One of those rare instances where we are going to diverge strongly. How many clear YCs did he miss or ignore? And he let Mbappe get battered, which could have been a recipe for disaster. He also looked desperate and silly in the final 10 minutes when he tried to resort to management. Maybe this didn't look like it was spiraling because France just went about its business and Morocco had too much to lose in a 1-0 match to get silly. But that wasn't a good performance. Ramos didn't facilitate that. Unless you think his standards are very, very low and you're grading on an incredible curve.
Come back to Lahoz and his performance getting completely eviscerated due to all the Yellows. I wonder how the public would view the multiple missed yellows. If anyone even cares about missed SPAs. Considering there were no blowups like Argentina Netherlands did
It's a 4. He got by with his management sort of, avoiding any major calamity and it was an extremely difficult match with an insane atmosphere. For me he loses his points on misconduct identification and selection.
He closely patrolled the incidents, only missed one hilariously obvious YC (70'), the only big dissent was faced by his linesman (11'), and stepped in well to prevent confrontations at the end. And 27' was never a penalty. For Ramos this is a successful evening! And I'm not really being that sarcastic. I didn't call him the most mediocre WC ref 'ever' for nothing!!
I'm voting 5 on the rating here, it wasn't really a good performance but I'm going to echo many of the same things I've been saying about Ramos all tournament, that I don't really see the doom and gloom about it. First, let's set aside one 1000% yellow card that was missed: the reckless stamp in the 33rd minute. As I said before, I have to conclude that Ramos just didn't see it correctly. Even he would show a yellow card there, if so. I also think he failed to perceive the collision between M'bappe and Bono in the 48th minute. If he (or his AR) has seen the studs to the shin, he would have whistled for a foul coming out quicker, rather than give a dropped ball. In another game we could talk about reckless perhaps, but not in this World Cup and certainly not in this game. Then there are a few other choices he made that were straight out of the CONCACAF playbook: the no foul against M'bappe in the 51st, and the no SPA in the 70th. 51st minute can be justified (though I don't really agree with it) by saying that the defender got the ball first. While 70' cannot really be explained, really it is a no-call that we see allllll the time in CONCACAF, sadly. I think it is necessary to differentiate between these two categories (failures of perception vs bad choices), because the former category is more factual while the second category is more about opinions about the disciplinary line a referee should be setting. One which I, and many here, strongly disagree with! But I doubt Ramos will look back on those ones as mistakes, rather I think he will be happy with them. (And of course, the discussion about the fact that FIFA and Ramos can be happy with them is completely fair; personally I agree: we should expect more from World Cup referees.) In analyzing games like this, I feel the need to make a distinction between criticizing the style the referee chose and his implementation of that style. All four Ramos games this tournament though, comments here have been decrying him as playing with fire, just waiting for a game to explode, and I must reiterate that this never happened in four games, including a very close tense World Cup semifinal. That's why I really don't get the doom and gloom here, I think Ramos knows just how far he can push it, and based upon the appointments he gets, I think FIFA appreciates his ability to "read the game" like this. (He's not as good as Marrufo at this, but no time to cry over spilled milk). One also must highlight so good moments: the sequence in the 26th-27th minute (good advantage, good warning, and then a very good perception to detect the YC), and some good proactive warnings throughout the second half. Personally, I don't like the style. Even within the style, it wasn't his cleanest game, as he had a few misses, but, within the style he chose, it was good enough work. So for me it's very complicated to analyze. I voted 5, not the worst performances of the knockout stage (those "honors" go to Sampaio and Valenzuela, and finally most especially Lahoz), but not Ramos at his best either.
I gave him a 5. Biggest problems were missed yellows and failure to protect Mbappe that others have pointed out in detail. But the absence of game-changing mistakes, and a well-managed match from a shithousery point of view, keep it from being a really bad rating.
There is definitely something to be said for the fact that fans (and perhaps even the people assessing these guys - certainly applicability for lower-level assessors/administrators!) have a bias towards noticing affirmative errors way more often than errors of omission.
If we were grading strictly on the value of spectacle alone, then we'd have to all adjust our ratings.
I also think that at least with respect to yellows, spa absolutely gets way less notice than reckless fouls. Even on reddits soccer board they will post clips of “no card given” challenges and it’s almost always a reckless. Or really egregious things like Paredes kicking the ball into the bench. Missed reckless fouls can lead to a game going out of control, missed spa yellows very rarely
I struggled grading him, primarily because as others have intimated his “style” worked…to a certain degree. But I simply can’t get away from the missed cautions, especially the simple SPA ‘70, or the dropped ball restart in the Moroccan pa. that being said, my biggest problem with him is what I perceive as a lack of presence. There’s just something about the way he goes about his business which makes me think players may tolerate him but they certainly don’t respect him. maybe I’m off base here, but that’s just my perception. my grade=4
Right. My thing is 5 is average a 4 is like, there were issues but it wasn't a downright bad game. 3 is pushing bad 2 is poor 1 is international incident That's why 4 felt right for me. The refereeing wasn't great with the weird misconduct, but the spectacle was fine and the teams are basically good.
Penalty Area Incident at 27' https://files.catbox.moe/2zv9yq.mp4 The live sequence should be authorative here, as the replay distorts what really happens. Hernández beats Boufal to the ball, pushes it past him, before colliding with his opponent. The replay shows Hernández sliding and Boufal upright, I guess that is what disabused 'pro-penalty' people. Rather a careless collision than 'real' reckless foul, and Ramos only gave YC to underline his decision / book in a situation where 'they' were going to dissent anyway, but the caution is still supportable I'd say. Interesting / unique situation!
I know I shouldn’t go down this rabbit hole, but I looked in the comments section of The Athletic to see if there was any discussion of Ramos’ less than good performance yesterday. Nothing-crickets. Compare that to the commentary over Orsato’s outstanding performance because he gave what some uninformed people thought was a soft penalty. The normal fans aren’t smart enough to recognize a top notch performance. They just want controversy so they can complain. It’s no wonder FIFA has the directive (explicit or implied) to avoid controversy and do everything possible to avoid a big call. I know I don’t need to say this to anyone here, but it also shows the lack of understanding of the baying masses when it comes to officiating.
I usually just read and sometimes learn stuff but just wanted to note that Ramos (or his mom) is apparently on Big Soccer and voted -- there is one "10". ;>) And despite 'landing this plane' (with a couple bad misses and a few less cards and calls than it should have had) he won't get to do the final in 2026 (as suggested up thread) if it is Mexico vs. U.S.A. ;>)
A little bird told me about this. https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/20767430/morocco-complaint-fifa-france-world-cup-semi-final-referee/
I couldn't resist posting this in, of all places, the P&CE den. Yesterday at 5:08 PM Y'know...all you kibitzers critiquing the Refs decisions oughta sign up for the next Certification class in your area. There's a "huge" shortage of Refs in all areas and they could use your expertise. Once you get certified I strongly recommend you sign up for advanced Karate classes cuz you're gonna need it. If you decide to advance beyond U-10's go for Navy Seal training. Thanks to modern medicine my wounds have pretty much healed. Ps..a CCW license will many times allow you to get back to your car depending on how fast you can run!
What an absolute waste of a click. They found three fans on Twitter who were upset? That's insane. I know it's the Sun, but still.
mushy article, focused on fans, but says there was an “official” complaint and demand for a replay. If they actually have filed a protest, it’s 100% to placate fans, as they know a protest can never be upheld based on allegations that foul calls were wrong.