(6) Romania-France
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Highlights
Report
Broadly speaking, there are three eras of football refereeing in the times of television: pre-modern (-mid80s), modern (mid80s-2010s) and post-modern (2010s-). Different trends came and went in the midst of all three larger periods, but what characterised the 'modern' period is that referees were used by the authorities to affect and -- from the perspective of governing bodies, improve -- the manner in which the games were played (for instance, the most obvious example is sanctioning bad fouls). Hellmut Krug's performance in this match cohered to a very typical baseline of the 1980s-2010s period: not ultra-lenient by any means at all, but using cards in a manner which was fairly sparing and only as a last resort.
That is noteworthy for Euro 1996, because Krug's performance slightly broke the trend of the matches before, which were more orientated towards being punitive and carding specific offences. Krug did well - I don't think he achieved the highest mark of the first six matches, but no referee made a more positive contribution to his match than the German. That all being said, perhaps he was slightly fortunate too: in the first minute (indeed first ten seconds), the most persistent of the three consistent offenders in the early part of the game, Guerin, committed a reckless tackle. The man who probably did put the 'guerre' in 'Guerin' was by Krug only warned; I imagine that almost all of the Euro 1996 referees would have done the same.
The problem was that this left the German ref a little bit in trouble as Guerin, in addition to Di Meco and Popescu, then committed each a handful of very deliberate, careless non-SPA offences. These are the kind of fouls that the referee cannot immediately book for, but as they continue to happen, begin to erode the ref's control of the match away. If Krug was then slightly powerless to influence events in this period of the game as a consequence, he immdiately snapped that by rightly showing the game's opening yellow card to Di Meco (20') after the French defender made a late tackle on Lacatus. The other three incidents of note were a correct non-RC to Selymes (71'), an attacking indirect freekick awarded inside the penalty area (44') and the game's only goal (24'). Both linesmen made one mistake each (Engler's was the scene resulting in the goal!; I would defend Krug's behaviour but it would have been better to have waited a couple of seconds before making the play on signal); the referee played advantage from both of them.
The problem was that this left the German ref a little bit in trouble as Guerin, in addition to Di Meco and Popescu, then committed each a handful of very deliberate, careless non-SPA offences. These are the kind of fouls that the referee cannot immediately book for, but as they continue to happen, begin to erode the ref's control of the match away. If Krug was then slightly powerless to influence events in this period of the game as a consequence, he immdiately snapped that by rightly showing the game's opening yellow card to Di Meco (20') after the French defender made a late tackle on Lacatus. The other three incidents of note were a correct non-RC to Selymes (71'), an attacking indirect freekick awarded inside the penalty area (44') and the game's only goal (24'). Both linesmen made one mistake each (Engler's was the scene resulting in the goal!; I would defend Krug's behaviour but it would have been better to have waited a couple of seconds before making the play on signal); the referee played advantage from both of them.
Strong performance and impression by this crew, I would have rated Hellmut Krug's refereeing as '8,4'.
Matchsheet
| Hellmut Krug - 7 Klaus Plettenberg - 7 Egbert Engler - 7 Hermann Albrecht (assessor: van der kroft) | Romania 0-1 France Mon 10June 730pm, Newcastle Group Stage |
Rou  Mihali (49') - Challenge Selymes (71') - SPA (Challenge) Ilie (90') - LoR (Handball) | Fra Di Meco (20') - Tackle |
Who was the best krug or merk?
ReplyDeleteMerk was starting to make progress during this time (Cup Winners semifinal in this season and the PSG-Barca final of that competition in 97), but the Kaiserslautern ref overtook his compatriot while they were both still active internationally, and I think I'd agree with UEFA and FIFA on that ruling.
DeleteKrug by the way was reserve referee for a game at Euro88(!) and was one of the last referees on the top international circuit to continue using a metal whistle even until he retired.
This also seems a pertinent time to note the passing of a great man in refereeing, Volker Roth, who sadly died in February this year. Rest in Peace.
Konrad Plautz was definetly one off the verry verry last iff not the last international top referee who used even in the Euro2008 a metal whistle
DeleteYes, I'm quite certain that Plautz was the very last at the top int'l level.
DeleteBrian Hall also used a metal whistle in his two WC2002 matches.