R16 Analysis: ESP-POR - Baldassi (ARG)

and the anthems are playing....

 

5' - Spain has a good case for a PK. Or wimp out and call it Impeding. Anyway you look at it that was all body with no play to the ball.

 

What would the foul have been if it wasn't impeding? That looked like borderline impeding to me.

 

Hold?

 

it's like night and day from the early match. That game was lots of little ticky tack fouls. This game is almost nothing is a foul.

How was that not a foul when Casillas fumbled the ball and got crashed into by one of the Portuguese players?

 

I only remember the defender leaning into the attacker and not much holding going on. I could be wrong though.

Any idea what whistle he is using?

 

I think it is VERY interesting that he is refusing to call any fouls in C Ronaldo's favor. Has all the diving finally caught up with him?

 

This referee is working on reputations i think,and is not giving a foul for anything.

Though have to say it is better than the nitpicking referees who give foul for everything.

 

I don't think he likes calling fouls when the "fouled" player stops trying to play (ala C. Ronaldo, but there have been others). The foul on Pujols at midfield you could see him warn the Portugese player that he didn't like the stop and throw up your arms move.

 

I'm not sure what I think of Baldassi yet. Lots of flow, but the game isn't out of control. I think he found a good balance.

 

I did not report the post because i thought it was incorrect in any way.
I reported it just to make a point.
I was infracted for calling the referee incompetent and meek,which was proven as he was not competent enough to get the call right when technology could have and did ,it was factual too then.
And many referees have shown this world cup that they were not competent enough.How was anything different to calling Ronaldo a diver ?

I was also infracted by you just because i wanted a howler in the world cup final to tarnish it and force Fifa and Referees opposed to technology as it undermines their authority ,will have to change better for it.
And having the final tarnished will mean the world cup is affected for ever when in fact these mistakes in the earlier round will be swept under the carpet.
It was a wish on my part for justice to teams affected so far and i do not know how you constituted it as trolling when in fact it was posted in the thread about referees in the final.

https://www.bigsoccer.com/forum/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=1475785

Here is the thread i made about the infractions i received and overmoderation on these forums.

My previous attempts to post this link here and asking people to complain there if they felt the moderation was not correct here was removed by moderators here north korean style.
I just wanted people to complain to relevant authorities ,not in different threads as i have seen some people do here.

 

I think this is an interesting observation.

As a referee, you do take into consideration the reputation of a player. In this case, you know Ranaldo is one of the top players in the world and he will be targeted or marked by the opposing team. So, as a referee you want to be aware of who the main players are in a match so that you can make sure they are not unfairly treated.

You also may know that a player also has a reputation for exaggerated a foul or has a tendency to "dive" in an attempt to see a call. To keep the game fair, you must consider this part of the reputation too? It's a fine line, but it is a valid part of calling a balanced game.

So, to protect the player, you may give a little but to keep the game flowing you may also ignore a bit here and there.

This referee is doing just that, I believe, which is quite appropiate.

 

Here are a couple examples of people unhappy with the moderation levels here and mods being too guarded and defensive.
There are more too.

 

That goal involved two incredibly close offside decisions. The first one was spot on with the player being level, but I think Villa was ever so slightly offside, but I can't say for sure.

 

No, I DVR'd it.

 

yeah, I'd like to see the offside line on the goal too. I wonder why they haven't shown it to us. It looked like on that last little touch that Villa was offside to me.

 

I wished I had DVR'd it, but the reaction by the defense sure indicated that they accepted a no-call, so I too believe it must have been very close but still on-sides.

 

This ref has been great so far. Even gave a yellow at the right time -- completely lazy, late challenge. He missed maybe a call or two of legit fouls but he has seen through at least a dozen dive attempts, several quite clever.

 

Overall I've been fairly impressed with Baldassi. He seems to have found the right balance between playing an advantage, no calls, and fouls that both teams have accepted. The caution was spot-on, it wasn't for something that he had been letting go earlier in the match.

His positioning too is excellent. In fact, his positioning has been so obviously good that even Martin Tyler has had to comment positively on it. I'm hoping even more Germany blasts Argentina so that Baldassi might get one more assignment out of this tournament.

**EDIT** Just as I'm complimenting him, C. Ronaldo does genuinely get fouled. There does almost seem to be a thought in Baldassi's mind about Ronaldo going to ground too easily.