It all started in the 70th minute

Al Mirdasi and his ars

The referee from Saudi Arabia was assisted by his compatriot, Mr. Al Ashrawi (ar1) and by Mr. Al Amri from Oman. Mr. Al Amri was the best of the trio. Almost all the difficult calls were in his half of the field, and most of them were spot-on. One caveat: in the dying minutes (120'), he let Ilic (Serbia) take a shot on goal when it looked like he was offside when the ball was delivered to him. Mr. Al Ashrawi had much less to do. As for the ref., Mr. Al Mirdasi is a young man who has yet a long - and hopefully, a bright refereeing future in front of him. He handled the game quite well. The attitude of the players, Especially the Brazilians, was very friendly and sportsman like, which helped a lot. The two coaches (Micale - Brazil, Paunovic - Serbia) certainly dictated the good will of the players, congratulating eaxh other warmly, before the kick-off and after the final whistle. I was a bit astonished that, the ref. - a pe teacher - didn't display adequate fitness in the first 70 minutes, probably imitating the lacklustre performance of the players. Then, when pace was added to the game, so it did to the ref. running ability. His calls were generally allright, and he tried to avoid the need to show the yellow card, succeeding in this "mission" till the 100th minute, when he brandished it unnecessarily (under the circumstances, the general atmosphere, and the kind of infringement) towards Alef (Brazil). The second yellow, towards the Serb Jovanovic was more in place. But then (116'), culprit whose action was the sole brutal foul of this game - intentionally kicking the shin of an opponent - Ilic got away with it though the least has been given - a free-kick to Brazil. One other complaint: whenever there was a corner-kick, no matter where from (left or right) or how and where the players positioned themselves in the penalty-area, the ref. always chose to stand at the exactly same position (outside the penalty-area, tending to the left of being in a straight line with the center-spot and the penalty-spot). And when it really mattered (21'), while Veljkovic of Serbia pulled Danilo's shirt in front of Mr. Al Mirdasi when a Brazilian corner-kick was delivered, the ref. decided to turn his blind sight to the incident. (to be honest, many would have done the same, though he could solve it not necessarily with a penalty-kick, which connoiseurs might have expected, but with a retake of the corner-kick after having a word with the players, or even using the yellow card.)