Referee Rating: Spain v. Portugal

Hector Baldassi takes charge of this match. I thought he was very good in Netherlands v. Japan so I hope he does well here. Good luck!

I've come in a bit late commenting-wise, but did watch the first 4', but didn't see anything major to comment on. I'm also going to leave some of the more mundane fouls uncommented on and concentrate on the game more with less pausing to replay on my own.

6' Coentrao was lucky to not give up a penalty there. That was pretty blatant off the ball shielding.

15' Easy call there, Xabi just needs to watch his cleats.

16' Ronaldo went down a bit easy there.

17' Easy call on the unnecessary kick to the shins by Puyol.

22' Easy call for the foul by Xabi.

24' Another foul on Iniesta. He was a little lucky to get the call I think.

26' Torres just held his defender.

27' Xabi needs to watch it. That's a few fouls pretty close together. He's not really getting close enough to the ball, he's pretty late.

31' Merieles was looking for a call there and there wasn't much in it.

35' That probably was a foul on Ronaldo, but he's not helping himself at all. The more petulant he becomes, the less likely it is that he'll get a call. Not deliberately, but Baldassi will notice those little dissents and it could affect him subconsciously.

37' It was a foul by Puyol, he wasn't playing the ball at all, but Almeida doesn't need to go down quite that theatrically.

38' Almeida was somewhat high with his boots, but Puyol made the most of that.

44' Easy offside call by the far side assistant.

First half rating: Above average. 6/10. This rating isn't really all that fair since Baldassi hasn't had to do much, but he is generally where he needs to be and is keeping the game under control. The possible penalty for Spain for the block on Torres is the only possible slight against him, but that's not a clear-cut penalty for everyone. The ball's already being collected by another defender and Torres was never really going to get to it. Technically that shouldn't matter, but in practice it seems that most top referees only give penalties about which there is no question in their minds and is fairly clear cut. You always want to be absolutely certain about your view of a penalty. But the "clear cut"-ness is different. I think this is generally a good practice at this level since diving and exaggeration is so prevalent. You could make an argument that Baldassi should have given a penalty there, but I think most international referees (and FIFA) would agree with no call.

48' Good spot on the shouldering off of the ball by Almeida on Puyol.

50' Puyol was looking for the foul there, not sure there was one.

53' That looked like more dive than foul when Busquets went down.

54' Almeida was kicked there, but again he went down with a little added flair.

57' Villa went over looking for something. I'm surprised there haven't been any cards for diving yet. There have been some players very close to simulation.

59' Easy offside call despite Portugal's protestations.

63' It looked like someone was offsides in that ricochet. Replay shows Xavi (who I suspected) was onside. However, my own replay is inconclusive for Xavi to Villa. I need a line on a replay from ESPN to see. My first instinct is that he was *just* offsides. Certainly not as bad as Tevez in Argentina v. Mexico, but it still might be another missed call in the Round of 16.

67' Easy call for the foul on Capdevila. Despicable that he goes down clutching his face though, he slightly hit his head, no need to try and exaggerate it into contact with the face.

74' Dumb foul by Xabi, easily a yellow.

75' Not sure why that was a foul *on* Llorente and not one *by* him.

76' Good tackle by Puyol. Baldassi was right there too.

80' Late unnecessary foul by Tiago on Villa. Not sure it's necessarily a yellow, but no real complaints.

85' Capdevila got away with that. Baldassi was pretty far away, but his assistant was close.

89' Not sure why Costa got a red card there. The incident was on the edge of the screen. Finally got a good angle and it was an elbow to the face of Capdevila. Good catch by Baldassi.

90'+2 Baldassi does well to step in between Alves and Capdevila.

Overall rating: Good. 7/10. Baldassi didn't have a lot to do, but he kept the game flowing, ignored flopping, and kept the game under control. He got the red card and his other bookings right. The goal was iffy as far as offsides goes, but very, very close even the replay was not totally conclusive for me. I think Baldassi made a case today for refereeing another game.