Agreed. We've talked a lot in this forum about degree of difficulty, and the chicken-vs-the-egg problem (did the game seem easy because it was always going to be easy, or did it seem easy because the referee did well?). Portugal (Portugal!) losing in shocking fashion in a World Cup Quarterfinal is not a game that should be easy. So I give credit to Tello here. Not saying it was the hardest game of the World Cup, but I doubt it was inherently easy.
in the 4th official world, Barton > Gomes. Honestly, Gomes was embarrassing yesterday, but I excused it with "at this level, the guys don't have experience with 4ths, and just don't know what to do." But Barton was great. Every ball in the bench, he was there. When the subs all congregated, he put himself between them and the field. He had the sub board ready to go on the injury, before they got the subcard (maybe that was the 5th, but judging by how proactive Barton was, I wouldn't be surprised if it was him). The guy was on it. Gomes was MIA.
The whole bench management during this WC has been a joke, an absolute joke. Even today, it was a mass confrontation waiting to happen. The worst was Yamashita for Siebert's battle Ghana vs. Uruguay and Tadić having been substituted committing a small impeding(!!!!) on a 'live' player in the Switzerland vs. Serbia.
im confused here…what’s “soft” about the second yellow? studs somewhat up above the ball to the shin?
Yamashita was example #1 of why giving these support refs these roles on the big stage works most of the time. But when it goes wrong it becomes a disaster.
Pepe could club someone with a crowbar and he’d still find a way to defame the referee. Good player, fine career, but not an upstanding person.
Bruno joined Pepe in complaining about the ref. He raised the Argentina connection and complained there wasn’t a Portuguese ref at the games. Obviously he thinks he was fouled on the denied PK.
Could you imagine a US player complaining there wasn’t a US referee at the tournament to, I gather, help the cause? Galaxy brain stuff. Because I’m sure Bruno was praising the standard of Portuguese refs on the regular when he played domestically. This stuff should be dismissed for the silly attempted deflection that it is.
Fernandes, who continued into the fifth day of his hunger strike in protest at FIFA’s decision to overlook Artur Soares Dias for the ongoing WC, described Dias’s absence from the global showpiece as “the biggest scandal since Watergate, and probably bigger”.
This is the situation Pepe is complaining about? I don't think he wants to see a replay. https://goalrush.xyz/aBwPFTkG
Hey, smart move by the referee committee to put an Argentine referee on a match that involved so much simulation and embellishment in the penalty area.
I’d advise those unaware of this to NOT use Google Translate. OFFINABUS would apply if said on the field.
ENGLISH referee Anthony Taylor has reportedly been blocked from refereeing the World Cup final between Argentina and France.