45 JPNJAM Benkö

Jamaica defeated Japan by two goals to one in a feel good dead rubber to conclude both nation's debut World Cup stages. The co-hosts of the next tournament were undoubtedly the better team, but their Caribbean opponents were more clinical on the day. 

The man who gave the first straight red card of the tournament, Günter Benkö, was the referee in charge. Both teams - quite pleasantly - didn't make the Austrian ref's job harder than it needed to be, and in a good performance, he faced some quite interesting incidents. 

Big Decisions

Below is a compilation of all the key match incidents for the referee. 

My thoughts:

> 16' - Benkö blows instantly as the attacker is impeding where the goalkeeper wants to move, supportable / correct decision; IFK is an interesting choice, no contact. 

> 22' - impossible to determine if there was a bump or not, if so, rather SPA than DOGSO. 

> 49' - the most interesting decision of the bunch! Defender, whilst off-balance, blocks the ball with his foot, but really only deflects it up onto his own hand, preventing the centred ball from going beyond him into the penalty area. 

Referee Benkö has very visible doubts about this call! In the end, we can determine his play on call as supportable. 

> 61' - correct go on, not a deliberate handling off his own head. 

> 78' - the way that FIFA assessed tackles from behind at this World Cup, I think that this should be a red card. Jumping in, medium force, no chance to reach the ball, that was definitely enough for FIFA arguing for ejection thus far. 

However, given the lack of a really dangerous contact, you can understand Benkö deciding that reds weren't really in the spirit of things of this match. 

> 82' - there was indeed some holding, but the excessive fall of the attacker brought the correct response, play on. 

> 88' - agree with the ref, reckless only, scissors from behind is a technically correct but actually unfair way to describe this clearly yellow card tackle. 

Managing the Game

Günter Benkö contributed positively to the match with his officiating in a widely good performance. The roadblock caution (4') was good, if unavoidable choice; verbal warning at 25' was a good choice to stradle between careless and yellow card. The players always accepted his decisions. 

His way of refereeing with verrrry lonnnnggg whistles isn't the most aesthetic in my opinion, and at times I had the impression that his foul detection wasn't the most sophisticated (eg. 13', 30', 47'), but that is rather harsh criticism in fairness. Effective officiating. 

Assistant Referees

Two very different stories from the assistants on this afternoon. Evžen Amler performed on an 8,5 level with good decisions throughout (8', 31', 33', 62'). On the other hand, Dramane Danté proved unable to assess crossover situations (68', 76') correctly, in such a way that is very hard to accept at the World Cup finals (failed the test). 

Benkö even overruled him in assessing offside(!) at +91'. To the Austrian's credit, he made a point of making eye contact with the Malian AR, and showing 'care' for him as a member of his team. One of the Amler-Danté duo would work on a quarterfinal game, for the other this was his last assignment. 

Balance

Good performance in a nice game by Günter Benkö - maybe he was even slightly unlucky with what he got, but in general I'd say he can be pleased with his deserved World Cup finals appearance.  

Günter Benkö - 7 Evžen Amler - 7 Dramane Danté - 5 Hugh Dallas AUT, CZE, MLI	Japan 1-2 Jamaica Group Stage 26 June
Yamaguchi (4') - Tackle	Malcolm (78') - Tackle Dawes (88') - Tackle