Referee Rating: Germany v. England

Jorge Larrionda of Uruguay takes charge of this match. He was the ref at USA v. Italy in 2006. He's regarded as a top referee, but I'm not totally convinced. FIFA are since this is his fourth game of the tournament. He's already done Ivory Coast v. Portugal, Cameroon v. Denmark, and Australia v. Serbia.

4' I'm not sure about that offside call on Rooney. Lahm looked like he was trying to pass that back. It wasn't just a deflection for me.

18' Easy call for the foul on Podolski. Another good call for the foul on Lampard. Not sure why Khadira is complaining, he and Schweinsteiger sandwiched Lampard and Schweinsteiger got little of the ball. He got Lampard's knee first too it looked like.

20' Terrible defending nets an assist for Germany's goalkeeper Neuer on his goal kick to Klose. It's a bit of deja vu considering Ghana's first goal yesterday.

24' Dafoe went down easy there.

26' I'm not sure that was a foul by Klose.

30' Could have been offside there, but I doubt it. Yup, replay shows Klose was clearly onside.

31' I'm guessing Dafoe was offside. Again replay shows the referees are correct.

32' Wow. That was quite an angle on Podolski's shot.

34' That was a soft foul on Boateng.

36' Good tackle by Johnson.

37' Bad defending by Boateng. He just stood by while Upson had a free header.

38' I need a replay there, but I don't think the ball went over the line. Wow, that was clearly a goal. I wasn't completely paying attention, but I should have known from the spin of the ball and so should the assistant. You can't call what you can't see, but if ever there were a case for instant replay, this is a great example. Just saw another replay and the assistant was only 7ish yards away. He should have seen that. It wasn't even close.

45'+1 If the far side assistant thought that ball was over the line, it's baffling he didn't see the goal...Rooney was pushed, but went down a bit late looking for the foul. Good non-call.

47' Easy yellow for Friedrich on Dafoe. He was never going to get the ball.

51' Good advantage and call on the foul on Rooney.

53' Easy offside call on Klose.

54' I don't think Neuer was actually trying to waste time...I guess a warning doesn't hurt though.

57' My own replay had a little bit of a bad angle, but I don't think that ball went all the way over the line. This time the near side assistant called it over.

59' Mueller squibbed that shot. That was terrible defending and he should have done better. It was deflected and should have been a corner too.

62' That was a bit of theatrics by Mueller.

63' It looked like Johnson was fouled there.

66' Rooney certainly made the most of that block.

67' Not really sure why James went to his right when Terry was coming across to cover that side.

69' Again Mueller should do better. He could easily have gotten his second goal in as many minutes.

70' What terrible defending. Barry should have stayed more central and Cole could have then picked up Mueller and Upson might have had time to get back as well.

73' Easy call. Boateng wasn't playing the ball there, just blocking.

74' Easy call for the foul on Oezil. Rooney needs to be careful though his picking up of Oezil was hilarious.

75' Another foul by Johnson. That's at least three I think and two pretty close together.

81' That was a soft foul and Oezil went down easy, but if it's called a foul then it's Johnson's third in the last 5-7 minutes and fourth or more for the game so a yellow for persistent infringement is an easy call.

87' Easy offside call there.

90' Interesting call for the assistant to just see that ball out since, while Kiessling was offside, he never got to the ball. Though, he was the only one that was ever going to get to it so it could have been called. Either way it doesn't really matter.

Assistants: Above average. 6/10. The far side assistant missed the goal, and a few ball in/out of play calls I thought were wrong, but they got every offside call correct. It's tough rating that because of the disallowed goal, but I thought they were very good otherwise so I took off ~2 points for that missed call.

Overall: Very good. 7.5/10. Larrionda didn't have much to do in the second half thanks to the Germans, but he kept the game under control, was well positioned, and didn't go to his pocket unnecessarily. Despite my feelings about '06, I hope his assistant's missed call doesn't cost him another game in the World Cup, but given that there are only 7 games (that matter) after this round, I wouldn't be surprised if that kept him out if other referees have better games for the remaining Round of 16 games.