24 PORIRN Poulat
Portugal saw off a spirited challenge from Iran with two second half goals, confirming their progression to the knockout stage and eliminating the Persian nation. Éric Poulat, the referee from France, not one of the biggest names in the European squad in Germany (only Roberto Rosetti had lesser Champions League experience), was the last of the officials to kick off his tournament - last, but certainly not least. Poulat showed to be a very good referee, who would merit higher, further, tasks. He excellently awarded Portugal an important penalty, but missed a Red Card tackle in the first half.
Let's start with the most important scenes that Poulat had to face:
Key Match Incidents
36' - Serious Foul Play by Iran no.13?
This cannot have made for good viewing in a debrief - Poulat totally missed this brutal flying 'tackle' whose contact was made on the opponent's cheek. Ouch, you can see the stud marks across the Figo's face. This tackle was so idotic that it is not surprising that Poulat didn't see it on an expectation-perception-recognition level, and he was on the worse of the insight angle sides too.
Bad luck - but certainly a (very) bad tackle too.
CRUCIAL MISTAKE
48' - Serious Foul Play by Portugal no.20?
What are the chances - another tackle of a very similar format to 36', this time committed by a red-shirted player. Tackle in the first half hit at the face, this one was 'only' shoulder-height, the contact was actually on Iran no.20's left bicep, and hence nowadays this would be evaluated as reckless only. With a strong preference for calling this SFP, we should back Poulat in issuing a caution, especially cognisant of what happened in the first half (understandable to miss 36', and then you see a stud mark on the cheek...).
Sensible, and reluctantly supportable booking.
78' - Penalty (tripping) given to Portugal
Quite an excellent call by Poulat if you ask me - very well seen by the referee from France. The live sequence could be deceiving - Figo did not dive, and was (actually recklessly) caught whilst running in the penalty area. Very, very good call, well done.
Approach
In the first half, Éric Poulat had to face what was actually a really challenging first half, great piece of football and a lot of duels and situations for Poulat to face. For the most part - faultless refereeing. However, after the incident at 36', where he saw as everybody else the stud-marks-on-cheek, he seemed to lose the overview a bit. His technical accuracy decreased noticeably, and his calls started to irritate the players a bit - nothing too serious though. Second half was quite a bit easier, and Poulat handled it well.
Despite not being the most natural athlete amongst the referees at World Cup 2006, on a positional level his performance was quite excellent, my compliments.
Not really a challenging game for the assistant referees, quieter for Lionel Dagorne than Vincent Texier, who took both a tight important decision (31') and an easy crucial decision (+96') correctly.
| Éric Poulat - 7,9(4) Lionel Dagorne - 8,4 Vincent Texier - 8,4 Mohamed Guezzaz Brahim Djezzar FRA – MAR, ALG | Portugal 2-0 Iran Group Stage |
 Pauleta (45.+1') - Tackle Deco (48.) - Tackle Costinha (61.) - SPA (Tripping) | Nekounam (20.) - Tackle Madanchi (32.) - Tripping Kaabi (73.) - SPA (Tripping) Golmohammadi (88.) - SPA (Impeding) |
Never understood why Poulat was chosen over Sars, who was No. 1 in France at the time. Politics?
ReplyDeleteSars says that Michel Vautrot and Marc Batta did not like his outspoken personality and hence lobbied against him for WC 2006.
DeleteIn any case, I think Poulat justified his selection!
With the exception of this WC selection, Poulat did not come even close to Sars, who, if I recall correctly, refereed Champions League semi-final. I think that, with his experience, Sars would have reached higher than Poulat at WC 2006. Just my opinion.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, if you remember, one of Poulat's ARs was Nelly Viennot, whose presence, as member of Team Poulat, at the WC would have been a PR success for FIFA - this could have been another reason why Poluat's team was wanted there. Unfortunately for FIFA, Viennot did not pass the fitness test and was replaced with one of... Sars's ARs.
ReplyDeleteIndeed, it is interesting to speculate about how much of a role Viennot did or did not play in FIFA's selection. Maybe it was even an argument against Poulat's team if FIFA wanted the referees to not be in focus after 2002?
DeleteAlso, which of Sars and Poulat would more successfully execute the WC 2006 style - as opposed to who was the better referee per se - might have been part of the selection choice.
To have or not have the referees in focus due to their on-field performance is different than having a woman's AR at a men's World Cup. That would have been a huge PR success for FIFA, as it was last year for UEFA with - coincidence? - another French. Of course, it is speculation, but there is never smoke without fire:)
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