12 NZLSVK Damon

 

At the start of his career, what Jerome Damon achieved in 2010 must have been an apparently fanciful dream. New Zealand - Slovakia one of the more inconspicuous games of the tournament sure, but that mattered not: Damon was refereeing a World Cup finals game in his own country. An honour to which he must look back on with great pride.

What of his his performance then? Not bad, but not the best either in my view. Biggest problem for the Rwando-South African trio was that Slovakia's goal was clearly offside; besides that, Damon did show some deficiencies in managing the game. Let's take a closer look.

Analysis

The biggest problem with Damon's performance was that he didn't take the hint that New Zealand were playing in a quietly aggressive way (44', 71', 86'). This gradually inflamed the Slovakia players more and more, and clear mistakes in foul detection such as 46' and 60' did nothing calm them down either. If they were losing, and not winning, for most of the second half, it might well have boiled over.

In terms of sanctions themselves. A quite nasty tackle by Stanislav Šesták at 26' presented a good opportunity to issue the first card of the afternoon, but perhaps noting the lack of reaction to it, Damon decided a foul was enough. 

South African referee was unsighted for a reckless stamp by Tony Lochhead at 42', and although the contact was on Enock Molefe's blindside, Damon's compatriot on the line correctly recommended a yellow card. The cards should really have been equal at that point, but I don't see a bigger problem there to be honest. 

Having warned Zdeno Štrba a minute before, the tactical choice to book him when he recklessly kicked from behind at 55' was a really good one. However, he didn't really use this to his advantage - his card showing procedure did nothing to affect the flow of the game, and an opportunity to show unequivocally that he would not stand for such behaviour was lost.

Perhaps the biggest problem with the referee's performance went totally unnoticed, but for a beady officiating eye - does Rory Fallon not deliberately stamp on his opponent at 73' in a clear act of violent conduct? One can't be certain without replays, but I would be pretty sure that they'd show that Fallon deserved to go. 

Finally, Damon's range of tones when interacting with the players is worthy of note. I really liked them! He showed to be a real natural in that regard. 

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What was more in wider focus however, was that this officials trio unfortunately did give us the first AR crucial mistake of the tournament - Célestin Ntagungira missed Slovakia's goal being scored from a clear offside position. It is simple to explain why: 

Rwandan's attention was taken by a clear impeding foul in his vicinity to the right-hand side, you can even see him looking there. His attention taken by that, he does not stay in line with the second last defender, and when the cross does come in, he is no position to detect the offside offence. 

So in a funny kind of way, New Zealand had their comeuppance for unfair play. Had Tony Lochhead not committed a very cynical impeding foul off-the-ball, then Ntagungira would almost definitely have disallowed the Slovakia goal. 

Unlucky, but one could expect better at the World Cup. The goal should not have stood (crucial mistake).

Balance

Overall, Jerome Damon refereed his opening match of the tournament in a satisfactory way. His performance did not, say, put him in contention to handle the final, but the door for a second appointment was certainly left ajar. Célestin Ntagungira's mistake was unfortunate but clear, though the nature of it perhaps increased the arguments to appoint the trio again, even despite that wrongly assessed KMI. 

Quiet afternoon for Ntagungira and Molefe aside scenes already mentioned. 

Jerome Damon - 8,2 Célestin Ntagungira - 7,9(4) Enock Molefe - 8,4 Ravšan Ėrmatov Rafael Iljasov RSA, RWA, RSA – UZB	New Zealand 1-1 Slovakia Group Stage 15 June
Lochhead (42') - Tackle Reid (+93') - Celebration	Štrba (55') - Tackle