27 JPNCRO De Bleeckere

Japan and Croatia drew nil-all in their respective second games of the tournament, after both having opened with a loss, it was a result that ensured both had a chance of advancing going into the final round of group matches. In reality the result was a more of a positive one for Croatia - even if they missed a penalty, correctly given by the referee Frank De Bleeckere from Belgium. After a successful first appearance at World Cup 2006, De Bleeckere followed that up here with another good performance in one of the quietest games of the tournament for the officiating thus far.

Very little to say about the referees really:

- Penalty given against Japan in the first half was correct (could you argue that Pršo instigated the contact himself by moving in front of where the defender was trying to kick the ball?), ensuing caution was at worst supportable too, more like

- Robert Kovač should actually have been sent off in the first half for his flagrant dissent at De Bleeckere whilst and after the Croatia player was cautioned for a tactical foul (to be fair to R. Kovač I would have been a bit p*ssed with that decision too), but it is too unreasonable to expect any referee to eject in a World Cup match for that, where self-preservation is key (any referee not from Ergolding, anyway :)).

- The rest really wasn't remarkable. Perhaps De Bleeckere's foul detection was just-ever-so-slightly below an expected level, but nothing to write home about.

- Peter Hermans was relatively busy but made an important-ish mistake in the first half; quiet afternoon for Walter Vromans.

Frank De Bleeckere - 8,4 Peter Hermans - 8,3 Walter Vromans - 8,4 Kevin Stott Gregory Barkey BEL – USA	Japan 0-0 Croatia Group Stage
Miyamoto (21.) - SPA (Tripping) Kawaguchi (42.) - Delaying the Restart Alex (72.) - SPA (Charging)	R. Kovač (32.) - SPA (Holding) Srna (69.) - Dissent