The best team

Referee and assistants

Yes, it was an easy game and the players posed no difficulties for the ref. either to control the match or to get the right decisions. But, as some of you know, I totally object the idea of reduced marks for that reason alone.
Mr. Mazic gave a solid performance. I especially liked his clear indications when he was sure there was no foul play, and the player whom one might suspect as committing an infringement had the upper hand.
On the other hand, there were to many occasions where the ref preferred to blow whistle to using the advantage rule. One of these cases happened in the 61` minute, when the whistle went against Israel for hand-ball instead of letting Latvia, who had one of their players with full possession of the ball, go on. Luckily for the ref. as well as for the match as a whole, the free-kick led to Latvia`s equalizer. The assistants referees were very good. Mr. Ristic and Mr. Tomicic were positively involved in indicating infringements and awarding free-kicks, and their offside detection was also very good.
There is one caveat though - the first goal, Barda for Israel, was scored from very close range. The ball went over the goal-line in the air before Vanins succeeded in pushing it back into the field. The way Mr. Tomicic (a very experienced assistant referee - born in 1966, Fifa ar since 2003) indicated the ball crossed the line was very strange, causing some tension and even bewildering Mr. Masic for a few seconds: He raised his flag high up, even holding it with a slight angle towards his right (the goal-line) instead of pointing with his flag or with his other arm to center-spot. Then he put his flag down and started to move towards the halfway-line.