30 TOGSUI Amarilla

Switzerland made a huge step towards the Round of 16 by beating Togo 2-0, thus eliminating the African debutants. While the result might have been what most expected, the game wasn’t all smooth sailing for the “Eidgenossen” who faced an enthusiastic African side that could voice some legitimate complaints about the refereeing team.

Carlos Amarilla faced a game that allowed him to stay out of sight most of the time with few fouls and most of them trivial. Perhaps the fact that he nearly managed to become the first referee not to produce a booking in the entire first half speaks volumens about the challenges he faced, but just before half-time, a frontal tackle (maybe even SFP?) forced him to act. He added three more bookings in a second half that was a bit more choppy, but still fairly easy and very fair overall.

Nevertheless, the Paraguayan had some major decisions to take and Togo – especially Adebayor – were dismayed that he did not rule in their favour. One could say Amarilla took the “safe” decision in both cases: Despite the holding and blocking by Müller and – who was never even looking at the ball and only intended to impede the striker – Adebayor did manage to head the ball towards goal (10’).

In the second scene, penalty and a RC for DOGSO would have been the other possible call – but Amarilla seemingly thought that Adebayor was trying to make too much out of the contact instigated by Müller’s trailing leg. An understandable conclusion – but it was nevertheless a clear trip and should have been a penalty and a RC.

On the more theoretical side – should there perhaps been a penalty in 30’ after Senderos made a mess of an attempted clearance and hit Sènaya in the face instead? Today maybe, in 2006 everybody was quite alright with seeing it as accidental and taking no action.

Amarilla’s management remained in the background – the most one got to see was him wagging his finger once or twice as a warning and he should have taken action against the dissent in 35’ where one Togolese player even touched him. It remains therefore a decent performance in an unchallenging game marred by a crucial mistake.

Both ARs – Amelio Andino and Manuel Bernal – were challenged at times and made several correct calls. Andino correctly allowed the first Swiss goal to stand (16’) but made a mistake later in the second half (78’) – the header had missed the goal anyway. Bernal made several good calls (19’, 57’, 81’).

Carlos Amarilla - 7,9 (8,3) Amelio Andino - 8,4 Manuel Bernal - 8,4 Mohamed Guezzaz Brahim Djezzar PAR - MAR, ALG	Togo 0-2 Switzerland Group Stage
Salifou (45') - Reckless sliding tackle Adebayor (47') - Dissent Romao (53') - SPA (Tackle)	Vogel (90+2') - Delaying the Restart