Soccer World Cup: Three red cards – Mexico-South Africa’s refereeing speaks volumes

In the match, the discussion was first of all the refereeing. Brazilian referee Wilton Sampaio pulled out a red card from his back pocket no less than three times during the 90 minutes.

The number is shocking, because four years ago at the World Cup in Qatar, a total of four red cards were handed out in all matches. Even in the previous Russian Games, red was dug out of the back pocket only four times.

Now South Africa Find Refuge and King Four and Mexico Cesar Montes flew too early to take a shower.

Sanoma’s refereeing expert Jan-Peter Aravirran in my opinion, referee Sampaio performed his task well, even though the number of removals from the field is very exceptional.

“And two more reds for blocking an obvious goal slot. They’re not very common, and now two in the same game. Pretty cool.”

“Three red cards in the opening match is quite a start. Could it also have an effect, that there are so many teams in the games? It affects the quality of the game and the players, and therefore all kinds of injuries happen more,” Aravirta reflects.

Self in Aravirra’s opinion, the situations were such that everyone could easily get a red card. In the first situation, Mexico Brian Gutierrez was running away to drive through, Sithole, who was left behind, ran on his back.

Since the contact was outside the penalty area, a red card had to be given if a foul was whistled. It was about blocking an obvious scoring opportunity with a foul.

Gutierrez played the situation shrewdly. He slowed down and left his other leg as if between Sithole’s legs to ensure contact.

“The Mexican player played it really smart. He drove to the running line, and Sithole a bit overplayed the situation and ran towards him. Gutierrez knew what he was doing, but he didn’t do anything that wasn’t allowed. He ensured with his actions that there would be contact and a red card.”

Sithole’s foul continued to the penalty area, but started outside the area. That’s why the situation called for a free kick. This also affects the color of the card, because if the situation had been judged harsher, no red card and therefore “double punishment” would have been given.

“The same foul inside the area, then there would have been a penalty kick and a yellow card,” Aravirta points out.

In another In South Africa’s run out, Zwane was deemed guilty of a violent foul. of Mexico Roberto Alvarado provoked him with a peculiar block that resembled a backlash, and Zwane slapped him in the face with his hand.

The situation was checked on video for a long time, and in the end the verdict was an out. There was more discussion for and against this verdict than the first one. There were a lot of people who thought the verdict was questionable.

In Aravirta’s opinion, this also went well.

“When a blow comes to the face with a hand, for example, the force should be very little so that there is no red card. My first reaction was that no way, but the camera angle behind the goal showed what happened.”

“You could see that the hand hit the head and the head jerked a little. It looked like a fair sentence.”

The red card of Mexico’s Montes in extra time of the match also sparked discussion. Above all, Montes’ foul seemed silly when the team led by two goals and there was no one to pass him Nurture Mudau was getting to the very diamond finish line.

The above is also the reason why many spectators considered the foul worthy of a yellow card. Mudau seemed to be drifting a bit off the finish line, even if there had been no fault.

“It’s easy for me to understand the argument that the ball was going straight towards the goal line, but I think Mudau would have been able to shoot from a very good position. Not a really good goal position, but a goal position nonetheless. That’s why the red card was the right solution for this as well.”

of the World Cup the opening match was amazing, but in Aravirra’s opinion there was no problem with the refereeing.

This time it was rather the players who played foolishly that caused the commotion.