The second surprise in the tournament

Brych compared to Geiger

I watched two matches live yesterday and find it interesting to crossexamine the lines of both officials in comparison. Mark Geiger ignored quite a lot of the nickly little bits and had an "Get on with the game" idea for what to whistle. Felix Brych had a very narrow scope, penalised a lot of little fouls and hence had a match rhythm that was very scattered by these breaks. I think he wanted to be on the safe side and therefore gave relatively little space for the game to develop. The match was disputed rather than played, so I understood why he did this but this contributed to a rather low level of play in the first half.

Afraid to show cards?

Having said that he was very whistle-happy in game management, he was more than generous in terms of discipline control in the first half. Costa Rica tackled a few times in a borderline manner and Brych only warned verbally. After 24 minutes, there was a reckless challenge with both legs where I felt a yellow card would have been the better option. The yellows in the second half were correct (two for tactical fouls by Uruguay, the third was borderline to red). For this last offence Brych was far too casual: He walked over, nodded slightly and showed his card without a further word. The Red was well deserved and well spotted.

Other calls

The penalty was in line with his line to whistle for little things, but dear me how many could you give in a match like this for holding, tearing the jersey apart and jumping on top of opponents during corners, freekicks and even throw-ins? This looked soft to me and unbalanced if we consider what happend five minutes later at the other end of the pitch. No pen given against Lugano, hmm. Not the best choice I believe. Nevertheless, of course there was a holding in the box and I myself have given penalties like this without being really happy everafter because after a pen like this everyone wants one for every short contact in the box. The 2-1 may have been offside by an inch - the German TV said the pictures were inconclusive so we give Brych and his team the benefit of the doubt. Offside detection was good on the whole as was cooperation in the refereeing team.

Brych's manner

This is probably his greatest virtue after years of grave looking and never smiling officials like Stark, Fandel and Merk. He is less German in his outer manner as he is rather communicative, almost friendly and approachable. This showed in this match and I think that this was the best point of his performance. He managed the match well in my mind, but it was not as hard as it could have been.