61 URUNED Ėrmatov

 

For the first time since the 1970s, the Netherlands played their way into the FIFA World Cup final. It was frantic at the end, but they held on to their three-two lead against tournament surprise package Uruguay, to secure passage through. 

This was, if I may say so, quite a weird semifinal - the players were obviously very tense, and tried to fight each other at least twice (once after the final whistle), but the game was played on rather calm lines besides. The man who had to face that as referee was the Uzbek Ravšan Ėrmatov, who had already delivered four matches in the competition (RSAMEX - ENGALG - GREARG - ARGGER).

This appointment was the result of a huge amount of political wrangling - so much so, that Ravšan Ėrmatov and his assistants, who had only just returned to the ref's HQ at Kievits Kroon from their Saturday Cape Town quarterfinal, had to quickly pack their bags again, in a couple of hours, having gotten back, in order not to miss the flight for this semifinal on the Tuesday!

Ėrmatov showed no signs of fatigue at all - his fitness was, as ever, excellent, and his calm (and when necessary, firm) style succeeded in this match. This one required close concentration, and the ref had that from start to finish. 

The Uzbek's solution to the scene which caused the first half confrontation was sensible (even if the yellow card was actually wrong according to the tournament's general interpretation!). Martín Cáceres' actions were definitely reckless, and Wesley Sneijder too was correctly sanctioned for pushing him over in retaliation. 

Edinson Cavani was correctly denied a penalty at 32' - definitely not a dive, nor enough for a whistle either. I was really impressed by his tactical choices regarding cards, cards for reckless challenges at 21' (even SFP? flying and look at the hitting point(s)) and 78'; Mark von Bommel deliberately kicking the ball away at the end, deserved his yellow too. 

The biggest mistake Ėrmatov made was missing a (reckless) foul by van Bommel in the build up to the wonder opening goal. But that aside, there is little to discuss or critique in the ref's performance - very impressive in a World Cup semifinal!

Assistant Referees

Without doubt, the most controversial situation in this game was the second Netherlands goal (70') - (clip). Bachadyr Kočkarov should have raised his flag - Robin van Persie committed an active offside offence in trying to play the ball, only missing with his attempt for being fooled by the deflection on the shot. 

Referee was screened, and Kočkarov had to decide whether van Persie was a) offside, and, b) active, on his own. It was a tricky situation, but on at least one of those counts he failed. This was a very important goal in a World Cup semifinal - and it was offside (crucial mistake). 

Kyrgyz assistant Kočkarov had a challenging match - overall besides 70', he fared okay, but made an important mistake at 12'. Rafael Iljasov correctly kept his flag down at +47', amidst a quieter game for the man controlling the near side. 

Balance

In his fifth match of the tournament, Ravšan Ėrmatov, as in his first four, did a good job. Ref from Uzbekistan enjoyed a simply remarkable tournament - after 2002, he scored a brilliant victory for match officials from smaller nations; all of his appointments were firmly on merit. 

He didn't deserve the final this time, but it seemed inevitable that one day he would handle football's biggest match. As we know, it never worked out that way... starting with his technical mistake at Confederations Cup 2013, and sub-par performances at two World Cups, culminating in a rather awful showing at the Russian tournament. 

Ėrmatov was perhaps fortunate that he didn't have to face any very challenging matches in 2010 (contrary to later tournaments), and showed some deficiencies in the Argentina - Germany quarterfinal. But - in principle, I believe he was a good referee. 

Sepp Blatter and Massimo Busacca moved the goalposts for how to effectively referee FIFA games after this tournament, and after that it all started to go wrong for the Uzbek referee. This seems like a weird thing to say, given his style was pretty lenient anyway, but to see the Blatter-Busacca project as just leniency is really reductionist in my view: it's about so much more than that. 

It's true he wasn't the best referee ever, and was fortunate that from the start he was a FIFA starlet, but I would strongly contest the notion that he just got lucky in 2010 - no, he officiated five games including the opener, a quarterfinal and a semifinal, really well. Ėrmatov should be really proud of what he achieved in South Africa. 

I suspect it would have been along similar lines as what played out, but the point and pondering remains - we will never know what would have happened to Ravšan Ėrmatov, were it not for FIFA's post-2010 revolution. 

Ravšan Ėrmatov - 8,4 Rafael Iljasov - 8,4 Bachadyr Kočkarov - 7,8(2) Yūichi Nishimura Tōru Sagara UZB, UZB, KGY – JPN	Uruguay 2-3 Netherlands Semifinal 6 July
M. Pereira (21') - Tackle Cáceres (29') - Tackle	Sneijder (29') - Aggressive Behaviour Boulahrouz (78') - Tackle van Bommel (+94') - Delaying the Restart