51 GERENG Larrionda

 

(of all the games where we were forced to use a British television feed for the highlights :))

Germany deservedly defeated England to progress through the to the quarterfinal of World Cup 2010, by virtue of a four-one victory. The otherwise well-refereed game, of course, is infamously remembered for the goal scored by Frank Lampard, not given by Jorge Larrionda's Uruguayan officials trio. 

The irony of this was not lost on German people anyway - memories went back to the original Wembley-Tor forty-four years previous. "They said that it didn't cross the line in 1966, well that definitely did, by a yard" - the commentary from the other big terrestrial broadcaster, ITV, best sums up the unamused English attitude. 

Whereas the linesman from the Soviet Union, (Azeri) Tofiq Bəhramov totally misperceived the situation way back when, thinking the ball had hit the back of the net - not the crossbar - before bouncing down onto the line, the Uruguayan officials led by Jorge Larrionda were simply very unlucky in 2010. 

If the ball had gone to Manuel Neuer's left, and not right, I suspect that the far-side assistant Mauricio Espinosa would have seen the ball cross - as it happened, even Usain Bolt wouldn't have been able to make up the ground in time to be in line, and the Germany goalkeeper blocked Espinosa's view. 

Neither he nor Larrionda could be sure, and the goal was not given. Espinosa's mistake technically, yes, but really one which lay at the door of football administrators, and was corrected by the time of the next World Cup in 2014. 

Approach

England deserved to be eliminated anyway, as noted by the media here, they simply played very poorly. The same is not true of referee Larrionda - ironically, this was comfortably the easiest of all his matches in 2010; he did a good job.

How life isn't fair sometimes - Larrionda simply refereed the game well (unpunished reckless foul at 12' aside), his choice of opening card (47') and verbal warning to Neuer (54') were top class, and how he kept his chin up despite surely knowing what had happened, was really impressive in my eyes. 

Actually, Mauricio Espinosa was quite busy with important calls up to that point - correct (with Larrionda supporting?) to determine the touch at 4' as a save, but incorrect with a tight and important flag at 31' (- 0,2). Pablo Fandiño was quiet. 

Balance

Remarkably, this game affected appointments at a World Cup even eight years later. Andrés Cunha's trio, containing Espinosa, would have handled the England - Croatia and not France - Belgium semifinal were it not for this connection with this match. 

Nice for Espinosa that he could right the wrongs of South Africa - decisions to shout in the comms for a handling penalty (France - Australia) and to disallow a goal for an offside spotted by an eagle eye (Spain - Iran) were simply top class, testament to his quality, and sheer bad luck in 2010. 

On Larrionda - if it is any consolation to him, then by my calculation this would likely have been his last match as a referee at the tournament anyway. The only game left for him after this one would have been the final, and given a South American had gotten it last time, it was unlikely he would get the gig.

Regardless - it was a great shame that one of the excellent international referees of the noughties had to exit the (FIFA) stage in this way. His greatly courageous law-enforcer style is certainly lost on us nowadays, for better or worse.

Unfortunately, there had to be a fool to such a situation in a huge game for change to happen (GLT in 2014), and fate determined Jorge Larrionda as that man. Nowadays, a look merely at one's flashing watch, can avoid the mistake that ended the Uruguayan officials' tournament in ignominy. Can't life be cruel... 

Jorge Larrionda - 8,3 Pablo Fandiño - 8,4 Mauricio Espinosa - 7,8(2) Martín Vázquez Miguel Nievas URU	Germany 4-1 England Round of Sixteen 27 June
Friedrich (47') - Tackle	Johnson (81') - SPA (Holding)