31 COLTUN Heynemann

Tunisia made most of the running and deserved to win, but Colombia escaped a thrilling end-to-end game with a one-nothing victory, giving themselves a chance of progressing to the knockout stage. 

Bernd Heynemann was the man in charge - doing a decent job, where the biggest call he made was to disallow a second Colombia goal, but the German lost it a bit in the second half. 

Big Decisions

ESPN's commentators were not in the stadium, which is unfortunate as that would have been very helpful in getting a better idea exactly what the procedure is when Heynemann disallowed a second Colombia score at 86'. 

All the while that the German referee is in shot, he hasn't blown for anything - when the shot changes, the Colombia players quite quickly turn around towards him. I am slightly at a loss to explain why what should be a pretty instant decision took so long. 

Heynemann ruled that Carlos Valderrama handled the ball before Léider Preciado shot the ball into the net. The live sequence looks to back that up. Of course, nobody would award a penalty for such an offence, but common-sense says that the goal should be disallowed. 

If only somebody would write that into the Laws of the Game... :). In conclusion, I'd say Heynemann got it right. But that he doesn't blow for it instantly, in addition to cautioning Riadh Bouazizi, suggests that he wasn't 100% convinced. 

Just before (44', +47', +48') and just after (48') halftime, Heynemann had to face some penalty appeals. The most medially relevant was 48', surely the most interesting is the first half's +48' though. 

Managing the Game

With his phlegmatic style, Bernd Heynemann kept on the horse throughout this one and realised a solid performance, but he partly lost the match in the second half. 

Heynemann made a good start to the match - 17' was the right moment to open the cards, and following up with another 19' was definitely good refereeing. In general, the ref had a convincing first half with only small problems (eg. missed advantage at 21', slightly chaotic end). 

It started to get a bit messier in the second - 52' was a foul worthy of some censure, 54' really had to result in a caution for Mauricio Serna and at least some kind of warning was due at 58', even if the advantage procedure was good. SPA prevention (6' plus 65', 69') was not a strength of this showing. 

The conclusion to the game was partly calamitous for the German referee:

- between him and AR Evžen Amler, they managed to miss a glaringly awry goalkick restart at 90'

- the tackle at +91' should be a red card in my view, a very dangerous trapping tackle with no realistic chance to reach the ball; I can understand why (in 1998) a referee wouldn't want to go really big on it, but a yellow card had to be issued at least

- it seems like there was an after-the-whistle stamp incident at +95', seems to be missed by the referee, who is a bit fortunate that there isn't a large confrontation

-> it actually didn't matter in the end, but these final stages were pretty weak to be honest. 


Heynemann's style was not the most proactive of the 1998 squad, but in general I appreciated how he worked hard both to keep up with play and keep a big picture view, even if it got slightly (too) chaotic at the end. His ability to smile and joke with players is a huge asset!

In general, definitely a more convincing performance than not in my view. 

Assistant Referees

Good afternoon for both Erich Schneider (15', 52') and Evžen Amler (11', 23', 52') in terms of computing offsides, in which the Czech AR had more challenging (crossover) situations. 

Balance

Decent performance by Bernd Heynemann - a safe pair of hands who FIFA could trust with a second appointment. 

Bernd Heynemann - 6 Erich Schneider - 7 Evžen Amler - 7 Günter Benkö GER, GER, CZE	Colombia 1-0 Tunisia  Group Stage 22 June
Santa (19') - Tackle	Clayton (17') - Tackle Bouazizi (85') - Dissent