3 ENGPAR Rodríguez

World Cup début match for Marco Rodríguez who was the beneficiary of Carlos Batres and Peter Prendergast's respective absences from CONCACAF. Rodríguez did not make any crucial mistakes, but his performance was partly a disaster  because of his extremely pedantic approach.

Let's divide his performance into strengths and areas for development:


Strengths

Rodríguez is a natural, fit, runner and generally a very good leader on the field of play - nice. The caution to Valdez was good, well-placed and ensured the game stayed calm. Some other good and smart decisions were visible too.


Areas for Development

The referee evidently didn't catch the rhythm of this very-easy going and generally pretty poor match. His pedanticism in managing throw-ins, foul detection and ensuring the goalkeeper released the ball within six seconds made the players much more anxious than what was needed. This was not good policeman-type refereeing: it was just idiocracy, said with all the respect for a World Cup referee.


Leonel Leal incorrectly flagged in the closing minutes, otherwise the assistants worked well.

Marco Rodríguez - 8,0 José Camargo - 8,4 Leonel Leal - 8,2 Coffi Codjia Célestin Ntagungira MEX, MEX, CRC – BEN, RWA	England 1-0 Paraguay Group Stage
Gerrard (19.) - Tackle Crouch (63.) - Persistent Infringement	Valdez (22.) - Tackle