Great

Good choice

I thought this semi-final was going to be officiated by an European ref. Well, fortunately I was wrong, because Vázquez was finally the best choice. A game between Brazil and Argentina is always special and nobody could know this better than an Uruguayan referee. Vázquez knew that he would have to work in a heated climate (and not only because of Beijing summer) but also that he was refereeing a match where the two biggest South-American country-teams were going to fight for a place in the Olympic final.

Off-sides&penalty

Vázquez and one of his assistants decided that the 2nd Arg. goal was legal, and it was: Agüero was behind Brazilian player Nº3 line. The referee and the other lineman decided to invalidate a Brazilian goal, and they were also OK: Pato was slightly off-side. Vázquez also decided to concede a penalty to the Argentinians, and he was, again OK: Agüero was tripped by Breno. The referee did everything well here.

And...

During the 2nd half Argentina was superior. Brazilians get nervous when another team does what they use to do: playing a nice football, making the fans enjoy, and scoring one, two, or three goals. Brazilians doesn´t know how to loose. And they often do what they did here: hitting the other team players. As a result of this, Lucas and Thiago Neves were perfectly sent-off by Vázquez after two terrible kickings against Mascherano.