A decent job

Referee and assistants

Mr. Clattenburg got the gold medal match of the Olympic Games thus becoming "first" in an impressive field of referees juggling for front positions here as well as for the race to WC 2014. How did he fare at WEmbley? Quite well. He tried to calm down the players with a strategy similar to Webb's - not rushing to his pocket, gesturing with his hands and talking, lots of talking. The director preferred not to use replays in many cases, but in some of the few ones he did, the ref "was caught" failing (10', 40'). There were also moments where he hampered either team of opportunities to use the advantage rule. It was most obvious in the last five minutes of the first half, when it seemed his whistle went once and again as he might have been frightened lest the game would go out of hand. The assistants referees, Mr. Child and Mr. Beck, were assisted by lack of replays as there were questions raised about some of their decisions. Neverthe less, there should loom a big question mark over Mr. Child's flag indicating an infringement of a Brazilian defender on a Mexican player. From first sight (no opportunity for a second one given by the director), the best decision would have been to let the game flow. At best, if there should have been a call, it would have been against the Mexican who came from behind after missing the high cross sent to him. But Mr. Child was the closest to the scene... The free-kick ended with the second Mexican goal.