMAR) in doing so. Not by design though, originally appointed for the Romania - Argentina game ultimately handled by Pierluigi Pairetto, he was removed for fears of political complications due to his origin.
For my money, Don had a good match here, his officiating felt fair, even if he wasn't faultless. Maybe that is because his most important calls came before the late goals, no penalty for Romania and disallowing a Sweden goal, both in the second half.
Let's start then with the crucial decisions that the Englishman had to face.
Key Match Incidents
Streamable clips for each incident make a debut in the fifth-last match of the competition :)
On a theoretical level, my preferred choice here is definitely red card:
1) Stefan Schwarz loses his control of his body; his challenge is flying and wild.
2) Schwarz's high is leg is straight and has studs showing,
However, the nature of the contact is not altogether clear, and appears not to have caught Gheorghe Hagi flush, so ultimately I would support the decision to only issue a caution.
(it is not good practice to play advantage there, even if Romania keep decent possession)
(it is not good practice to play advantage there, even if Romania keep decent possession)
I found Don's rueful smile rather warm after this situation - he knew that he faced a very tricky situation here!
However, in my view the English referee was wrong not to give a penalty. Frame-by-frame shows that Ilie Dumitrescu reached the ball ahead of the defender (even if his touch is indeed heavy), and whilst reasonably running for the ball he is simply fouled by the sliding tackle. The correct solution here is to give a penalty.
However, in my view the English referee was wrong not to give a penalty. Frame-by-frame shows that Ilie Dumitrescu reached the ball ahead of the defender (even if his touch is indeed heavy), and whilst reasonably running for the ball he is simply fouled by the sliding tackle. The correct solution here is to give a penalty.
CRUCIAL MISTAKE
Firstly to clear up what actually happens here - some newspapers incorrectly reported that English linesman Roy Pearson indicated an offside here; Pearson never raised his flag and rightly so, the situation was a very clear onside.
They evidently were fooled by referee Don's indirect freekick signal, the Englishman had punished Martin Dahlin for jumping into the defender and not trying to reach the ball. I wouldn't take issue with the person who calls this decision soft, though I would politely disagree with it being assessed as clearly wrong. Daniel Prodan is unable to reach the ball despite reading the flight of the ball better.
Referee does very well to keep up with play here with a dynamic sprint, and correctly ejects Stefan Schwartz for this tactical foul. Sweden player walked off without a single complaint in Don's direction.
Approach
Philip Don made an excellent start to the match - quiet warning for Stefan Schwartz at 2', taking note when Klas Ingesson committed an impeding foul at 6' and then cautioning Ingesson a minute later for a deliberate trip on Romania star player Gheorghe Hagi. Well done!
Fouls on Hagi would be a theme of the first half - Schwartz was fortunate to get away without sanction after a hard foul on the Romania player that was missed by the referee, before committing a borderline SFP on him at 43' (see above) for which he was booked.
Fouls on Hagi would be a theme of the first half - Schwartz was fortunate to get away without sanction after a hard foul on the Romania player that was missed by the referee, before committing a borderline SFP on him at 43' (see above) for which he was booked.
Gheorghe Popescu's caution was nailed on, but Tibor Selymes could have felt a bit unlucky - though he commit a light holding offence, the Sweden player fell rather of his own accord rather than having been impeded. Having whistled the foul, the yellow card had to follow. Hard to call it a clear mistake though.
I felt Don lost the overview a bit after halftime. There were a handful of situations (58', (68'), +93', 92' and 110') where a verbal warning or a yellow card would have been appropriate.
His foul selection I found quite interesting - he whistled quite often for what many referees - including ostensibly both linesmen - would simply assess as "good defensive play". Don was consistent in his approach throughout, aided by his very good fitness; his ability to make up ground to be a good distance from incidents was really helpful to him.
Perhaps more than all of that, the players appreciated Don as a referee because he understood what they were trying to do in this game. Very differently to say Netherlands - Brazil, the players here were quite nervous; Rodrigo Badilla's approach was brilliantly considered in his match, but to do the same thing here would have been a disaster.
Don mostly protected the game's star player (Hagi), acted against the most blatantly unfair actions by the players, offered players a certain amount of discretion and dealt with them in an empathetic way. To me it was obvious that they appreciated the way Don handled this game. English referee has my respect for a well-considered and very smart approach!
Balance
Not faultless, and the missed penalty at 65' certainly counting against him, Philip Don refereed this World Cup quarterfinal rather well in my view. I found his approach optimal for this game (as in three of the four last eight matches); personally, I am disappointed we got to see Don only twice! If FIFA insisted on a European referee for the final, they certainly could have done much worse than appointing the English referee.
Park Hae-yong, who must reflect with pride with how far he got being the first Korean match official to attend the World Cup, had a quite challenging game and performed well. His offside call at 47' was very important and he saw it correctly; he was wrong to flag at 55' though in a deceptive situation. Roy Pearson was very quiet, indicating an offside at 26'.
| Philip Don - 7,9(4) Roy Pearson - 8,4 Park Hae-yong - 8,4 Joël Quiniou ENG, ENG, KOR | Romania 2-2 Sweden (Sweden win 4-5 in a penalty competition) Quarterfinal |
 Popescu (22') - Tackle Selymes (35') - SPA (Holding) Panduru (109') - SPA (Handling) | Ingesson (7') - Persistent Infringement Schwarz (43') - Tackle |
 Schwarz (102') - SPA (Tripping) |
I think I'd like to hear more about your assessment of 73'. I realize you say it's "soft" instead of "clearly wrong," but... why?
ReplyDeleteI don't see a foul. And you admit that the Romanian defender could not meet the ball regardless. So, at best, if there is foul contact it's "trifling" (to use the parlance of the times!). To me, it seems like the referee has called a ghost foul to deny a goal and bailed out the Romanian defence. Quite frankly, I am surprised by the lack of protest (perhaps Sweden wrongly that it was for offside?).
In my mind, if this happened at a Euro or WC in the 21st century, there'd be a lot of controversy and media attention. And, if this happened in contemporary times and the whistle was held... don't you think Don would reverse his decision and award a goal?
The sentence I guess you are referring to in the post is better read as: "Daniel Prodan is unable to reach the ball despite reading the flight of the ball better (because of the actions of Dahlin)".
DeleteI really do think Dahlin goes into him on purpose, and the manner in which he accepts the call (they can turn round and see Pearson with his flag down) seems to support that.
It's quite an atypical case as both players are running backwards to win the position, I guess.
I do disagree though with "To me, it seems like the referee has called a ghost foul to deny a goal and bailed out the Romanian defence" - you can see from the final replay Don has his eyes on that duel the whole time, and simply blows for what he sees.
I guess the contemporary reaction would compare to the disallowed goal by Prendergast in BRABEL(?), a decision I would assess as correct.
"Fair" describes the performance best I think. Don was not without mistakes, but in the end, it was a performance that wasn't really noticeable. In fact, I would argue that we do not have enough evidence to say that he missed a pk in 65'. For me the crucial mistake would be to cancel the Swedish goal later, I can't see enough in there to support a foul call.
ReplyDeleteRC in 43' would be preferable, management was not good. Card-wise, like in KSAMAR, he chose to card when he thought it was valuable or unavoidable, he did succeed with that.
Management looked good, I wouldn't have minded seeing Don in a third game.