Aaaaaaand there’s Tata’s (or some other assistant coach) yellow. Interesting to see Nueza Back, the reserve AR, come over to help manage him afterwards. Likely in Spanish, I’d assume.
I am struck, as I often am with non-MLS VAR situations, about which angle was shown at the RRA. There was a television replay just prior to the commencement of the OFR that showed the foul in a much closer and clearer manner. Eventually I think a poor image choice is going to bite a VAR-Referee team.
it's a good decision. One that hasn't been given consistently in the past but glad it's given here. EDIT: I would be delighted to never hear from Landon Donovan again. Even with the existing low standards he's pretty bad.
I think she was verifying his name for the report. Got to remember that officials won't know bench personnel's names as readily as they would in a domestic match. Whatever she said was actually well done, given she got a laugh out of him. To me, the interesting thing is that she did it and not Frappart--that's smart, because Frappart would be the one who likely gave the recommendation and would need to manage any subsequent misconduct. I wonder if that (the use of the reserve AR for this sort of thing) is instructed or if that was intuitive.
It's a challenging one to see from Beath's angle, but the missed foul resulting in an injury at 61' is, well, a miss. I think a lot of fans want that to be a clean tackle because he got ball initially, but it does seem inherently dangerous. Kind of thing that can help heat up a match.
65' not being a caution is surprising. Seemed like a stamp on top of the foot (though maybe the Mexican was just looking to sell that aspect--in which case, there needs some managing there). I'm not saying the wheels are coming off. But Beath is playing with fire a bit here.
The recommendation is pretty consistent with the late pen in ENG-IRN, they’re similar fouls. I think there are place in the world where neither reaches the threshold for clear and obvious (and, honestly, that would be my preference on both), but if this is where the line is drawn for the whole tournament I can support that. I rated Beath really highly coming into this tournament, and he hasn’t been bad, but definitely isn’t the elite superpower I thought he had the chance to be. It’s interesting to contrast his performance to Al-Jassim’s. It’s like they’re exact opposite referees. Al-Jassim was convincing technically and physically, but with really frantic and chaotic body language. Beath is always extremely calm, and his soft skills are stronger than Al-Jassim’s, but he is always in the middle of the field, and I haven’t been so convinced by his big decisions (missed penalty corrected by VAR, which probably should have finished red for DOGSO, soft foul for the first yellow in the game for SPA, 65’ foul seems like it’s a yellow for reckless in every other game in this tournament)
You've now had a couple careless/reckless arm swings by Mexico that have been missed while Poland has had a few soft fouls go against them. I do think this blows up if Mexico gets a big decision in its favor of something Polish players perceive as soft.
I think the leg aspect of this one makes it so much worse and night and day compared to the Iranian one. He's tripped a player with the ball about to shoot on net from less than 10 yards away. That's way different than a shirt pull on a player who was never even going to head the ball. If we want to compare the severity of the shirt pulls to each other, yes, they are similar. But focusing on the shirt pull today ignores a pretty blatant subsequent foul that I'm 99% sure was the actual call here.
Other than the DOGSO red part of this paragraph, I agree. He's an unfinished product in the other direction.
One thing I noticed about Beath right before the OFR was something I saw in another match (can't remember which one). Referees are going over to attackers on ceremonial free kicks from about 30-45 yards out and telling them that they will be punished for offside (via VAR, if necessary) if they stand in an offside position and subsequently make contact with a defender as the ball is floated in. Seems like the equivalent of telling the goalkeeper not to encroach and telling players in the wall where not to put their hands. Certainly a point of emphasis that was told teams and FIFA, for some reason, has decided needs to be demonstrated and reminded publicly, too.
Agree. At this level it is theatre, not substance. In yesterday's game, I started laughing at how long our ref spent telling Turner the rules for a PK.
It's interesting the way people on this board view referees and how it relates to the team we support. I think Beath has been by far the weakest referee I've seen so far. Because no one on this board has a real vested interest in the success of the Mexican National Team we don't really care that he has been letting a lot of misconduct and heavy tackles go. Contrast that with Al-Jassim. Much firmer on misconduct, but because the US didn't get the result we wanted and was "inconsistent on some injury management" and maybe missed a yellow card or two in the second half, people think he should never referee another game again.
I'm only half watching, but I agree with you on some inconsistency on those fouls/cautions, especially on the stepping on ankles. The subjective difference to me is that Beath looks more in charge with demeanor and control. And if feels like the players are more aligned in accepting things. I think that matters. (But might well have thought differently if I was paying closer attention.)
I don't think anyone is praising Beath too much, though. It's natural the US matches will get more attention, but it's not like people who said Al-Jassim was poor are in here saying Beath is great.
Without getting into the underlying reasons for why people think what they do, I agree Beath is much less careful with punishing misconduct (and a lot of it should be punished in my opinion). I think al-Jassim was significantly better regarding technical accuracy but I think a lot of this comes down to affect and style. Beath just looks calmer and more composed; al-Jassim looked frantic and even when he smiled he came across as smirking. Purely subjective of course but it's pretty significant when you consider how someone is perceived.
. I think the scoreline has a lot to do with it. If this went 1-0 in either direction earlier, I think Beath would have been very challenged. I don't think his authority was accepted simply because he had some natural aura; I think it was more because nothing terribly bad happened and players had their focus elsewhere. While the intensity never felt too high in US-Wales, the fact remained it was a 1-0 match in a situation where neither team could afford to lose. In this case, a 1-0 match would have exposed his inconsistency a lot more and let to trouble. I put Beath in the Sampaio category for me. Their plan worked for the match, but they showed elements of shakiness that would be exposed in different situations and I think they are both missing some tools that would allow them to be truly elite. Al-Jassim probably ends up in a similar run on the ratings ladder, but a different category--or maybe I'm just grading him on a different curve because he surprised me positively some while Beath has mostly disappointed me based on prior observations.