13 KORTOG Poll

"Korea, Korea" - the distinctive chants of a partisan crowd took one back for a fleeting moment to the World Cup four years earlier. The result, a 2-1 comeback win for Korea, did not do much to dislodge that. A tournament that probably does not conjure great memories for the match referee Graham Poll, who was unfortunate to be out after his Italy - Croatia game. Quite the contrary for his benchside AR Philip Sharp, who ran the line for five matches including the final itself. The other member of the English trio, Glenn Turner, joined Togo in making his World Cup début in Frankfurt.

The match was played in really sporting spirit and the officials team had nought to do in terms of conflict management. Poll complimented the match well, and his friendly manner was really well-judged. There is little to analyse technically, besides a very good play on decision when Korea appealed for a penalty at 57' - just a good performance from Graham Poll who just handled what was in front of him.

The key decision of the match yielded the correct outcome: Togo no.3 was rightly ejected. Poll issued him a second caution - the situation is actually a (clear) DOGSO in my view, but perhaps the adjacent Togo makes assessing the situation as SPA acceptable. Would Poll have directly sent him off if he hadn't booked him earlier (maybe a sensible call to go yellow-red rather than straight as the DOGSO wasn't that clear to the trained eye?)?.

A good match for both assistant referees in terms of computing offsides.

Graham Poll - 8,4 Philip Sharp - 8,4 Glenn Turner - 8,4 Jerome Damon Justice Yeboah ENG – RSA, GHA	Korea Republic 2-1 Togo Group Stage
Kim Y. C. (41.) - SPA (Tripping) Lee C. S. (51.) - Lack of Respect (Holding)	Abalo (23.) - Tackle Romao (24.) - Tripping Tchangai (90.+2') - Delaying the Restart
	Abalo (53.) - SPA (Tripping)