Referee Rating: USA v. Algeria

Frank de Bleeckere of Belgium did this match. My biased opinion follows.

It is not good enough for a deciding third group game to just be an average referee. I thought his handling of the game was average in the first half and went down from there. His positioning was generally above average, but his decision making let him down. He stopped play at one point when the US had a clear advantage and the injury clearly did not require immediate attention (26' Kadir fouled Dempsey). He was pretty consistent, but wavered at times calling fouls when he didn't need to and not calling them when he probably should, but this was the rare exception.

In the 12' Yebda made little attempt to play the ball and, while it was early in the game, it was a pretty easy call to reach for the yellow card at that point. I'm not sure why DeMerit was called for a foul in the 18', but de Bleeckere managed Gomez' encroachment well. de Bleeckere missed Boughgerra's foul on Jozy in the lead-up to the disallowed goal. It was a yellow for me, but de Bleeckere didn't even signal for advantage. As for the disallowed goal, it's close, but the near side assistant should have been in the correct position and from earlier glimpses of him, I suspect he might have been a bit out of position for the call which should go the attacker's way if there's doubt. I was surprised at Jozy's booking in the 62', it was dumb, but not hard, and way down at the other end of the field. I'm not sure why the far side assistant called a foul on Buddle in the 71' or how he missed Belhadj's kick out at Buddle. The assistant seemed to react to it, but then did nothing because Buddle didn't hit the ground immediately and writhe in fake pain as an Italian might have done. Yahia's first booking in at the 76' was easy. It was late and a cynical stamp on Jozy's foot. Quite how the refereeing team missed Yahia' punch to Dempsey's face in the 81' I don't know. The far side assistant may have been blocked by Donovan, but he should've been further down the line and thus able to see it. de Bleeckere was less than 10 yards away and looked like he had a decent angle, but the ball was elsewhere. As much as I dislike disrespect to referees, I think Dempsey was right to shrug off de Bleeckere's pacifications and have a sharp word at him. Dempsey had just been punched in the face and given a bloody lip and the man who's supposed to protect him hasn't been doing so and missed the worst foul all game. Lacen had no complaints for the foul on Jozy. It was from behind and stopped a dangerous attack. On replay, I think a red might've been harsh, but not unjustified. Lacen made no attempt on the ball and just stamped Jozy's foot, but given de Bleeckere's inability/unwillingness to protect Jozy up to that point, I wouldn't have expected it. He did do well to ignore Ghezzal's semi-flop in the 86'. Beasley's yellow for deliberate hand ball was harsh, but my slow motion replay shows it was actually a foul. I'm not sure why the yellow was necessary, but whatever. Yebda and Halliche should both have been booked in the 90'+3, but instead Yahia saw his second yellow and was sent off for pushing his dissenting players back and seeming to calmly plead his case. It was a bizarre ending to a lackluster refereeing performance.

Somewhere in there DeMerit also got away with some major shirt pulling in the box. He was lucky he didn't get a penalty called on him.

It all boiled down to this, that the USA stepped up their game in the second half, the Algerians stepped up their dirty play, and de Bleeckere and his team did nothing to step up their game, and perhaps even slid backwards from their (maybe slightly above) average first half performance.

Assistants: Below average. 4/10.

Positioning: Above average. 6/10.

Game management: Below average. 4/10. Did not step up when he needed to.

Big decisions: Below average. 4/10. Missed DeMerit's shirt-pulling, missed Dempsey being punched, disallowed Dempsey's goal, sent off the wrong player, spotted Beasley's handling, missed kick out at Buddle

Overall: Below average. 4/10. Not good enough for a crucial game.