Iraq u20 - Uruguay u20, Jonas Eriksson

Description of the match

Second semifinal at this edition of FIFA Under-20 World Cup, played in Trabzon, Turkey, in front of a crowd of approximately 3000 supporters. Iraq performed well under defensive aspects but failed to create chances to score a goal. Uruguay however were dominant in most parts of the match but were lucky to score a late equalizing goal leading to extra time and the decisive penalty shoot-out. The match never was unfair and revealed only a couple of challenging situations for the match officials from Sweden. The referee had to deal with a normal level of difficulty.

Management of the match (decisions, control)

Card management was one of his strengths. All cards issued were correct, specially the yellow card in the 106th minute of play was well spotted (the elbow was deployed in a reckless but hidden manner).
Another challenge for him was the Management of additional time. One very long injury of the Iraqi goalkeeper lasted more than five minutes (54), so that he correctly added eight minutes of added time.
His match control was on a high level throughout the whole 130 minutes. However he could stay more alert in terms of throw-ins - many players tended to steal some metres at them which was ignored by the referee. These are the major points as the match did not reveal crucial situations.

Personalty, style, tactical approach

The key to a good performance was Eriksson's man management and his ability to clearly and understandably explain his decisions to the players. He earned respect for his decisions by that. He furthermore issued a couple of verbal warnings to keep the things under control.
Although Eriksson seemed to be relaxed and friendly in his player management, he sometimes just whistled and looked grimmy at players who partly had already turned their backs to the referee. He should improve this way of dealing with players - same goes for his sometimes inaccurate positioning, he was too close to play in some moments.