37 RSAKSA Sánchez Yantén

 

The (three-goal) victory that South Africa needed slipped through their fingers as Saudi Arabia scored their first goals and point of the competition, to ensure their opponent's joined them on the plane home.

Bafana Bafana could rue the performance of the Chilean referee Mario Sánchez Yantén. The game, and perhaps the group, turned on his first penalty decision - a dive - one of three that he awarded in this match, in a controversial performance. 

Big Decisions

I would recommend watching the full refereeing highlights (of all matches) by clicking the picture above the text. Failing that, you can find all of the penalty calls in the video below.

Analysis:

+46' - unfortunately, Sánchez Yantén fell for a cleverly-executed dive here. Very cleverly-executed, given where referees run on the diagonal control path, without preparing for a dive, there would be enough doubt in a given ref's perception to assume that there was a trip. Does a South Africa player even complain?

-> Clear Match Error

73' - a classic panic call. Everybody would have accepted a defensive freekick decision, but after the (more) obvious holding by the defender, referee Sánchez feels under pressure to make a decision, decides the foul by the attacker wasn't enough (it clearly was), and then 'has' to give the penalty. Poor decision for my taste. 

-> Clear Match Error


+93' - the ball does appear to move in the direction it would have if played by the defender. However, having to get there from behind, the decision looks a pretty sound one. Interesting (theoretical) potential DOGSO question. 

-> correct (or supportable) penalty

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Otherwise, Sánchez might have given a red card at 82' (violent conduct), and was correct to allow the only goal of the afternoon not from a penalty call - Shaun Bartlett didn't do anything unfair to win the position from his opponent. 

Managing the Game

Both teams were only interested in playing football, so in the goings-on of the match, it was the easier of Mario Sánchez Yantén's two 1998 assignments for sure (the first - NGABUL).

He gave three, well-timed, correct cautions - tactical foul (31'), reckless stamp (38') and then a deliberate felling (65'). His SPA line was a bit haphazard to be honest (37', 48', 55', 62') - the 89'/90' incident was clear however had to result in at least a caution, and was even pretty close to DOGSO. 

In general, the players accepted this determined referee (even when he gave wrong penalties!), who despite his short-height, aroused a confident and authoritative impression. Otherwise - I think he fell for another dive (6') and bizarrely, nobody (ref included) seemed to care about a clear encroachment offence (50').

Assistant Referees

Challenging game for both running the line! It is hard to tell if Owen Powell's +92' flag was right, but if so, that capped a very competent performance from the Jamaican assistant, including reverse cross-over (29') and non-active calls (42') which he got spot on. Good job. 

Edward Foley began with a quite important wrong flag (7'), besides that his decisions appeared supportable (14', 59', 86') in non-crossover scenes. Including Peruvian fourth official Alberto Tejada Noriega, only Powell from Jamaica of the crack-feeling officials team would pass through this match to continue his World Cup. 

Balance

Mario Sánchez Yantén wasn't a bad referee, but he had a very messy afternoon this time - fooled for the first penalty, and errantly hitting the panic button for the second - if there was scope for his tournament to continue after this match, then this performance saw to that decisively. 

Mario Sánchez Yantén - 4 Owen Powell - 7 Edward Foley - 6 Alberto Tejada Noriega CHI, JAM, IRL	South Africa 2-2 Saudi Arabia Group Stage 24 June
Fortune (38') - Challenge Radebe (65') - Challenge	K. Al-Owairan (31') - SPA (Challenge)