No control, no game management

Women play differently...

In general, women matches are more fun to referee as you are able to let the game flow and do not have to intervene so frequently. The players show more restraint in their physical effort and do not complain as much as their male counterparts. Having said that, it was quite different on that night in Frankfurt where Nigeria relied on very physical play to break the German rhythm who couldn't live up to the expectation being the favourite and the home nation in one.

Nigeria had a tactical concept

From a tactical point of view this match reminded me a lot of the German-Serbia encounter at the WC 2010 in South Africa. Nigeria played not only very physical, but also tried to pressure the home side quite high in their own field and to provide them with no space to develop their game. The referee had no answer to the way the Nigerians played and decided only circumstantially which was too little considered the way this match was played.

The decision making

The policy of Sung Mi Cha to "wait and see" what would happen in this match was wrong as I have already pointed out, but moreover I have to say that I found her decision making in general was weak. She let go numerous challenges which were beyond the limit and whistled on the other hand some very soft freekicks. The Germans found no recipe against the Nigerian way of playing and started to play rough as well which could have been prevented by a better referee.

The card management

I will not start with the disallowed goal which was not offside by a couple of inches, but the card management was utterly disastrous. No cards in the first half, no cards for tactical fouls, no cards for axing a German player in the 56th minute, but the first circumstantial caution for an ellbowing in the 57th minute was simply unsatisfactory. The second yellow for a German tackle in the 73rd was justified, but after so many challenges going unpunished it just seemed too little too late to me.

We have far better female referees...

The problem was not only that she had no authority on the pitch, but also that she found no concept on how to react to the arising challenges in this match. I must say that I seriously doubt that she could handle a "normal" male match in Europe if she refereed like this. We have got good female referees, e.g. Bibiana Steinhaus in Germany, but this was two to three categories below WC level. This WC deserves better female referees than this!