11 ITAPAR Archundia

(Apologies, I didn't add the highlights! Please let me know if I do that again :)) Uploaded now. 

World champions Italy and Paraguay played a score draw largely devoid of inspiration to open their respective tournaments, which one assumes they both calculated as a decent result given the other two teams in the section.

If Italy reached the pinnacle in 2006, then Benito Archundia certainly had his eyes on the prize in 2010. Perhaps the most popular referee of the last World Cup was the favourite to referee the final of this one, Héctor Vergara was again at his side and a constellation with confederational neutrality to help him, his chances looked pretty good.

To be quite honest I found Archundia's performance here rather disappointing. No prevention, no urgency, and - I would argue - not much visible motivation that he wanted to really be there. 

Of course, sh*t can happen, but the Mexican referee made the second fastest crucial mistake of the tournament and lazily telling a player who has just been brutally hit by a clear Serious Foul Play tackle (even FIFA agreed) to "get up", perhaps sums up his performance. 

Let's start with that big mistake then in the opening minute.

Key Match Incidents

1' - Serious Foul Play by Cristian Riveros?

No doubt about this potential red card. Riveros goes over the top of the ball and commits a very brutal tackle on Ricardo Montolivo, whose leg could easily have been broken. Archundia also appears to be staring right at the tackle, but he doesn't even whistle a foul. 

How did Archundia miss it then? 

1) He looks to have something of a zero angle, and doesn't have a good insight into the challenge. An optimal position for instance would have been in the right half of the centre-circle. Though, this argument would have stood up better if Archundia blew for a freekick and a caution, he should have still been able to detect that it was a (bad) foul from his position. 

2) The tackle did rather come from nowhere. On an expectation-perception-recognition level, a tackle of such brutality was hardly expected at that moment. 

FIFA also assessed this situation as a clear red card.

CRUCIAL MISTAKE

61' - Serious Foul Play by Víctor Cáceres?

Borderline incident. Cácares does fly in two-footed having lost control of his body, tackles which in principle should be punished with a red card in my view (Archundia's compatriot sent off for less the day before). However, given that he somewhat pulls out and the nature of the contact is not actually dangerous, the yellow card that Archundia gives is still acceptable.

Approach

Archundia did not set any tactical signals during the match. Clear holding fouls to stop promising attacks by Antolín Alcaraz at 23' and Claudio Marchisio at 34' were cautions which the game expects, but the referee overcomplicated his job by not giving them. 

The two cautions he did issue were of the dark variety: aforementioned 61', and a probably premeditated and heavy reckless stamp by Mauro Camoranesi at 70'. The card procedure at both was too far beyond phlegmaticism for me. 

Later, both cautioned players should really should have been sent off. Having already been late at 75', Camoranesi committed a reckless standing leg tackle at 84'. Camoranesi implored desperately that he played the ball (he didn't), Archundia smiled at the quiet protests - both knew exactly what should have happened there. Cácares tackle on Antonio Di Natale at 86' seemed to go under everybody's radar, but was also clearly reckless in my view. But such is Archundia's way of refereeing.

Mexican referee did make a mistake which had a direct bearing on the score. Freekick from which Paraguay scored was won as a result of a Nelson Valdez simulation - Giorgi Chiellini had not pushed him, but simply read the flight of the ball better than his opponent. Knowing that, Valdez expediently tried to win a freekick, and succeeded. 

The lack of preventative refereeing in a number of scenes, most notably 45' and 49', was hard to believe. Even besides Montolivo, it was rather by fortune than design that nobody got seriously injured from this match.

Balance

If I were in José García-Aranda's shoes, I wouldn't have given Benito Archundia a further match. However, given his value to FIFA (particularly in view of his confederational neutrality), that was never going to happen. 

FIFA showed to accept and be very fond of officiating like this. Fine, and you can't blame Archundia for doing what would make him successful. 

Efficacy should be recognised of course, but it does not necessarily make something commendable.

Héctor Vergara correctly evaluated two offsides (17', 31'), both quite clear; the former would have resulted in a penalty if the Canadian didn't raise his flag. Marvin Torrentera was rather quiet. 

Benito Archundia - 7,8 (8,0) Héctor Vergara - 8,4 Marvin Torrentera - 8,4 Joel Aguilar Juan Zumba MEX, CAN, MEX – SLV	Italy 1-1 Paraguay Group Stage 14 June
Camoranesi (70') - Tackle	Cáceres (61') - Tackle