40 AUSSRB Larrionda

Australia (whose reliance on the other result was ultimately futile) were going to be eliminated regardless, but the Aussies dragged Serbia down and out with them; needing only a draw, Serbia let the chance slip through their fingers, finding a two-nothing deficit amounted in the second half ultimately unassailable. 

FIFA took absolutely no chances with their appointment of the number one South American referee, Jorge Larrionda, to this match. This was Larrionda's seventh World Cup inset, and his third of this tournament (CIVPOR - CMRDEN), having left a good impression in both those previous two.

This match was a very difficult one to referee - the challenge not being in keeping control, nor card selection (Larrionda succeeded in both), but keeping up with a breathless encounter and determining in an effective way when to blow for a foul and when not. Especially given both team's physical way of playing, that was easier said than done.

Uruguayan referee must have been pretty exhausted at the final whistle after all that. He could have had as many as three players off, and right at the end might have awarded Serbia a penalty - whose complaints of "handball" were eight years before their time. 

Unsavoury scenes at the end, but FIFA must have been pretty pleased with how the game was handled, including by the assistant referees, even if Larrionda was not without fault - though, correct to not give that penalty Serbia appealed so vociferously for at the death.

Let's start with the crucial decisions of the afternoon, starting with the situation of the evening. 

Key Match Incidents

90' - Potential penalty to Serbia

I actually asked around for FIFA's official evaluation of this call, but nobody seemed to know for sure. The scene just had to involve Nemanja Vidić and Tim Cahill, without doubt the problematic player-pair of the match for the officials.

Ball very clearly hits Cahill's arm from Vidić's header, but this is an example of ball to hand - Australia player is looking the other way, jumps in a reasonable manner (one can't jump like a pencil), and his arm is not tense (an important clue for it's accidental-ness). The header certainly isn't in any danger of directly scoring a goal either.

The biggest problem here is that Larrionda almost definitely didn't see it at all. Regardless: by today's metric a very different story, but in 2010 he didn't miss a penalty here. 

58' - Potential red card for Miloš Ninković

Ninković's tackle is simply very dangerous - with his studs arrowed towards his opponent, Serbia midfielder makes a straight legged contact on Luke Wilkshire with medium-high intensity. 

I don't think he is trying to really block the shot, this is a challenge for the ball. What saves Ninković is where he hits Wilkshire - on the top of his foot. Besides that, all the boxes for Serious Foul Play are ticked. Ultimately, Larrionda took the right decision to issue a caution.

67' - Potential red card for Brett Emerton

Apparently it wasn't just me who noted how dangerous Ninković's challenge was - Brett Emerton did too, and jumps into a pretty ridiculous two-footed assault on his opponent some minutes later. Without any doubt, Emerton should have been sent off in my opinion.

However, given the (ostensibly) ball-orientated nature of Emerton's challenge in addition to the lack of a visibly ultra-dangerous contact (even if I would disagree, look at his left studs), one can support the decision to only caution the Australia player - just.

70' - Potential red card for Tim Cahill

Cahill and Vidić were at it again, this time momentarily in a slightly uncoordinated fight for the ball on the edge of the Serbia penalty area. Attack breaks down before, off-the-ball, Cahill decides to kick Vidić with excessive force. No foul is given, and Cahill and Vidić continue their battle verbally when play is stopped.

This incident is highly interesting because Larrionda did see it - only he didn't really. He caught the incident out of the corner of his eye, but didn't really recognise what happened on a conceptual level. That he immediately returns to the scene having stopped play suggests he really had the feeling something important happened there. 

If he had happened to be standing in a different place (deeper and left), I am quite sure he would have sent Cahill off. That being said, given that FIFA (in my opinion, scandalously) doesn't assess this kick out as a clear red card, one can doubt whether their evaluation in this lesserly violent scene wouldn't have been the same.

Penalising Cahill and cautioning him would be much easier to back than Larrionda doing nothing, in this case.

CRUCIAL MISTAKE

Approach

To be honest, Larrionda struggled a bit in this match. He had to very carefully balance not allowing the players too much, versus, impeding the flow of a highly dynamic encounter and inflaming the players in doing so. 

Uruguayan referee certainly didn't fail in that aspect, but the players found it hard to predict or anticipate when they were or weren't going to be penalised. I had the impression that Larrionda never really found a clear threshold in this match, hence the very short but discernible delay in many foul calls, which antagonised the players a bit.

One had the impression he was playing catch up with this game a little bit - without sounding like a broken record, contrary to Viktor Kassai's excellent handling of the Mexico - Uruguay match. 

Disciplinary control was good, Larrionda simply issued cautions for the offences that merited them - personally, I would have had Tim Cahill in the book for his holding foul at 84' (increasing presence at the end), but that's peanuts really.

Carlos Batres distinguished himself as fourth official at the end, protecting Larrionda from the furious (or rather: frustrated) Serbia players and technical staff; while the Uruguayan referee looked as if on a stroll chatting to both his assistants in a very relaxed way! Batres showed to be a good man there, besides any officiating consideration. 

Assistant Referees

Very strong performance from both assistants. Mauricio Espinosa in the first half (29', 30', 38') and later Pablo Fandiño even more-so in the second (54', 84', 85', +93') - especially all of Fandiño's calls were very important and crucial, he got them all correct. Well done!

Balance

Serbia might have complained, but their frustration should really have been in their own direction - it wasn't Larrionda's fault they had to chase the game at the end against a team who were already more-or-less eliminated. 

Jorge Larrionda delivered this game pretty well - even if he did struggle a bit, he kept at it until the end and steered this game to a good conclusion. If there was a bigger problem with this performance, it was the red cards not issued in the middle of the second half, not the potential penalty at the end of it.

I would like to think that if Larrionda took the same decision (in so far as he decided at all) at 90' against a big nation, let's say Germany, whether he would have gotten such a top next match as he did; I hope that would be the case! 

Ironically - Larrionda's keynote next game was nowhere near as challenging as this one; he certainly earned his appointment to a knockout stage match!

Jorge Larrionda - 7,8(2) Pablo Fandiño - 8,6 Mauricio Espinosa - 8,5  Carlos Batres Leonel Leal URU – GUA, CRC	Australia 2-1 Serbia Group Stage 23 June
Beauchamp (49') - Tackle Wilkshire (50') - Tackle Emerton (67') - Tackle	Luković (18') - Tackle Ninković (58') - Tackle