Too friendly for this friendly...

The wrong policy for this match

Daniele Orsato wanted to be a generous referee which didn't work in this match. The Polish team had a point to make against a weak German side for which this encounter had no real significance. They played quite aggressively also in terms of tacklings and were the better looking side over a substantial amount of time in this match. The Italian referee was not bad in decision making, but was very passive to protests by the Polish side which was asking for trouble in the long run as this started quite early on in the game.

What he got wrong...

He was inconsistant in his card policy. Someone must have told him it looked bad if he booked in a friendly so he tried to avoid it for 70 minutes. This was wrong as the two teams were not as friendly as they should have been for this strategy. The offside decisions were often close, but there were several mistakes I could spot - I am not pointing out specific situations but on the whole the assessement of the positioning by the referee teams was not convincing to my mind. He didn't book Mertesacker (58') and Schmelzer (65') when he should have, but sent off Glowacki for a second yellow after a stupid push which seemed over-the-top compared to the rest of his card policy. The yellow for Kroos for a brief shirt-pulling was the same as the same "pulling test" by Blasczykowski a few minutes later went unpunished.

Penalties

The first German penalty was the result of an unnecessary tackling with a stretched leg which Muller used wisely to fall - I think he jumped and went down even before there was contact. But in real time, the referee will find it hard to spot the differerence. With the example of Howard Webb from the last EC in his mind, he awarded Poland also a penalty after a contact between Wiese and the polish attacker. Poland deserved to win, but the Germans came back in the very closing stages of this match. As for Orsato, I remain unconvinced by his policy and uninspired by his performance on the night.