61 BRANED Bujsaim
The semifinal between the two most exciting teams at World Cup 1998 came down in favour of Brazil - Ronaldo scored at the start of the second half, Patrick Kluivert saved his nation at the end of it, before two Netherlands' misses in the ensuing penalty competition decided the evening.
Ali Bujsaim very nearly ended up refereeing the Brazil semifinal in 1994, but this time his appointment to the last four game was one made on merit, after convincing impressions in his first two matches (SCOMAR - FRAPAR).
Bujsaim, leading an all-Arab officials team, had a good game. The Emirati showed to be a good facilitator of football in a high-pressure but mostly fair match. One decision lives in the memory more than most however, and we start with the key match incidents.
72' - Potential second yellow card incident, Netherlands no.16 (challenge)
73' - Fair challenge by Netherlands no.16? (DOGSO incident)
+92' - Penalty area incident, yellow card to Netherlands no.17 (simulation)
107' - Penalty area incident
109' - Potential red card to Netherlands no.16 (SFP)
-> we will focus on +92' first.
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Big Decisions
Below is a video montage of the following scenes:
33' - Tackle by Netherlands no.11
33' - Tackle by Netherlands no.11
72' - Potential second yellow card incident, Netherlands no.16 (challenge)
73' - Fair challenge by Netherlands no.16? (DOGSO incident)
+92' - Penalty area incident, yellow card to Netherlands no.17 (simulation)
107' - Penalty area incident
109' - Potential red card to Netherlands no.16 (SFP)
-> we will focus on +92' first.
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Wow, what an incident to face in the ninety-second minute of a then-drawn World Cup semifinal! This decision has taken on almost mythical quality in the Netherlands; if there was VAR in 1998, then "we would have been in the final", Frank De Boer claims.
I believe that Bujsaim was correct not to award a penalty - Júnior Baiano does hold Pierre van Hooijdonk (a penalty would not be a clear mistake!), but I'm not convinced that it was intense enough to cause van Hooijdonk to fall, to not reach and control he otherwise thought that he would. That analysis would go for this situation in any game, at any moment.
Of course the caution for simulation is theoretically nonsensical, but the referee had to make an active decision, and in not awarding a penalty, that was his choice. The tie was in Bujsaim's hands here!
I believe that Bujsaim was correct not to award a penalty - Júnior Baiano does hold Pierre van Hooijdonk (a penalty would not be a clear mistake!), but I'm not convinced that it was intense enough to cause van Hooijdonk to fall, to not reach and control he otherwise thought that he would. That analysis would go for this situation in any game, at any moment.
Of course the caution for simulation is theoretically nonsensical, but the referee had to make an active decision, and in not awarding a penalty, that was his choice. The tie was in Bujsaim's hands here!
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Remaining incidents:
33' - interesting situation, I wonder how this would be determined nowadays (in a given competition!). While De Boer does play the ball, I take a pretty dim view of this tackle - flying in to deflect the ball away, he hits Leonardo with a pretty straight-legged studs contact of a rather SFP nature. In 1998, a mere detail (if that :)).
72' - Edgar Davids does tread on Ronaldo's foot, even ankle area, and could not really have had too many complaints had Bujsaim booked him again; the Emirati ref isn't sure it is even a foul, and blows a little late. However, I suppose one wants something a bit clearer in a World Cup semifinal.
73' - I had to use frame-by-frame to be sure, but Davids does prevent Ronaldo from properly executing his kick at the ball by expediently putting his leg in between it and Ronaldo's shooting foot. So the theoretically correct solution in this very 'murky' situation is for a penalty [nowadays: YC or RC?].
107' - correct go on, the clean contact on the ball definitely overrides the small prior foot contact.
109' - Edgar Davids stamp on Emerson looked pretty painful! But I don't think Davids should be sanctioned for it, it would be too much of a jump to say that Davids was clearly not putting his leg there for co-ordination.
33' - interesting situation, I wonder how this would be determined nowadays (in a given competition!). While De Boer does play the ball, I take a pretty dim view of this tackle - flying in to deflect the ball away, he hits Leonardo with a pretty straight-legged studs contact of a rather SFP nature. In 1998, a mere detail (if that :)).
72' - Edgar Davids does tread on Ronaldo's foot, even ankle area, and could not really have had too many complaints had Bujsaim booked him again; the Emirati ref isn't sure it is even a foul, and blows a little late. However, I suppose one wants something a bit clearer in a World Cup semifinal.
73' - I had to use frame-by-frame to be sure, but Davids does prevent Ronaldo from properly executing his kick at the ball by expediently putting his leg in between it and Ronaldo's shooting foot. So the theoretically correct solution in this very 'murky' situation is for a penalty [nowadays: YC or RC?].
107' - correct go on, the clean contact on the ball definitely overrides the small prior foot contact.
109' - Edgar Davids stamp on Emerson looked pretty painful! But I don't think Davids should be sanctioned for it, it would be too much of a jump to say that Davids was clearly not putting his leg there for co-ordination.
Managing the Game
I appreciated Ali Bujsaim's performance quite a lot in this game - attentively following play, he used his cards astutely and chose an effective leadership style for these (tough) players.
Bujsaim's biggest limitation is probably in foul detection. His perception accuracy is not bad, but is not the most sophisticated amongst the referee squad in 1998. This meant that this performance was on occasion just slightly more chaotic than it ought to be (eg. 2', 26'), but that is a relatively minor point.
His disciplinary control - of normal-strictness - was really good. He only made one mistake, no card at 44'. Some games need very careful card management, and some it is a bit easy to overcomplicate by not just giving the necessary sanctions: this game was in the latter category and Bujsaim called it very well in this regard.
The referee could afford to not really be in the limelight in terms of manner; his sovereign and mature way of interacting with the players was very effective in this game. This was a referee from Arab world taking charge of Brazil - Netherlands, we shouldn't forget!
There were two noteworthy scenes on a management level: after the foul-throw call at 62', reaction to a dissent by Wim Jonk at 72'. Both were pretty good in my opinion!
Besides being slightly careless at the very end of extra time, one can find rather little fault in this performance at all. And finally - perhaps VAR would have had something to say about the the two Cláudio Taffarel saves in the penalty competition, but they were certainly more reasonable than in the Argentina - England game (ARGENG); intervening probably didn't even cross the referee's mind.
Bujsaim's biggest limitation is probably in foul detection. His perception accuracy is not bad, but is not the most sophisticated amongst the referee squad in 1998. This meant that this performance was on occasion just slightly more chaotic than it ought to be (eg. 2', 26'), but that is a relatively minor point.
His disciplinary control - of normal-strictness - was really good. He only made one mistake, no card at 44'. Some games need very careful card management, and some it is a bit easy to overcomplicate by not just giving the necessary sanctions: this game was in the latter category and Bujsaim called it very well in this regard.
The referee could afford to not really be in the limelight in terms of manner; his sovereign and mature way of interacting with the players was very effective in this game. This was a referee from Arab world taking charge of Brazil - Netherlands, we shouldn't forget!
There were two noteworthy scenes on a management level: after the foul-throw call at 62', reaction to a dissent by Wim Jonk at 72'. Both were pretty good in my opinion!
Besides being slightly careless at the very end of extra time, one can find rather little fault in this performance at all. And finally - perhaps VAR would have had something to say about the the two Cláudio Taffarel saves in the penalty competition, but they were certainly more reasonable than in the Argentina - England game (ARGENG); intervening probably didn't even cross the referee's mind.
Assistant Referees
Relatively busy games respectively for the assistants in this Mashriq officiating trio. We could only assess the lattermost of Hussain Ghadanfari's scenes (5', 27', 58', 97', 113') - he got it right.
More challenging for Mohamed Al-Musawi - despite hesitating at 73', he played a very crucial onside right, good. The Omani made a relatively important mistake at 55', he was wrong to flag, but the overall impression (9', 12', 18', 55', 73', 99') was still a good one for Al-Musawi. 73' is decisive in that.
More challenging for Mohamed Al-Musawi - despite hesitating at 73', he played a very crucial onside right, good. The Omani made a relatively important mistake at 55', he was wrong to flag, but the overall impression (9', 12', 18', 55', 73', 99') was still a good one for Al-Musawi. 73' is decisive in that.
Balance
Ali Bujsaim showed the world he had 'arrived' in this match - the referee from the United Arab Emirates was visibly at home in this huge match, and the picture for the whole quartet is a convincing one. +92' lives in the memory, and even if Pierre van Hooijdonk did not dive, I think the ref was quite right not to award him a penalty.
Very good tournament for Bujsaim in games of increasing importance and difficulty!
Very good tournament for Bujsaim in games of increasing importance and difficulty!
| Ali Bujsaim - 7 Hussain Ghadanfari - 7 Mohamed Al-Musawi - 7 Abdulrahman Al-Zaid UAE, KUW, OMA | Brazil 1-1 Netherlands (aet, Brazil win 4-2 in a penalty competition) Semifinal 7 July |
 Zé Carlos (31') - Challenge César Sampaio (+46') - Challenge | Reiziger (48') - Tackle Davids (60') - SPA (Challenge) van Hooijdonk (+92') - Simulation Seedorf (118') - Challenge |
I was also impressed with Bujsaim at the time. He showed maturity and balance. I like the most the fact that he did not want to decide a WC semi-final with doubtful PKs, but let the players determine who is going to the big final.
ReplyDeleteI always perceived the van Hooijdonk simulation card as wrong and that a penalty was the correct result. I realize it was 92+, but that sort of hold was being punished in that tournament. In fact, the player in question had already shown an ability to commit exactly that sort of hold against Norway!
ReplyDeleteI think he knew he was beat and in trouble. I don't beleive that ball was unrreachable by van Hooijdonk. For me, it was a penalty.
And while I appreciate you saying Busjaim's hands were tied and he had to give something, which resulted in the simulation card, I think it actually demonstrates one of his weaknesses as a referee. Stronger referees could sell a "no call," if that's what they truly felt. But that's simply not simulation. He invented a yellow card offence as a defense mechanism. A stronger referee could manage through that without a card.
When there is a contact in the penalty area and a penalty kick is not awarded, some refereeing schools around the world would like the referee to "find" a defensive free kick rather than "play on". Of course, not like Coulibaly, who did that in USA - Slovenia, but the TV cameras could not detect any contact when he disallowed the goal.
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