34 CHICMR Vágner

 

Three draws were enough to progress for Chile as they clung on for a draw against what was ultimately a nine-man Cameroon side, who were indignant at the performance of the Hungarian referee László Vágner. 

Shown two red cards, two goals disallowed - the African nation (and the world's press) cried conspiracy. All rather ridiculous, three of those calls were correct besides, but the disallowed goal of Italy 1990 star François Omam-Biyik is what lives in the memory. 

A crazy game after which it's referee can in many regards hold his head high, this very challenging match was certainly not too much for him. In refereeing, in life, you need luck - if only Omam-Biyik had shot wide after the whistle, then Vágner wouldn't have decided the match with one defensive freekick call. 

Big Decisions

Lászlo Vágner had to face many of them in this game. As this format lends it itself to, let's begin with the (in)famous decision of the afternoon, finding against Cameroon when they had the ball in the net at one-each in the second half. Clip is below. 

Vágner is unlucky in the sense that the decision he thought he was taking (instantly blowing for what he saw as a simple defensive freekick), was totally different to what would become the reality - the key decision for this whole game, disallowing the goal from which Cameroon would have taken the lead. 

Only in watching the full match do you remember how crucial this decision was - after all, it was 58' not 88' or something. It was the end of a crazy period in the match, after which Cameroon did not really have many more chances. Of course the any game turns on a disallowed goal, but this one really did. 

I'm pretty sure that I can explain what Vágner saw at the time. Essentially he blew for a defensive freekick because the defender was in a more favourable position to head the ball than attacker, and yet the attacker heads the ball from the very position in which the Chile player's feet were planted. 

That could only be the result of a push, no? Unfortunately for the Hungarian referee, not this time. Attacker Patrick M'Boma makes an excellent jump, not fouling his opponent, and perfectly judging the kind of glancing touch needed in order to direct the ball towards his teammate. 

Sources vary as to what happened after the final whistle - Italian newspaper(s) report that Vágner admitted being mistaken in the debrief, and when hounded by journalists said that he felt extra pressure from all the people who wanted Sándor Puhl at the World Cup 1998, not him. 

However, in more contemporary interview, Vágner says that he stands by all his crucial decisions in that match - an account which seems more credible to me. The Hungarian was incredibly unlucky in what resulted from this defensive freekick call, the shortest of decisive short straws (clear match error). 

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That all the more a shame, because the rest of the day's most crucial calls were spot on; in this section we will focus on the two red cards against Cameroon players: 


51' (Rigobert Song)

I am in full admiration for this call, Song's violent strike was so easily missed, but the referee caught it and drew the correct conclusion - straight red card for the already-booked player. The replay shows the ferocity of Song's elbow, a clear case of excessive force, violent conduct. 

Vágner seems to take a second to perceive exactly what happened (he would have been pretty far away, too) before showing the red card. I am pretty sure that he took this decision on his own, despite fourth official José María García-Aranda being close too. 

-> excellent decision!


88' (Lauren)

The referee didn't really have much choice here - in the last minutes of the game a clearly frustrated Lauren Étamé wipes out Marcelo Salas after the ball is gone. I feel zero sympathy for any player who is sent off for a tackle which is not an attempt for the ball, but only to hit his opponent - Lauren shouldn't have any complaints. 

I can't blame the Hungarian referee for going red at all, practically he had no choice at all at 88', but on a theoretical level, I would sooner see a caution plus a strong warning for this situation, at least in a climate outside the hysteria of tackles from behind at World Cup 1998. 

-> supportable decision, at the very least. 

Managing the Game 

It became very obvious rather quickly that this game was going to be the very challenging affair that it promised to be - actually, László Vágner did a very good job as its referee on the whole. 

In their first two matches (CMRAUT - ITACMR), Cameroon might well have received at least a couple more straight red cards than they did for dangerous tackles, and they started in a similar spirit here. Vágner was prepared - warning at 6' (after the whistle foul), yellow at 8' (tackle) was a perfect start. 

The Hungarian might well have given another yellow card at 11' - the lack of a dangerous trapping contact is more a useful argument in a 'reckless vs. SFP' question than supporting no card, but such a call was certainly coherent with the refereeing that Vágner presented throughout the tournament. 

He could have done so with much better gestures, avoiding putting later pressure on himself so much as anything, but he got the 20' incident spot on. Song's trip was just a careless one, not least with Iván Zamorano running away from goal, and a final warning for him was perfect. 

Actually it worked too - Song got the message and stopped fouling in the first half; his violent conduct was a crazed and isolated loss of composure, and not the fault of the referee in any respect in failing to calm him down. 

A decision that got no attention even contemporarily was the no foul call at 29' in what would have been a clear DOGSO red if given. I think Vágner's instinct was right, it seems as though the attacker, in realising that he isn't going to reach the ball, backs in to the defender in order to bring them both down - very tricky though. 

No caution at 40' was coherent with his fairly generous disciplinary style, which brought us to halftime. Clearly prepared and alert, with his unique approach to presence and gestures (not coherent to the Western European image of a ref), Vágner succeeded in the first half. 

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The referee started the second half missing a reckless strike by Marcel Mahouvé (46'), which precipitated ten crazy minutes: 

51' - correct yellow card for a deliberate reckless kick by Nelson Parraguez.

51' - actually excellent red card to Rigobert Song (see above).

55' - fantastic simulation call against Francisco Rojas! I actually have no idea how Vágner got that right from some distance away, where it would likely have looked like a penalty for most - very good officiating indeed. 

Marcel Mahouvé's actions can be described as 'VC' on the grounded Rojas - violent conduct, and very crafty. 

56' - straight after that, Cameroon score the equalising 1-1 goal.

58' - François Omam-Biyik's goal is disallowed for a prior foul given against Patrick M'Boma; clear mistake. 


The next 'hot' part of the game was 63'-65'. Joseph N'Do was correctly penalised with a freekick only, but I might have booked, and no yellow a short while later against Salomon Olembé was consistent with Vágner's policy not to use cautions in order to prove a point when they weren't mandatory. 

Some referees might have sent Pierre Womé off for the 65' incident with Marcello Salas, but I agree with Trevor Steven who was on Eurosport commentary - Vágner's solution to was sensible. Moisés Villarroel delayed the game, and off-camera was shown the yellow card at 67'. 

The end to the game was quite chaotic (eg. 84'), and featured 87', one of a number of situations which could feature on the potential red cards for idiotic two-footed lunges reel (8', 55', 83' in addition to 87'). None of the players were really fussed about any of them, though. 

Vágner acceptably declined another point-proving caution at 88', before Lauren was the second Cameroon player in the early shower. I would rather say it is to the referee's credit that 90' was the scene of greatest choatic-ness (correct yellow card, handling), than charge him with losing control or anything like that. 

All would have probably been forgotten if Cameroon had headed in a ninety-fourth minute winner, indeed in these reports the referee would have likely gained a couple of points, but not to be - as László Vágner blew the final whistle, only Chile of the three teams out there, had really survived this extreme test.

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Over the ninety minutes, László Vágner did very well in my estimation. In both games, his style absolutely fascinated me. Mostly in presence, where he was successfully able to get his point across with his somewhat excessive gestures more than words. 

Secondly, his disciplinary control was really interesting. In both his first game (SCONOR) and this one, he used cards in quite a unique way. He stayed true to a pretty lenient way of using sanctions, declining quite a few possible moments to card here (8', 40', 88'), issuing cautions in a consistent way. 

Both these lent to a very idiosyncratic referee, who I would consider one of the biggest naturals in the World Cup 1998 officials squad. He justified the trust put in him for this game in many senses, all save for one incident.

Assistant Referees

It was not only a game of extreme challenge for the match referee, but for his three teammates as well. Many tight and very important offside judgements for Nimal Wickramatunge and Halim Abdul Hamid, not least the disallowed Cameroon goal at 35' for the Malaysian, a decision which he got spot on. 

He did have a very poor flag at 48' (UEFA minus 0,3). Though perhaps easier in Hamid's positioning - we were able to see him easier on the far-side this time - it is actually hard to find fault with his performance generally (35', 42', 72') on the day. 

Same can be said for Wickramatunge (17', 30', 41', 61'). His most important call was 30' (correct); the most doubtful 61', but the tightness of the decision plus our camera angle makes it impossible to conclusively decide on its correctness or otherwise. 

Spaniard José María García-Aranda had to perform the most active execution of the fourth official role in the tournament so far. Both he and his main referee worked well together to prevent any greater escalation, especially in the already delicate red card scenes. 

Balance

This game was one of the most controversial of the whole tournament - Cameroon cried foul, and the game turned on the one incident where they had right to feel aggrieved at the officials. 

That sank referee László Vágner, who was quite right to send off two players and on the whole, in real extremis, handled it well. FIFA had no choice but to not appoint the Hungarian again, but in my judgement, the tournament's refereeing was worse for it. 

László Vágner - 5 Nimal Wickramatunge - 7 Halim Abdul Hamid - 6 José María García-Aranda HUN, SRI, MAS	Chile 1-1 Cameroon Group Stage 23 June
Parraguez (51') - Challenge Rojas (55') - Simulation Villarroel (67) - Delaying the Restart Ramírez (90') - SPA (Handling)	Song (8') - Tackle
	Song (51') - Violent Conduct (Striking) Lauren (88') - Serious Foul Play