15 ESPUKR Busacca

Spain were perhaps the most impressive of all thirty-two teams in their opening match, comprehensively beating World Cup débutanats Ukraine by four goals to nil. A fairly easy afternoon for Massimo Busacca who was in charge of proceedings - referee from Switzerland courageously awarded a penalty and the consequent Red Card (DOGSO) for holding, unfortunately he should have also ejected another Ukraine player in the first half, and did not.

Really very little to say about Busacca's performance in this game:

- Given FIFA's emphasis that shirt pulling should be stringently punished, Busacca's decision to punish the relatively light holding was one appreciated by the powers that be. Whether he was right to award the first penalty of the tournament is a much trickier question - it is hard to disprove that the holding existed on the penalty area line, we should support the perfectly-positioned Busacca who was well up with the attack. Red Card had to follow, and did.

- When Busacca reached for a yellow card only at 17', Rusol could have thanked his lucky stars. His flying tackle which made contact at his opponent's thigh had to be issued for that very dangerous tackle. Nobody really expected it though, players and media included. Busacca should also have cautioned for a reckless scissor tackle at 40', at least he perceived the severity of the tackle and stepped in quickly.

- The rest was unremarkable good officiating, though his positioning was very interesting - he got so wide!


Very challenging afternoon for AR Matthias Arnet, who performed on an 8,6 level but made an important mistake (- 0,2) at the end of the first half. Francisco Buragina made an important mistake at 68', his flag went up when Ukraine were in 1-on-1; tight, but incorrect.

Massimo Busacca - 7,9(3) Francesco Buragina - 8,1 Matthias Arnet - 8,4 Roberto Rosetti Cristiano Copelli SUI – ITA	Spain 4-0 Ukraine Group Stage
	Rusol (17.) - Tackle Jezers'kyj (53.) - SPA (Tripping)
	Vaščuk (47.) - DOGSO (Holding)