49 ITANOR Heynemann

Christian Vieri scored the only goal, his first half score enough to see Italy over the line in a tight game against Norway to open the knockout stage at World Cup 1998; back in Marseille, though this time on a very warm Saturday afternoon, Norway could not repeat the heroics of their epic Brazil comeback. 

Bernd Heynemann was the man in charge of proceedings - after an unconvincing start, the referee got it together to realise what was, on the whole, a good performance by the German referee.

Big Decisions

In general this was not a controversial piece of refereeing, but there are two calls worth highlighting in a bit more detail. 

---

A very nasty contact indeed - Roar Strand was immediately substituted and clearly in some great distress; Francesco Moriero was shown the yellow card by the referee. Moriero was very evidently looking at the ball, he surely didn't see Strand at all, but that didn't make it any less painful for the Norway player. 

Nowadays, would you argue for or against be a red card? 

---

The biggest and trickiest decision of the afternoon for the German ref - and on a theoretical level, I would actually argue for a penalty. With great attacking play, the Norway man has won the desired position, and only by coming through him is the defender able to block the ball away.

Actually, none of the Norway players in shot even so much as appeal (you can see one, actually with the best insight angle, do so on replay), which perhaps tells its own story. I suppose one does want something a bit clearer, or at least unambiguous, than that to award a World Cup knockout stage penalty kick. 

Managing the Game

The game wasn't of the highest technical quality amongst the matches in France, perhaps in great part because of the hot conditions in which it was played. I feared the same would be true of the refereeing performance after the first quarter hour, but Bernd Heynemann got his eye in and actually reffed it pretty well in the end. 

The referee from Germany, as aforementioned, didn't start too well. I had the impression he was struggling a bit - freekick call at 2' was followed very bizarre decision at 7', and then a questionable one in exactly the same part of the pitch (14'). 

In the seventy-five minutes after that early period however, his recognition of offences was amongst the strongest in the competition, and in general, I appreciated a lot his enthusiastic following of play throughout the match, especially considering that the players found these conditions hard to play in. 

35' was a very good opening caution choice, clearly reckless (no SFP). In general his disciplinary control was pretty basic - I'd argue 83' should be a red card whilst surely being in a minority - carding the most obvious and egregious plays out of the match. 

For my money, his disciplinary measures would have been improved had given yellows at: 53' (LoR handling), 57' (tactical scythe) and 89' (tackle). This would have probably prevented other incidents (54', 62', 89'). Incident at 22' was a clear dive (YC), was 54' too? 

Even if Heynemann's disciplinary control was somewhat basic, I liked how he used cards to try and take the initiative in the match - very determined caution procedure at 35', defending himself at 54'. In general, I appreciated very much how German approached his game(s), to be fair. 

Assistant Referees

Two very important calls for Belgian AR Marc Van Den Broeck took place not fully in camera shot (50', +92'), so we should support him in raising the flag. If he got those right, then definitely a good performance by him, and also by Erich Schneider. 

Balance

Bernd Heynemann did a very solid job in this match under fairly tough meteorological conditions. I would guess that even if Germany were eliminated before the quarterfinals, the German referee was finished on two matches regardless given that others were ahead of him, but without doubt in what was his only World Cup, his performance level was very respectable indeed. 

Bernd Heynemann - 7 Erich Schneider - 7 Marc Van Den Broeck - 7 László Vágner GER, GER, BEL	Italy 1-0 Norway Round of Sixteen 27 June
Moriero (38') - Challenge Di Biagio (83') - Challenge Maldini (89') - Delaying the Restart	H.Flo (35') - Tackle Mykland (54') - Dissent Rekdal (62') - Tackle