PHILADELPHIA – I typically defend referees (and get some flak for it). It’s a very hard job with very little gratitude under very great pressure. All the while you have players trying to cheat and you have to be everywhere at once. When you get things right nobody notices. When you get things wrong everybody does. And, after all of those caveats, I need to say: France vs Paraguay was a disgrace.
Against Argentina, Cape Verde demonstrated one way an underdog can punch up: cavalier attacking, tactical courage and the liberty that comes with never thinking you would be in this position and never assuming you will be again.
Paraguay, for balance, had a different plan in mind. They completed 62 passes in the first 70 minutes. They defended so deep they risked creating a trench in their penalty area. They were physical to the point of farce. And that’s the point on which the game got stuck for an hour.
It worked because Paraguay were not stopped. There has clearly been a directive during this World Cup to keep the number of yellow cards to a minimum and avoid suspensions in the knockout rounds. Which on some level is to be applauded. We don’t want fussiness to the point of distraction.
But at some point laissez-faire ends and prison rules begin. In Philadelphia., Ilgiz Tantashev repeatedly allowed Paraguayan players to almost literally kick, claw and scratch their way into a contest. They lashed out. They went to ground too easily. They stayed down to get treatment.
Even after VAR had intervened to award France their penalty, the penalty spot was scuffed to such comical extent that Ousmane Dembele, ostensibly there to guard against it, needed three or four teammates to help. Gustavo Velazquez was the worst offender but this was a team sport.
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Then, in added time, Matias Galarza swiped his fist into the face of Jules Kounde and again nothing was done. How on earth VAR did not intervene I will never know.
The greatest punchline: France received the only three bookings of the match. All of the fouling and -let’s call it what it is – cheating led to no cards. It was as if one, slightly strict, referee was overseeing one team and one chilled out vibesman the other.
Some will say that this is simply harmless dark arts. It’s certainly true that it was Paraguay’s best chance of combating France’s strengths; their physicality placed a blanket over the front four. This is not a campaign to take physicality away from the game nor to give the most talented nations a free pass to play as they wish.
The refereeing has been popular in this tournament. I’d agree that the sight of an official waving for a player to get up from the floor, particularly when they are feigning injury and have to sheepishly rise to their feet, has been refreshing.
There is a strong list of World Cup “battles”: Bern, Bordeaux, Santiago, Nuremberg. Adding a match to that list that had only three yellow cards, no reds and one side received no cards at all may sound like a stretch. But Paraguay failing to get a yellow card in Philadelphia was one of the biggest disgraces I’ve ever seen live. It’s certainly the worst refereeing performance.
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