One here, one there (II)

Red beginning

Amarilla started the game with his seal: a really hard action by Pérez against Mascherano during the 3rd minute should have been punished with a direct red. It clearly was a dangerous and reckless action against the Argentinian midfielder, but the referee only used his yellow card. Just 2 minutes later, Pérez scored for Uruguay... which means that a player who should have been sent off, gave his team the first difference in the score. At 38th minute, and after having committed 4 or 5 more fouls, Pérez was finally sent off by Amarilla. Pérez obtained a 35 free minutes ticket from the Paraguayan ref.

Amarilla style

Amarilla began then "administering" his criteria when he whistled. One here, one there... if you are yet booked, I won´t show you another card except it´s essential. He delayed a lot to book both Argentinian central deffenderes, who fouled the Uruguayan attackers in almost every air action (in fact, Milito should have been sent off because of a double yellow). But instead of this, Amarilla chose to show a red to Mascherano for a minor action during the 2nd half.

Good for the assistants

The assistants helped Amarilla: they invalidated one goal to each team during the 1st half for off-sides, in both cases, correctly.

And... about football

Uruguay, despite playing in a very hard way, had a great match, playing a good part of the match with just 10 players. A great night of their goalkeeper Muslera, and an excellent job of Suárez and Forlán, meant for Uruguay a new access to a continental semi-final after winning the penalty kicks 5-4. Argentinian's managers in AFA and the coach should be thinking why, in both World Cup and Copa América, they haven´t taken enough advantage of Lionel Messi, one of the greatest players in the world. Bad for us.