11 AUSJPN Abdel-Fatah

Very challenging and certainly intense game for Essam Abdel-Fatah. To be honest the referee from Egypt had a pretty good game - sure you can probably find fault with his disciplinary control, but actually I thought he approached what he faced quite astutely given the 2006 guidelines. Abdel-Fatah was, though, felled by Key Match Incidents and he was not to be seen in the middle again...

And that is where we start.

Key Match Incidents

1' - Serious Foul Play?

Unsurprisingly forgotten to time, but the answer in my book is certainly yes! Hitting your opponent high, from behind and placing most of your body weight on your studs should result only in ejection. The situation remains too ambiguous though to assign a crucial mistake; also - I am really not sure if any World Cup referee ever would have shown a Red Card here, it is the first twenty-five seconds on your tournament début!

Anyone who castigates Abdel-Fatah for this decision (though he really ought to have at least booked) has lost touch with reality.


26 - Foul before Japan score (0-1)?

Yes - a very clear barge on the goalkeeper at that. With every passing replay it looked worse for the refereeing team...

How did they miss it then?

The key in my view is Abdel-Fatah's position. The referee from Egypt is square to what happens and actually pretty far away when the ball is about to be centred. Criticism on a high level, but seeing the gaggle of players in the penalty area, Abdel-Fatah ought to have run left and deeper before the cross was struck - when it was, it was too late.

The problem wasn't so much that Abdel-Fatah couldn't see the obstruction itself, the problem was that he couldn't perceive the whole situation. Seeing a cross like that being totally missed by a goalkeeper who ended up on the floor with a serious chance of contact - you play the odds game and disallow the goal. The problem was that Abdel-Fatah couldn't perceive that as we could watching the game (camera was perfect and the world asked surely that was a foul and seeing the complaints and the replays confirmed that impression).

And could his AR Mamadou N’Doye have seen it? Well yes, he could - and maybe should - have, but this is a good case study for what I'd call a zero insight angle. In essence, N'Doye can detect that there might have been an obstruction offence, but what he sees from that angle is quite abstract and hard to translate to on a practical level to "that was a clear foul". It's hard to explain but if you handle games yourself, I think you might know what I mean.

The mistake here and one assumes the mistake of the watching world is to think that the referees team saw the obstruction, evaluated it, and assessed it as fair. That clearly didn't happen.

CRUCIAL MISTAKE


85 - Penalty to Japan (tripping)?

An extremely crucial situation for the outcome - and Abdel-Fatah decided incorrectly. Was it self-preservation after what happened at 26', or did he just miss this reckless tackle by goalscorer Cahill in the penalty area? Nobody really seemed to appeal much - but a penalty had to be given.

CRUCIAL MISTAKE 

Approach

Besides KMIs, I would assess Abdel-Fatah's performance as actually pretty good. He read the game well and operated a smart disciplinary control (didn't punish a LoR holding in the first half is the only management mistake). Ironically - he was very attentive to player obstructing the goalkeepers in the first twenty minutes. In the period of the first half after 26' his head seemed to go slightly down (lack of body tension signalling some calls etc.) but he kept his chin up sufficiently the whole way through. Very smart refereeing of a very dynamic game.

His manner was typical of a referee from North Africa - okay he lacked soft skills a bit, but I really wouldn't call it bad or ineffective per se.

Teammates

Dramané Dante performed very well, including a top class onside at 38'. Mamadou N'Doye had a good game too (if you support him for missing the foul at 26' - I would). Did Hiddink deserve to be sent off for what he did at 2:55 in the highlights clip? Probably, but you can't blame fourth official Éric Poulat and Abdel-Fatah for not wanting to add insult to injury.

Essam Abdel-Fatah - 7,4 Dramane Danté - 8,5 Mamadou N’Doye - 8,4 Éric Poulat Vincent Texier EGY, MLI, SEN – FRA	Australia 3-1 Japan Group Stage
Grella (33.) - Tackle Moore (57.) - Lack of Respect (Holding) Cahill (68.) - Tackle Aloisi (75.) - Tripping	Miyamoto (31.) - SPA (Impeding) Takahara (40.) - Delaying the Restart Moniwa (68.) - SPA (Tackle)