05 ENGUSA Simon

  

Carlos Eugênio Simon opened his third World Cup with a combative Anglophone clash between England and the United States. No doubt that Simon had experience after 2002 and 2006, but here he was simply not up to scratch. This match required a referee who would strongly act against unfair play, but the Brazilian simply failed to do that, in a performance which widely lacked tactical coherency. 

Simon's accuracy in crucial situations was not perfect either. Let's start by analysing them.

Key Match Incidents

28' - Penalty to England?

Jay DeMerit holds John Terry's shirt from an England corner in a clearly excessive manner. I can understand the argument that Terry wasn't going to reach the ball anyway in the event of a more trifling holding offence, but in this instance the holding is so blatant and unfair that it cannot go unpunished. 

CRUCIAL MISTAKE

59' - Serious Foul Play by Jamie Carragher?

Two points to make here:

1) I would like to see tackles such as these taken out of matches and punished with red cards. My strong preference is for Carragher to be dismissed here.

2) However, in the end I would argue that a dark yellow card is ultimately supportable:

- Studs contact made is mostly with the top of the Robbie Findley's boot and not the shin

- Second leg contact is a simple kick and does not trap Findley's leg in a dangerous manner

I would be the first person to strongly praise Simon had he sent Carragher off, but issuing a yellow card is still (just) supportable in my eyes.


60' - Serious Foul Play by Steven Gerrard?

Gerrard plays the ball in a fair manner before making a high contact on Clint Dempsey with his boot partly pulled out. There are some arguments to eject Gerrard for this foul, however given the ball-playing-ness of the tackle in addition to the England player negating the worst of a potential hit, yellow card is the correct outcome in my book.

74' - Serious Foul Play by Robbie Findley?

This time I can't find any reason to support Simon not showing a red - very dangerous studded contact with Gerrard's shin; Findley had to go for this. A caution was not enough.

CRUCIAL MISTAKE

Approach

Even besides those KMIs, Carlos Simon simply did not offer a convincing performance in this match. His tactic should have been to punish heavy and tactical foul tackles with cautions (James Milner late at 7', Terry's tactical foul at 18') from the start. The players did not reward Simon's generosity, and tried to test the Brazilian referee to the limit of his tolerance line throughout the match (including in the United States penalty area). 

Opening caution was quite messy - not a bad choice to book Milner at 26' (after 7'), but on a mimic and whistle tone level his presentation was rather poor. He allowed everyone to be surprised by his choice! Jozy Altidore's fully deliberate handling at 36' stopped a pass being played which would have reached an England player - a clear yellow card in 2010. DeMerit should also have been cautioned (if not more) for his bizarre foul on Emile Heskey at 43'. 

Simon also ought to have issued cards in the second half at 78' (reckless stamp), and for tactical fouls at 82', 85'. While the latter two of the bunch were embolic of a performance really deficient in preventative refereeing, perhaps it is Frank Lampard's heavy foul at 78' going totally missed which is the most worrying - Lampard correctly gambled that he would be able to get away with it. 

To me it seems the Brazilian referee struggled to grasp what the players wanted to achieve in this match - they needed a referee who would allow quite a lot of physical contact in assessing duels, but also taking tactical and heavy fouls out of the match by punishing them with cautions. Simon did not take the initiative in this match and it always felt as if he was playing catch up. Only the card to Milner was in any way a tactical choice - in the other five cases he was simply forced to act.

Players did not challenge Simon's supercilious leadership style on the pitch, as he allowed them to get away with a lot - a microcosm of this was offered at 55' when the referee gave a verbal warning to Carragher's back. Ordering the players to turn around in order to see their shirt numbers, 1990-style, was rather rude in my opinion.

Further points: referee was hit by the ball at 42', late to recognise his assistant Roberto Braatz's flag at 52', did Carragher not impede Findley at 73' (which probably annoyed him, hence the SFP foul) and his choice of whistle did not exude the most natural authority.

Overall: this rather ropey approach by Simon saw him not fail in this game, but equally, we should ponder whether really he succeeded either (- 0,3). One man springs to mind as the perfect man for this game, but given his experiences with the States four years earlier, he was never going to be appointed.

Balance

Carlos Eugênio Simon was the only referee of all the games on the first two days of the competition to operate an approach not apt for what was in front of him. Besides missing a clear penalty and not giving a red card when he might have shown two, Simon was unfortunately taken for something of a fool by the players. One must say that the Brazilian referee faced a tough game here, but it would also be remise to not detail his quite extensive shortcomings. 

Roberto Braatz faced a challenging few minutes at the start of the second half - a tricky situation was well-seen at 51', but he made a clear and important mistake at 54' to flag Heskey offside. Altemir Hausmann correctly detected an offside in first half additional time. 

Carlos Eugênio Simon - 7,1 Altemir Hausmann - 8,4 Roberto Braatz - 8,2 Eddy Maillet Evarist Menkouandé BRA – SEY, CMR	England 1-1 United States Group Stage 12 June
Milner (26') - Persistent Infringement Carragher (59') - Tackle Gerrard (60') - Tackle	Cherundolo (39') - SPA (Holding) DeMerit (47') - SPA (Handling) Findley (74') - Tackle