Different schools of refereeing competing for primacy

Three matches in a day

It was the first time I had time to see all three encounters of the day. Portugal is not known to be at ease with referee decisions when they don't win but on the night they have to blame themselves. Ronaldo got a pen, shot him onto the post, scored from a metre in offside position and had some good chances saved by Almer in the Austrian goal. Get over it CR7, it wasn't the ref (sorry, but that has to be said). There was one wrong offside call in the first half where they seemed at the same level - so a marginal error by the Italian team.

Rizzoli

Rizzoli is like a Roman emperor - not always at the scene, but he watches and when necessary he steps in. All the yellows I have seen were justified and he eased some tensions off in a low key manner as he does effectively without yelling around. He is not running around like a rabbit but has this rather neutral way of moving about which is fine to me. He has a measured approach and has the courage to impose his rhythm to the match. He was not fooled by some easy falling in this match and showed what he thought of some of the "fouls".

Personality

For me, Rizzoli shows what other refs seem to lack seriously: personality and character. It didn't work to the same extent in the WC final, but in an average match with two hot sides he seems to be a fair bet. In my opinion much better than some of the heroes on top of the list, but maybe this is also a question of appreciation which school of refereeing you feel attached to.