MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
English happy with Argentine referee.
Argentine referee Horacio Elizondo and his assistants, Dario Garcia and Rodolfo Otero, generally officiated well at the very heated game between England and Portugal in the quarter-finals of the 2006 World Cup in Germany.
Much speculation surrounded the decision of FIFA to appoint a referee from Argentina for the game, given the long history between the two countries, and more so because the referees for the other 3 quarter-final games were all from countries which had already been knocked out of the tournement, prior to their selection.
FINANCIAL TIMES sportswriter Jonathan Wilson said that Elizondo was "Absolutely correct" to give a red card to England's 19 year old striker Wayne Rooney. "We could see from the Tv replays that Rooney stamped on Carvalho so the referee had no option other than to send him off", said Wilson.
His colleague Simon Kuper agreed. "Elizondo did a good job overall, he stopped the Portugese players from play-acting when they tried to stop the play, and it was a fair tackle on Aaron Lennon the penalty area and no penalty. I have no complaints with his officiating".
Patrick Collins of the MAIL ON SUNDAY newspaper said, "I don't think that initially Elizondo was going to send him off but then Rooney pushed Christiano Ronaldo when he interfered so he reached for the red card."
Michael Kolodziejczyk of the Polish newspaper PREZGLAD SPORTOWY said, "The sending-off was correct. Rooney stamped on the Portugese player so it was an obvious red card offence. Overall I thought that the Argentine referee handled the game very well and was impartial throughout."
Nuno Madureira of the Portuguese newspaper Manisfutebol, said that. "Elizondo was fair to both teams and did not favour one over the other. He was only 15 meters away when Rooney stamped on Carvalho so he saw the incident clearly and made the right decision."
English fans leaving the stadium were sad at their teams defeat but did not blame the referee. "He seemed to be a good referee, and we could not blame him for England's failure to miss their penalties" said Roger Wilson from London.
Only Neil Custas from the popular newspaper THE SUN disagreed, saying "It was the interference of the Portuguese players, particularly Cristiano Ronaldo that made the referee reach for the red card. He should not have bowed to their pressure. We also should have had a penalty when Aaron Lennon was tripped in the penalty area. The referee missed that."
Patrick Watts - Gelsenkirchen, Germany.
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