15 HONCHI Maillet
Fast-paced and rather uncoordinated Latin American duel between two nations who were playing the first World Cup finals match in the twenty-first century. Chile deservedly beat Honduras by a goal to nothing, in a match played in good sporting spirit.
Confederational neutrality having ruled all the Americas trios out, FIFA made quite a brave call on this game - Eddy Maillet would be in charge. Seychellois Maillet certainly knew what a hard match was - he controlled the World Cup playoff between arch rivals Algeria and Egypt. Besides a case of mistaken identity, Maillet was pretty immense.
He wasn't bad in this match either. Maillet showed to be a solid decision-taker and leader on the pitch, and he succeeded in his approach here. Not all sweet roses though, the scourge of the MI, this time for an alleged PI, returned and there were a few disappointing mistakes besides.
Analysis
Referee from Seychelles made a strong start to the game - early cautions (4', 19') were the right idea in this game, and set his stall out in the right way. This roadblock approach was effective in taking out the most rough and cynical play for the rest of the match. A caution to Arturo Vidal at 24' would have been consistent with his approach, but perhaps the referee had determined his cards had sufficiently asserted his authority - acceptable.
Maillet then had a very poor two minutes. First, a clear foul (and ensuing yellow card) missed at 32' - I guess he wasn't expecting it to be Maynor Figueroa's torso which ultimately brought down Alexis Sánchez, but all the same it was a poor call. I don't know why he looked out to his AR Bechir Hassani - referee should have gotten that right on his own.
Then, Seychellois referee had a real nightmare. He had already warned Wilson Palacios at 19' - "I've got my eye on you - no more!". Palacios' teammate Roger Espinoza commits a careless foul at 33'. Maillet blows for the freekick, no fuss. Then, about ten seconds later, he calls over Palacios, and gestures for a persistent infringement booking!
Given that Palacios really was on his radar, did he did not think he would have immediately picked that up after the foul? Clearly incorrect I'm afraid (- 0,2). FIFA interestingly did not rescind the card. Take home message - don't overthink things as a referee!
Maillet continued to handle the game in an overall decent manner, in the second half he faced five interesting (potential) penalty area incidents. My views on them:
47' - Gary Medel plays the ball fairly, before making a careless contact with Édgar Álvarez. Correct play on, even if Maillet didn't look terribly sure about it.
47' - Gary Medel plays the ball fairly, before making a careless contact with Édgar Álvarez. Correct play on, even if Maillet didn't look terribly sure about it.
52' - Jean Beausejour is fouled in a reckless manner inside the penalty area just after he passes the ball to an offside teammate. A penalty should be given. However, given the 2010 interpretation of active offside, as well as that towards standing leg tackles (-> bad luck), not a formal crucial mistake.
57' - Clear tripping foul on Alexis Sánchez, but it took place just outside the penalty area. So a missed freekick for Chile. What do you think about the potential violent conduct just afterwards - well disguised or simply bad luck?
70' - A very textbook non-punishable handball - to award a penalty here would be a big mistake. Correct play on.
70' - A very textbook non-punishable handball - to award a penalty here would be a big mistake. Correct play on.
75' - According to the trends of the competition, Alexis Sánchez should be cautioned for his fully deliberate handling, attempting to deceive the officials, and score a goal. As it happened, Jorge Valdivia, who put the ball in the net, was offside anyway. Not the most relevant mistake to be honest.
Balance
Eddy Maillet showed what was on the whole a decent piece of refereeing, cognisant of some mistakes, which was still expected level (8,3) in my view. His performance is therefore spoiled quite a bit by his mistaken identity case, which was actually really evitable. Still, given he showed to be a solid referee on the whole, a second match is still defendable for me.
As for his teammates: Tunisian Bechir Hassani fell for a dive in his vicinity (5'); Evarist Menkouandé from Cameroon correctly detected two offsides (75', 82') in the first of which, the ball was in the net.
| Eddy Maillet - 8,1 Evarist Menkouandé - 8,4 Bechir Hassani - 8,4 Yūichi Nishimura Tōru Sagara SEY, CMR, TUN – JPN | Honduras 0-1 Chile Group Stage 16 June |
 Palacios (33') - Persistent Infringement | Carmona (4') - Tackle Fernández (19') - Tackle |
I remember that play-off Algeria - Egypt was a very challenging match and Maillet managed it very well to its conclusion, earning his WC10 spot.
ReplyDeleteAre you sure that's a punishable foul at 52'? Leaving aside the points you rightly bring up, I'm just not sure how bad it was or how much contact there was given the one angle we see.
ReplyDelete57' is great. Having refereed quite a few former professionals from Honduras and Guatemala, I am rather convinced that is well-disgused VC--I've seen that type of accidental looking result one too many times. That said, I never would have caught it in real-time and I don't think any referee could punish it in real-time. And if it's the type of call you'd never make in real-time... is it really the type of call we would want VAR to "fix?"
Long way of saying I think a defender who does that exactly (and no more blatantly) can get away with it every time because there is a small bit of doubt that most casual observers have to allow (and many casual observers wouldn't see the intentional VC at all).
Glad you highlighted 32' as a poor and unacceptable call. I've seen too many referees miss this or feel it's not a foul because it's "not a foul tackle" and just becomes a collision. Ugh. Once a player commits to ground like that, 99% of the time they are responsible for the result. Caution would have been appropriate there.
Interesting insight re. 57'!
DeleteTotally agree with you.
Maillet presented himself well in this quite difficult match, surely a huge moment for him despite him being one of CAF's top referees. Overall, I would say he avoided crucial mistakes (supportable calls). The PI case is interesting, maybe Palacios said something during the short delay and Maillet had enough. To be honest, cautioning Palacios is a good idea in any match, at least so it seemed at this WC. (He was too dangerous to be left alive. ;))
ReplyDeleteStill, quite a few mistakes meant that a second match might have been out of reach, but one CAF referee had yet to feature...
Review by MARCA.com: 5/10. He missed a PK.
ReplyDelete