33 ITAAUT Durkin

 

Austria got their customary late goal, but this time it was only a consolation and they halved the margin of an Italy victory which saw the Azzuri top Group B, and avoid Brazil in the second round. 

Allegedly anxious about his late start to the tournament, Englishman Paul Durkin, one of the final referees to handle his first match, was in charge here.

English not in name only - the lenient approach Durkin opted for was not suited to this very challenging match, and the result was that the referee would join Austria on the premature plane home.

Big Decisions

Paul Durkin had to take the five most imperative calls of his afternoon in the second half - a potential second yellow card, and three incidents in the Austria penalty box, the lattermost of which in additional time resulted in a spot kick being given, interceded by a missed red card:

50' - the referee was definitely right not to caution Peter Schöttel minutes earlier (48'), but he really had no option but to dismiss the Austria player here; a clear tactical foul, closer to DOGSO than no-SPA, which the covering defender manages to obscure by running after the whistle quite well. 

Tripping, pulling him back - Schöttel did not want Christian Vieri to get past him under any circumstance. To be fair to Durkin, the no-card decision was consistent with his line during the game: to caution only when for the sake of the game there was no other option. 


57' - quite how well the referee perceived exactly what happened I'm not convinced, but ultimately the decision not to award a penalty to Austria was spot on. Using all his experience, Toni Polster actually pushes Paulo Maldini into Ivica Vastić himself!

Contrary to what the ITV commentators said, Maldini's charge on Vastić was clear - but the most correct decision would be a defensive freekick for Polster's push on Maldini. In any case, a penalty call would have been a real travesty, and Durkin did well to avoid that. 


63' - Filippo Inzaghi didn't try to kick Anton Pfeffer, he was aiming for the ball, but he did, and Austria might well have been awarded a penalty for it. It is hardly like Pfeffer could have done very much having not been fouled, but should mostly be besides the point, a penalty should have been given; even if nobody really cared very much on the pitch. 

86' - Paolo Maldini's caution was assessed as a clear red card by FIFA. No chance of reaching the ball, knowing the guidelines too - I tend to agree, Maldini should have gone. To be fair to the Italy player, his calculation that the FIFA guidelines didn't apply in Durkin's game was a correct one. 


+91' - a clear foul by Alessandro Costacurta, correct penalty given by Paul Durkin. Should Costacurta have been sent off for DOGSO? The case is quite strong in my view. Contrary to what the commentators say, Mark Warren played a good onside, the only offside player was the one of the three-strong gaggle who remained inactive. 

-> so, some doubtful decisions taken by Durkin. 63' was just an isolated incident, but in general we can put the more-wrong of these decisions not so much as crystal clear mistake of themselves, but instead a consequence of the English referee's tactical approach, which I'll expand upon below.  

Managing the Game

The flat atmosphere in the Stade de France shouldn't fool you - this was a very challenging task for Paul Durkin, who had to face a markedly combative tie. While the match didn't turn into a battle royale, Durkin chose an unwise approach, which gave FIFA little choice but to reject this performance. 

It all started in the second minute - Durkin chose to forgive the clearly reckless tackle of Alessandro Nesta (who injured himself out of the tournament in the process) while cautioning Wolfgang Feiersinger for pushing an opponent. The English referee would have been well-minded to do the reverse. 

This game needed a law-enforcer, and the 2' scene sent a clear signal to the (Austria) players that it would be open-season. The most irksome scene was forgiving a clear tactical foul at 14', but it was the toleration of too much rough play which sunk the Englishman most. 

Durkin sent the signal too many times that he wasn't interested in acting against rough play in the first half (2', 5', 16', 30', 41'), the final listed scene should really have resulted in a red card. Just keeping control in the basic sense, on premise of being happy to tolerate foul play, can't really be enough!

The English referee then rather randomly pulled the trigger on a mostly careless Ivica Vastić foul at 35'. Honestly, I found this decision even more irksome than the lenient approach in general; it's really cheap not to have a clear line, and when your approach isn't working, just issue a random caution to calm everyone a bit. 

At least the comparable performance, actually by this game's fourth official (ROUCOL), always followed a clear disciplinary line. This nearly made Durkin's life very difficult with Vastić's tactical foul at 37', for which the English referee gave the impression that he nearly had to send him off. 

There were some missed fouls for sure (9', 26', 41') but in general the referee kept his technical accuracy pretty high - some foul inconsistencies could be expected in a game with so many infractions, but in this regard the performance was pretty strong. 

Durkin's approach was a shame, because he had quite a lot going for him - his style was really elegant, leadership style sophisticated (if a bit superciliousness (eg. 24', 35') on occasion), his soft skills strong, and fitness too, especially in back-peddling.

In conclusion, the rough-and-tumble of it all resembled that of a Premier League game. What felled Paul Durkin was that he approached it exactly like a Premier League game, rather than trying to synthesise a mixture of that and what FIFA wanted, which would probably have served him rather successfully. 

Assistant Referees

Challenging game for Mark Warren who performed quite well; extremely challenging one for Jeon Young-hyun, who managed to combine some good onside calls with an impression which widely was pretty disastrous. 

In the first half, Jeon under-the-radar showed to be a partly defective team member (5'), but in the second the Korean faced seven (!!) very important-to-crucial decisions in the second half. Only four of them we had a shout of assessing, and he got two totally, totally wrong (69', 88'). 

69' was a simple cross-over wrongly assessed, at 88' he must have had his eye on the wrong player, panicked, and in doubt raised the flag - an absolutely terrible decision. This is the first performance at World Cup 1998 which was far away from a WC-level from an assistant referee. 

Mark Warren did a very good job, if we support him at 72'. The two frames in question where the ball could have been played lead to different conclusions, so we should support him even if my feeling is that the likelihood of a tight mistake are slightly above 50-50. 

Balance

Paul Durkin was said to be very anxious at having to wait until the final round of group matches, and having stepped on the pitch in the third round of group matches, the Englishman delivered a performance which was sub-par on the World Cup 1998 niveau. 

FIFA were totally consistent with the Romania - Colombia game, and FIFA Assessor Lars-Åke Björk rejected Durkin's performance in this game. 

Durkin, as understandable as his frustration was, then left the tournament for England early - before FIFA formally discharged him - ending acrimoniously what turned out to be the only major tournament appearance, for a referee who had all the skills for it to have gone very differently indeed. 

Paul Durkin - 5 Mark Warren - 7 Jeon Young-hyun - 3 Lim Kee Chong ENG, ENG, KOR	Italy 2-1 Austria Group Stage 23 June
Maldini (86') - Tackle	Feiersinger (2') - Aggressive Behaviour Vastić (35') - Challenge Schöttel (43') - SPA (Impeding) Reinmayr (88') - Dissent