Referee Rating: South Africa v. Mexico

Ravshan Irmatov from Uzbekistan was the center for this match. I thought he had a very good game though this was not surprising as he's been the top referee for Asia the last two years. Unfortunately, I had this idea of rating the refs today so I'd already deleted the match from the DVR so I only have my lingering impressions on which to rate.

Irmatov didn't get much wrong. He clamped down early and then let up allowing the game to flow well. He wasn't fooled by any players (mostly Mexican) flopping about looking for fouls and the game was better for it. Since these non- or very-soft-fouls weren't being called, the players got on with playing football. Overall a great opening game for refereeing. Irmatov and his assistants should be congratulated for allowing a relatively good opening match to proceed without unneeded intervention on their part.

Rating: Very Good. 8/10 (an extra half-point for this being the opening match)

That's all for now as I need to get to bed if I'm going to be up at 4am for Germany - Serbia. I'll probably post my review of Howard Webb's performance first followed by some others (Uruguay - France and Germany - Australia come to mind).