Referee Rating: Portugal v. Brazil

Benito Archundia from Mexico centers this match. He did the Italy - Paraguay match and was about on par with the refereeing to that point in the tournament.

5' Fabiano looked justified in having a word with Pepe. It looked like he kicked Fabiano as much as he was kicked, but flopped around. Archundia's intervention was good.

10' Easy call for the foul on Fabiano. Same for the foul on Tiago.

15' Yellow for Fabino's foul on Pepe seems harsh. Pepe really played that up. It was the second foul by Fabiano on Pepe (though I'm not convinced the first really was) and Pepe has made the most of both. I'm not surprised that a Mexican referee gave into the acting.

21' Tiago's foul was a bit unnecessary. As was Pepe's whining to Archundia when he's the one that kept going at Melo after the whistle. I was not impressed by his holding his arm and getting in Archundia's face like a child telling on a sibling. Melo's foot was unnecessarily high there. Archundia needs to make sure he manages this game and not just with cards. He did okay there, but seemed to miss the Melo/Pepe interchange. If he'd seen it clearly I think he would have talked to both players more.

25' Easy yellow on Juan. Given the direction of the ball and distance from goal, I think a red would have been harsh, but it probably could have been justified. I can only assume Duda said something rash because even an animated pleading would surely be easy to look past given the red/yellow question. He was following Archundia down-field, but he didn't seem to provide any huge public signs of dissent. It seemed an emotional reaction from Archundia. I get the feeling if Duda had said the same thing after Archundia had pocketed his card Duda wouldn't have been carded, but then, players do say stupid things.

26' Nilmar's challenge on Dude was stupid and an easy call.

30' Silva's push was a easy call especially due to Ronaldo's comical arm circles.

31' Excellent call on Tiago's dive and the card for it. Archundia was very well placed. That was a terrible dive and I'm glad he caught it.

33' Easy offside call on Ronaldo.

35' Baptista looked like he was trawling for contact but it probably was a foul. I don't like those types of fouls since the attacker could easily avoid contact most times, but there is contact. I consider it diving though because the attacker causes the contact. You could argue whether he has a duty to avoid contact, but in this case I think Baptista made something from almost nothing.

40' Melo made the most of that, but Pepe's stamp was only ever directed at Melo's ankle. I'm not sure I'd characterize it as violent, but given the earlier incident, it's treading the red/yellow line for me. He could easily have broken Melo's ankle and a red would not have been harsh at all. Not surprisingly Archundia had no word with Pepe. He seems to be losing control of this game minute by minute.

41' Melo is lucky he didn't get booked there. He went around the ball at Tiago's leg. I know the attacking team has a right to take a quick kick, but game management demanded at least a stern word with Melo there. As it is, it's another poorly dealt with situation and the game falls further out of Archundia's grasp.

43' And Melo is finally booked for his rugby hit on Pepe. For me that was excessive force and therefore a red. It's a foul born out of frustration and the knowledge that Archundia has lost the game. It was retaliation pure and simple and Melo should be off the pitch. In fact, it was so hard that even Pepe could not play it up with theatrics.

45' Dunga is wise to see what is going on. Melo is lucky to still be on the pitch and is a liability. Even waiting to half-time to sub him is a huge gamble.

45' Apparently Archundia's game control methods have devolved to showing cards for everything. Coentrao didn't deserve a yellow for that foul. The free kick was all that was needed. If anything else, just a talking to.

45' Juan flops in the box and Archundia sees through it. It could have been seen as a foul, but not by me. That's been regular contact this World Cup. Holding and pushing have been called a bit more (though not in US - Slovenia), but that was a well timed shield for me. Carvalho had a right to his position and Juan had no right to try and go through his back.

45'+1 Ronaldo is awfully selfish there.

First half rating: Below average. 4/10. This could have been a classic match between world powers, but Archundia's inability to step up and control the game when he needed to just isn't good enough. I hope he reviews some video during the break and steps it up in the second half.

46' Easy call on the over the back by Bastos.

47' Not sure why a yellow isn't issued to Danny, but play hasn't stopped yet so maybe it will be forthcoming at the next stoppage. Well no card. Replay shows minimal contact and given FIFA's directive about contact I guess no yellow, no foul is right.

48' Good "wait and see" approach on that non-offside call by the far side assistant.

50' Very little in the semi-block on Alves good non-call.

52' Easy call on the foul by Alves. Not sure why Ronaldo is shooting there unless it's a prearranged set-piece to get a deflection.

53' That looked like a very easy hand ball call on Meireles, but Archundia and his near side assistant both missed it. Archundia can be excused as he was blocked by Meireles' body, but the assistant should have seen that easily.

60' Good spot on the tip by Cesar for the corner. Archundia was well placed.

64' Interesting how players are made to tuck their shirts in before they come on as a sub, but then they almost all untuck it within a few steps of entering the field. They're all adults and shirts these days aren't that long so an untucked shirt looks fine, but I think it's odd to have them tuck their shirt in in the first place.

67' I'll have to see a replay on that offside call on Danny, but by my own slow motion replay he looked onside by a yard. There it is and my instinct was right, he was onside by about a yard.

67' Block by Lucio might have deserved a yellow, but given the number of cards Archundia gave out in the first half, I don't blame his reluctance to reach for his pocket.

68' Not sure why that was a foul on Coentrao. Alves is claiming it was an elbow to his neck. From my own replay, it looked like Alves jumped into Coentrao's elbow more than anything.

70' Baptista looked like he was pushed over. He may have gone over a bit easy and thus the handball call on him instead.

71' Ronaldo dived there. Replay shows it was pretty blatant, he's lucky not to be carded. Archundia was pretty well placed.

73' Maicon breaks recent tradition of both sides going down at the slightest contact. Very refreshing :)

74' Easy call on the high foot by Ronaldo.

Other than the off the ball excitement and hard challenges of the first half, this match has been pretty dull. Not much good football from two teams that can play well. I know Brazil don't want to lose, but they just keep passing the ball around the back and not creating many openings or attempting to attack much. Portugal's been the better team to watch so far.

81' That was quite a theatrical flop by Simao. There was contact, but it was engineered by him and played up a lot.

82' Gilberto did foul Ronaldo, but the advantage was there. Those are tough since you'd think Ronaldo and Portugal would rather have a set-piece that close than a relatively low-percentage shot from Danny. So do you call the foul or play advantage? Advantage is the easy call. I'm still on the fence about those situations.

90'+1 Bad shot, good save by Eduardo on the deflection.

90'+2 Ronaldo should know by now that that type of shoulder-to-shoulder contact is normal.

90'+3 Easy hand ball call. Easy call on the sandwich foul.

90'+4 A penalty for Lucio's handling might have been harsh. His arm was up for the jump and he was blocked from viewing the ball clearly by Carvalho so he didn't have much time to react.

90'+5 Easy call for that push+pull foul by Ramires.

Second half rating: Above average. 6.25/10.

Overall rating: Slightly above average. 5.5/10. Not a good first half, too many cards, but a better second half. Whether it was because both Melo and Pepe were off the field for most of the second half, Archundia controlled the game better and without a single card too. I have to praise how well he stepped up especially given how many other referees have let down the game late on.