A&H

World Cup WWC Final - Spain v England

I referee top tier u18 girls and 2nd tier womens (not England so knock a few tiers off for equivalence)… I’ve done a few top tier friendlies with teams that are on the edge of European qualification - and I’ve seen the great pace of the game at that level.

Positive point about today - the pace of the match was incredible - way beyond what I have seen before. And this meant it was a very challenging match to referee. We can quibble but does it get any harder than this? It was also really exciting because there was so much contact and so many “careless” challenges.

I think it’s fair to constructively criticize the officials - that’s what this forum is for - but in the context of an amazing football match. In that sense, I come away for once with a positive feeling about the football family.
 
The Referee Store
RustyRef said:
I thought she was good in the first half, think the VAR penalty incident knocked her confidence. She clearly didn't want to give it with the amount of time it took, although my view is she moved her hand to the ball and it was a penalty.

She didn't manage timewasting well at all. Not just the potential second caution, but there were other obvious cases that she didn't manage, the most obvious being when Spain spent ages setting up a corner only to then switch the taker with someone coming from a long distance away. That's a classic tactic and has to be a caution, I'd be expecting a Level 7 to be dealing with that let alone a FIFA referee. I'm going to be honest here, I don't think many FIFA referees would be giving a second caution for kicking the ball into the crowd, and certainly not in a World Cup final. The mistake Penso made was going to her pocket before realising who it was, better referees wouldn't make that mistake. And the English players missed a trick, if they had got around her she really wouldn't have had a lot of choice but to pull the second caution out.
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A good summary. Even had it been 2YC I don't think reducing ESP to 10 at that point would have altered the result. It's a shame she pulled out when her instinct was correct... And what a message the 2nd YC would have sent to all levels of the game.
 
one said:
Anyone thinking Penso had poor game, this was not much different to the England v Aus game.
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I think it was significantly different. I don't think she had a terrible game by any means but she got some cautions wrong.

What she did really well in the semi final was match control. I don't think she did as well in this game.

I applauded her appointment to the final I think she deserved it. I don't think she had her best day today.
 
I know I’m late to this, but there were at least 2 or 3 occasions where I thought ‘nailed on SPA caution’ and didn’t see one, which I think really didn’t help her case. Not the best performance in my opinion
 
george.g said:
I know I’m late to this, but there were at least 2 or 3 occasions where I thought ‘nailed on SPA caution’ and didn’t see one, which I think really didn’t help her case. Not the best performance in my opinion
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Difficult to blame the referee though if FIFA have told her to be lenient. As I said before, we see in almost every major final that referees don't caution for offences that they would do in other games.
 
DevonRef said:
A good summary. Even had it been 2YC I don't think reducing ESP to 10 at that point would have altered the result. It's a shame she pulled out when her instinct was correct... And what a message the 2nd YC would have sent to all levels of the game.
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I’m just firmly convinced that FIFA doesn’t want something like that as a 2CT in a major tournament knockout game. We can debate all day about whether that’s right. I don’t think it is, but we see this all the time at the elite professional/senior international level.

We have to remember that World Cup referees have extensive training about how management (I.e. Collina) wants to see games refereed. When we see things like this not dealt with regardless of referee, it’s coming from management.

I’m not trying to defend my compatriot here. It’s just not any different than what we face every day in our own full time jobs. The boss wants something done a certain way. You may not agree. But if it isn’t illegal or immoral, you do it.
 
RustyRef said:
Difficult to blame the referee though if FIFA have told her to be lenient. As I said before, we see in almost every major final that referees don't caution for offences that they would do in other games.
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I do ‘t think FIFA has made any explicit instructions to be lenient. I think the message is learned by refs based on who gets rewarded And how they reffed. IMHO, this game would have been well served by a slightly lower foul bar, and I thought there were missed fouls within the bar she used than I expect from her.

on the PK, I thought it was pretty clear. but what I didnt like was what she was looking at--slos motion of handling decisions makes things look worse. There wasn’t a question of whether it touched her hand. In my view for deliberate and biggering, she should be looking at full speed. But FIFA hasn’t asked my advice….
 
Very surprised to see the same referee have a semi-final and a final, can't remember it happening in any other cup competition.

More and more gamesmanship creeping into the women's game.

Can't blame the referee England didn't lay near their best against a technically superior opposition.
 
bester said:
Very surprised to see the same referee have a semi-final and a final, can't remember it happening in any other cup competition.
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you can’t recall because it hasn’t happened since around 1930 in a WC. And in modern times, sounds like the only time in a FIFA event was something like a u15 WC.
 
Plenty of comments on here have been about the lack of the 2nd YC for the Spain player but not one person has suggested that the referee missed a caution on the England player for trying to get in the face of the Spanish penalty taker!

I thought the referee did a good job in what was a keenly contested match. FIFA (Collina) don’t want second yellow cards for technical offences especially in the Final so that was never going to be given.

I’ve read comments on this match from a variety of sites/forums/social media pages and it seems that the vast majority of complaints about the referee all originate from English sites/referees… that might tell its own story 😂
 
socal lurker said:
I do ‘t think FIFA has made any explicit instructions to be lenient. I think the message is learned by refs based on who gets rewarded And how they reffed. IMHO, this game would have been well served by a slightly lower foul bar, and I thought there were missed fouls within the bar she used than I expect from her.
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I don't believe in coincidence, and it would be one hell of a coincidence that every major final referee in recent years chose to be lenient.
 
RustyRef said:
I don't believe in coincidence, and it would be one hell of a coincidence that every major final referee in recent years chose to be lenient.
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Who said anything about coincidence? Referees see what gets rewarded. I don’t think anyone at FIFA is saying to not give mandatory cards. I think Rs are inferring the best way to be well regarded.
 
Scotty Ref said:
Plenty of comments on here have been about the lack of the 2nd YC for the Spain player but not one person has suggested that the referee missed a caution on the England player for trying to get in the face of the Spanish penalty taker!
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Yeah, much as I like her as a player, I thought Bronze was well out of order there.
 
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