57 NEDBRA Nishimura

Netherlands went behind early against Brazil, but two second half goals of the scrappy variety turned the match around, and by the end their opponents had imploded - Felipe Melo correctly sent off for a stamp, it was the Oranje who dealt with the pressure of this top match better. Arguably the tournament favourites, Brazil were down and out.

Japanese referee Yūichi Nishimura was saved specially for a match of this stature (I'd argue the most sonorous match of the whole competition). After an impressive group stage (URUFRA - ESPHON - PARNZL), it all came together here for Nishimura - his performance was excellent. 

In a tie of great tension and pressure, the referee from Japan showed absolutely first class competencies in game-feeling and self-presentation to deliver a textbook piece of officiating in a match which very visibly meant everything to the players taking part in it. Victory for the Netherlands in this tie set them up to take to the pitch in the final - in my view, the same should have been true of it's referee.

Let's take a closer look.

Match

Lots happened, very early on in the match! Robinho let Mark van Bommel know that he was there in the first thirty seconds, Robin van Persie was sensibly (if not, then totally correctly) denied a penalty also in the opening minute, and André Ooijer also wanted to show an opponent, Luis Fabiano, that he wasn't in for a pleasant afternoon. 

I can scarcely remember a match with so many players, those already mentioned, plus, Maicon, Felipe Melo, Nigel de Jong, Michel Bastos and, especially, Arjen Robben, who were extremely key for the ref. Keeping all those big personalities in check, not inflaming them too much, and all the while encouraging them to focus on playing football, was certainly no easy task for the match referee!

That point was highlighted at 3'. Of course it's accepted that players do exaggerate contacts in order to win freekicks and get opponents sanctioned, but what Arjen Robben did here was a bit darker - he tried to put the referee under high pressure with this huge exaggeration of a bad foul, which simply didn't occur at all. He didn't just want to get an opponent in the book, he wanted to, f**k over Nishimura (excuse my vulgarity) and make him look like an idiot.

After a small delay, Nishimura blew for a freekick, and the Brazil players were incensed by Robben (rather famed in that department, too). Robinho, who seemed perpetually absolutely furious on this afternoon, is shepherded away by Netherlands players, and Nishimura oversees the game's return to calm. One might note a somewhat passive attitude here from the ref in the small confrontation - I disagree, but more on that later. 

Felipe Melo's deliberate foul at 4' ridden out, the officials had survived the choppy early minutes. Brazil took the initiative then, and gave Jeong Hae-sang two very crucial decisions to take. The assistant referee from South Korea got them both spot on - offside at 8', no goal; Robinho onside at 10', goal given. Well done, even if the latter call was definitely an expected one at a World Cup level (+ 0,1).

The game had something of a rhythm by this point, and John Heitinga (this not his last run in with officialdom) was the first player to be issued a caution, correctly so, for an expedient trip that the Japanese ref did well to detect with his trailing eye. Gilberto Silva received a formal warning for kicking the ball away (16'); good, well-managed.   

With 3' in mind especially, assessing duels involving Arjen Robben was a really pivotal task for the referee in so order to succeed in this match. After some rather deliberate, but still careless, fouls from behind, repeatedly on the Netherlands player (eg. 16', 24') by Michel Bastos, Nishimura issued Bastos a final warning. 

Here in England (I don't know if it's the same in other nations), referee instructors tell us that excellent officiating is setting the players up (for yellow cards they can't really complain about). Well, Nishimura did that par excellence here - when he committed exactly the same foul at 37' as before, the ref could take Bastos' name for a PI offence. This also balanced the cautions well and kept the Netherlands players onside with his refereeing. Very good!

Surely not helped in this regard by their overwrought coach, Dunga, the Brazil players were very highly strung throughout the match. Certainly, they didn't cover themselves in glory in their interactions with the match officials on a few occasions (eg. 18', 39'). 

While it wasn't the most pleasant sight, Nishimura in my view correctly discerned between genuine frustration and real attempts to challenge his leadership of the match. Doing anything other than trying to placate the Brazil players in these scenes would be fighting an uphill battle to say the least. 

That feeds into a wide point that I wanted to address - Nishimura's verbal communication skills are not that good (not that they are bad)! But no matter - a simply excellent use of mimics and gestures certainly accounts for that, even if it does leave him slightly undermanned when increasing his presence (or becoming an angry presence) could be of value (75' here, or at the end of URUFRA).

The rest of the game was delivered on the same very sophisticated level: good public warning for van Bommel to calm Brazil (42'); excellent simulation call outside the box (47'); quick intervention after a tactical holding foul (64'), likewise after a DtR case (76' - and the smile at his error said so much in Nishimura's favour). 

He allowed van Bommel too much at the end (88', 89', +92' - after 42' too), but in the bigger picture, that isn't too relevant. Yūichi Nishimura could blow the final whistle as a clear winner of the afternoon - a remarkable achievement, in this game of extreme difficulty. 

However, how positively you can gauge this performance, of course, depends greatly on how you view the solutions to some Key Match Incidents. He sent Melo off; should Bastos have gone too? And what about any further scenes? Let's put them in focus now. 

Key Match Incidents

25' - Potential penalty to Brazil

Nigel de Jong's tackle was untidy, but never unfair - I agree with FIFA's internal evaluation and Nishimura's decision, no foul. 

40' - Potential red card for Luis Fabiano

Mark van Bommel makes a rather awkward jump at Fabiano, who falls under van Bommel. Nishimura plays what might generally be considered a good advantage, and a further offence occurs some seconds later, for which he blows up. 

Unfortunately, the choice to play on was not a good one here - the nature of the foul (predictably) irritated Fabiano, and to such extent that he kicked out, hitting van Bommel in a rather delicate area. 

If the ref had have immediately blown for the van Bommel offence, I doubt Fabiano would have reacted in this way. He didn't, Fabiano did, and he should have been sent off and wasn't. On a theoretical level, this is nothing other than a violent conduct, even if nobody around the world was terribly bothered by it.

CRUCIAL MISTAKE

52' - Potential second yellow card to Michel Bastos

The consensus at least in the English media was that Bastos was very lucky here. I wouldn't even disagree, in that ie. some referees at the tournament would have cautioned him again and ordered him off, but actually I really liked this call by Nishimura.

Bastos pulls out of the sliding challenge, in which there is rather little force, in the end. I don't think players deserve to be cautioned, not least sent off, for such challenges - especially at the World Cup finals. Sometimes, not taking action can be more courageous than giving a penalty, showing a red card; I would argue this is one of the those cases. Bastos stayed on, the right decision for me. 

72' - Potential penalty to Brazil

In principle, André Ooijer pushes Kaká over inside the penalty area - the most isolatedly correct solution would be a penalty given. Ooijer looses his nerve and impedes the Brazil star. He is fortunate; Ooijer couldn't really have complained if the referee had blown for a spot kick.

That being said - one can't be sure that Kaká doesn't exaggerate the fall,and  perhaps Ooijer's movement in the same direction with the Brazil player falling over, gives the impression he was more impeded than it seemed. 

Ultimately, this surely wasn't enough for what would have been a momentous decision, not least, at that stage of the game.

73' - Red card to Felipe Melo

Melo certainly had what could be considered a bad day at the office. Responsible for the mix-up which led the equaliser, his clear stamp on Arjen Robben was detected by the officials, and he was correctly shown the red card.

The Brazil player's anger was actually triggered by the referee; in Melo's view, he missed a clear foul on him some seconds before. Actually, it seems he might have a case - van Bommel seems to accidentally tread (though what ever the opposite of Hanlon's razor is, we should apply it to van Bommel's play) on his foot. I guess Nishimura misses that on a perception-expectation-recognition level - and I wouldn't blame him too much.

Brazil team were threatening such a moment of madness as soon as the game kicked off, and Melo duly delivered - rightly, he walked. 

Balance 

Yūichi Nishimura displayed his skills on the highest level with an excellent performance in this huge game; he more than repaid the trust put in him, with a brilliant display in real extremis. It hung in the balance at 3', at 75' - but actually his approach was perfectly judged in my view. One shouldn't underestimate how impressive it was that a man of his optic could succeed in this Netherlands - Brazil match. 

I would argue that this game should have been Nishimura's thesis to handle the final - he was the best option available, in my view.  

So why, then, did he not get it? Well, given that neither Jorge Larrionda's nor Roberto Rosetti's officiating gave your association a reason to staunchly complain to FIFA, and therehence needed appeasing, it seems that the Japanese ref never actually had a chance against Howard Webb and Benito Archundia, whom in my opinion, Nishimura performed better than both of overall in the competition. 

The rather ironic thing here is that, arguably, according to FIFA's own internal evaluations, that Japan were more damaged in the Round of Sixteen than either England or Mexico - just less sensationally so. Frank De Bleeckere was determined to have made a clear mistake in not awarding Japan an eighty-eighth minute penalty against Paraguay. I actually disagree, but in any case - it seems wider feelings of injustice are more important than reality. FIFA, eh!

Nishimura was at least rewarded with further participation in the semifinal and the final itself as fourth official. Even if in my view he deserved more, one should not lose sight of his achievement - Japan had a referee at every World Cup since 1986 (save 1994, Ali Bujsaim beat Shin'ichirō Obata on Farouk Bouzo's shout), and no official had come close to what Nishimura had achieved. He should be very proud of that!

2010 though, was as good as it got for Nishimura at a FIFA level. Later, he would be sunk by the new way of refereeing (Confed Cup 2013) and then Busacca's positioning instructions (BRACRO). It's a shame he is remembered by non-refereeing people for one wrongly assessed incident. 

At least in refereeing ourselves, I hope we can balance that out with the excellence the Japanese ref showed, especially in his style, that he used so well in 2010 (particularly in this match!). 

Yūichi Nishimura - 7,9 (8,7) Tōru Sagara - 8,4 Jeong Hae-sang - 8,5 Khalil Al-Ghamdi Hassan Kamranifar JPN, JPN, KOR – KSA, IRN	Netherlands 2-1 Brazil Quarterfinal 2 June
Heitinga (14') - SPA (Tripping) van der Wiel (47') - Simulation de Jong (64') - SPA (Holding) Ooijer (76') - Delaying the Restart	Bastos (37') - Persistent Infringement
	Melo (73') - Violent Conduct (Stamping)