32 ESPTUN Simon

Spain defeated Tunisia by three goals to one in a throughly enjoyable match that even with twenty minutes remaining they were behind, and confirmed the impression that Spain had a great chance to go all the way at World Cup 2006. Carlos Simon from Brazil was in charge of the match; referee from Brazil (who had made an indifferent start to the competition) handled the game quite excellently - Simon certainly showed he was one of the best referees at FIFA's disposal, and gave himself a great chance for a big assignment in the knockout stages.

Let's start with the most important decisions of the evening.

Key Match Incidents

13' Penalty to Spain (handling)?

Quite a tricky situation nowadays, but clearly not a deliberate handling fourteen years ago. Insofar as it even was a decision for the officials (I could well imagine that AR Aristeu Tavares didn't perceive what happened) - correct call.


26' Penalty to Spain (charging)?

Nope - quite clearly just good defensive play in my view, penalty decision would be a bad mistake.


30' Serious Foul Play by Spain no.5?

Carlos Simon took the decision that everyone expected and cautioned Spain no.5 for his last-ditch foul. On closer inspection, it was a nasty tackle that I would argue was a case of Serious Foul Play. Though I am not really sure which of the referees at World Cup 2006 would actually have given a Red Card, and some arguments can be made that the tackle was only reckless, so Simon should be backed here.


80' Offside call by Aristeu Tavares, Tunisia score

Very (very) important offside call by near-side AR Tavares - without his flag it is very likely that Tunisia would have scored (equalising goal too). This format of offside call is perhaps the hardest of them all - not only is it a cross-over situation, the pass is kicked not especially quickly all of which are very deceiving for an assistant referee. Unfortunately the frame-by-frame reveals that the situation was an onside that was incorrectly seen by Tavares.

Given how likely it was that Tunisia were going to score without a flag, Tavares made a crucial mistake there.


90' Penalty to Spain (holding) - given

Live sequence did not show as well as the replays did that Torres was indeed held by the defender as he jumped to try and reach the centred ball. Was the holding enough to prevent him from reaching the ball? 

Simon's decision must have been something of an educated guess, he was pretty far away from the situation; from the start of the attack, his running seemed a bit laboured and he had to assess the duel from far away.

Certainly supportable, but hard to offer him a + 0,1 for the call given his position.

Approach 

Hard to really say very much about Simon's wider performance - it was just very good (comparable perhaps to the Mexico - Italy game he handled in 2002)! Most interesting was his high risk solution of a potential delaying the restart case at 51' - but the gamble payed off. Simon presented a strong case for further matches, and top matches too.

Both Aristeu Tavares and Ednílson Corona on the whole had good performances on the line.

Carlos Eugênio Simon - 8,5 Aristeu Tavares - 7,9(4) Ednílson Corona - 8,4 Carlos Chandía Cristián Julio BRA – CHI	Spain 3-1 Tunisia Group Stage
Puyol (30.) - Tackle Fàbregas (89.) - Delaying the Restart	Ayari (32.) - Tackle Trabelsi (40.) - SPA (Holding) Jaïdi (70.) - Tackle Gmamdia (81.) - Delaying the Restart Jaziri (85.) - Dissent Mnari (90.+3') - Tackle