Referee Rating: Chile v. Spain

Marco Rodriguez from Mexico takes the center of the field for this matchup. Let's hope he learned from his colleague's first half performance and has a good game from the get-go. Something on the level of Archundia's second half or better would do just fine.

I didn't think Rodriguez had a great game in Australia v. Germany. Cahill's red card was harsh and it was a very Mexican-style of refereeing which clashes with my own refereeing philosophy. FIFA were apparently happy with his performance since he's refereeing again.

3' Pretty easy call on the sandwich. Hmmm. Looks like there was another foul I missed due to replay before that. Not sure why no advantage signal was given.

5' Easy call for the foul on Puyol.

7' Good call for the holding on Busquets.

9' Not sure why the word with Bravo was necessary, but at least he got a warning...Puyol was never going to get that ball without completely taking his man out which is what happened. Good call.

14' Valdivia went down easy, but he did get stepped on.

15' The yellow on Medel was harsh I thought. It was a foul, but nothing more than a talking-to was needed there.

17' That was never a foul by Torres. Vidal put himself between Torres and the ball and was already falling over in doing so. Both Rodriguez and his far side assistant called it...

19' Capdevilla's throw was fine, I'm not sure why that wasn't a free kick to Chile for his playing the ball after it came into play. A yellow for Ponce for a stupid kick at Torres' knee. He's lucky the ref didn't see more in that. It could easily have been a red.

21' That was easily a yellow for Estrada. It was a stupidly late challenge. Other than Medel's, the cards so far have been easy calls.

23' Ramos didn't make a play for the ball. If he had run towards it he might've gotten the result he wanted without foul.

24' Wow! The keeper had to come, but might've done better on his clearance. All he had to do was put it into touch. A great long range pass into the goal by Villa.

27' Easy call for the foul on Iniesta by Estrada. He would have been booked if he hadn't been already. I think that was a bad decision by Rodriguez.

29' Villa just pushed Sanchez from behind.

36' That was a penalty. Vidal made little attempt to play the ball. His primary concern was putting a shoulder on Torres and he did so with more force than necessary. To his credit Torres appeared to try and absorb the charge and stay on his feet.

37' I'm not sure about the second yellow for Estrada. He was watching the ball and seemed to merely accidentally trip Torres. Rodriguez failed to book him a second time for his foul on Iniesta in the 27', but two wrongs don't make a right. So far this has been another lackluster first half performance by a Mexican referee today.

40' First glance says Ramos was offside and the far side assistant was out of place to make the call. My own DVR-enabled replay confirms this.

43' Easy call for a foul on Busquets. Good gosh Rodriguez blows the whistle too much. That was a foul, and he needs to stop play, but it's gotta be the vuvuzela's influence I guess.

44' That was kind of a soft foul on Villa there.

45' Vidal did foul Iniesta there. He misplayed the ball, Iniesta got his body between the ball and Vidal, and Vidal just pulled Iniesta towards himself.

45'+2 Ponce is lucky there. I think Rodriguez is too close to see the stamp on Alonso's ankle or Ponce could have been sent off for a second yellow.

First half rating: Poor. 3/10. Rodriguez got almost every big decision wrong and let the the game get a little out of hand late on.

47' Spain's defense looked happy to let Chile get right up to the box. They deserved to be scored on there, but were unlucky that was what happened.

48' The foul on Beausejour was bizarre. No one else but Rodriguez seemed to think it was a foul. It certainly didn't look like much.

52' Good advantage played. Accidental arm by Paredes, not even sure that was a foul. Puyol put his face low. I'm iffy on that one. Parades had to know Puyol was back there, but he didn't look back and aim at Puyol. His eyes were always on the ball.

60' Easy call for the push on Ramos.

80' Very easy offside decision.

Man this is boring. For the last 25' neither team has done much. Spain had a couple of attacks early in that period, but the last 15' has been completely uneventful. The commentators' comparison of this play to the Germany - Austria in the 1982 WC is pretty accurate I think.

Second half rating: Average. 5/10. Rodriguez didn't have much to do this half.

Overall: Below average. 4/10. Rodriguez had a poor first half and never got a chance to redeem himself in the second half thanks to the dull "football" played by both teams. I would be surprised if Rodriguez got another game, but I've already been surprised in that regard with some of the referees that have done the 3rd group matches.