07 SRBGHA Baldassi

 

FIFA headlined their report of this game with "Serbia self-destruct" - if they didn't hit the self-destruct button, two instances of defenders certainly hitting the panic button saw them rightly reduced to ten men, and then face a penalty. Correctly given, Ghana scored it, and gave Africa the first African win of World Cup 2010.

Héctor Baldassi was the latest to continue Argentina's tradition of excellent World Cup referees; his characteristic and brilliant style was a great addition to FIFA's squad in 2010. Argentine trio got the two crucial decisions of the afternoon spot on, and Baldassi impressed with his handling of the game. Let's start at those two decisions.

Key Match Incidents 

The merits of issuing a second yellow card at 74' and a penalty at 83' need not be analysed, they were clearly correct calls. However, what is remarkable about these decisions is they were both completely taken by Baldassi's assistant, Ricardo Casas. Penalty at 83' is a textbook case of the AR's visual control, but the decision at 74' is much more interesting.

Baldassi was not the most mobile referee of the tournament and he got rather caught by the quick Ghana ball upfield. Argentine trio worked, for this reason, with an enhanced area of AR visual control, and showed to be a real team here. Casas showed something of an eagle eye to detect the offence, not really in his vicinity, and from miles away Baldassi could come running over and send Aleksandar Luković off. Well done! 

Two more crucial decisions of note:


36' - Second Yellow Card to Nikola Zigić?

Zigić certainly walked the tightrope here - already booked, his tactical foul at 36' could well have seen him sent off. In my opinion the arguments for SPA (easy ball wide about to be played, not many players back) probably outweigh the axioms against (running towards the touchline, another Serbia player close). However, Baldassi made the smartest choice in my opinion, one would want something just a bit clearer in order to send someone off in a World Cup match.

53' - Serious Foul Play by Aleksandar Luković?

Luković was fortunate to still be on the pitch by the time of his second booking. His heavy standing tackle from behind could have resulted in a red card. 

Baldassi played an advantage here, which despite the tackle was okay / good: other players weren't really irked by this tackle, so despite being a potential RC, playing advantage if you assessed the tackle as reckless was fine given how promising the attack was. 

I would certainly support a red card, especially given the low chance that Luković has of playing the ball. However, given that the most intense studs contact was only with Kwadwo Asamoah's heel, and not the back of his calf, I can still support a yellow card only.

Approach

First, the bad stuff:

- Nemanja Vidić's foul at 3' was a whisker away from both a DOGSO and SFP threshold; Serbia player really had to be shown the yellow card there. Match time + maybe some confusion over who committed the foul contributed to a freekick only being given. 

- He missed some impeding fouls on Ghana players (11', 12', 65') and a trip at 44' - by Zigić too...

- I can't understand how he penalises Prince Tagoe at 64' when he is simply tripped! Tagoe has nothing to do with Aleksandar Kolarov pulling up seconds earlier. Maybe Baldassi wanted to avoid having to evaluate such a tricky potential DOGSO situation...

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The rest is all praise! To be honest I found it a real pleasure to watch the Argentine handle a match again, what a brilliant way of refereeing he has. Even before the game in the tunnel, you could note his remarkably relaxed attitude, which was very much the case match itself too. 

With his mature and considered approach, he aroused an immense amount of respect and trust from the players; perhaps the referee who more than any others embodies the phrase treating them like adults. His use of advantage was liberal, particularly the one played at 15' was excellent. 

The range of tones he could access with the players (angry at 28', calming at 52', reassuring at 78') was really impressive. It is easy to be nostalgic for the sake of it, but Busacca at FIFA and Collina at UEFA in their respective revolutions after this World Cup ensured that we will never see a referee like Baldassi again at the top level. A real shame! At any rate, young referees especially could learn so much from watching this man.

Besides taking the two most important decisions of the game, Ricardo Casas made my favourite mistake of the tournament at 6'. Yes, World Cup ARs too sometimes mess up simple and unimportant decisions when they happen right beneath their eyes! Besides that he and Hernán Maidana were without many offsides to compute. 

Héctor Baldassi - 8,4 Ricardo Casas - 8,6 Hernán Maidana - 8,4 Subkhiddin Mohd Salleh Jeffrey Goh ARG – MAS, SIN	Serbia 0-1 Ghana Group Stage 13 June
Žigić (18') - SPA (Impeding) Luković (53') - Tackle Kuzmanović (83') - SPA (Handling)	Vorsah (26') - Tackle Tagoe (89') - Delaying the Restart
Luković (74') - SPA (Holding)