Referee Rating: Uruguay v. Netherlands

Ravashan Irmatov is the referee for this match. He has been great this World Cup and I expect he and his team will continue to well.

13' The far side assistant has gotten some very close offside calls correct so far.

14' Irmatov was well-placed to deny the deliberate hand ball claim by the Dutch.

17' Great tackle by van Persie, good positioning by Irmatov to see it as a fair tackle and then call the later foul by van Persie.

18' What a shot!!! That was incredible.

19' Easy call for the hold by Uruguay.

21' Easy yellow for Pereira for his foul on Robben. He had little chance to get the ball and there was no need to take Robben from behind with both legs.

23' I wasn't sure on my first look about the foul by van Persie, but replay showed a well-spotted shove with his forearm.

27' Irmatov is handling this fracas well. De Zeeuw just got clocked, but Caceres only had eyes for the ball. You could make a case that it was reckless and therefore deserving of a yellow, but I think no card is the correct decision. Good spot for the yellow for Sneijder's reaction to Caceres.

31' Great tackle by Caceres and good positioning by Irmatov.

32' What a dive by Cavani. I know FIFA say if there's contact, it can't be simulation, but a card for exaggeration as unsporting behavior would have been just fine by me there. Not totally necessary though and it's probably better to ignore that sort of thing since that seems to be FIFA's position on it. Unfortunately referees have to do exactly as FIFA say even if it might be better for football to do otherwise. It tends to make calls a little more consistent, but I don't think it's worth it myself.

41' That looked like less of a great shot by Forlan and more of a mistake by Stecklenberg.

45'+2 Missed call by the near side assistant and missed header by Kuyt. It was a closer call than the replay showed thanks to Kuyt's perfectly timed run, but the benefit of the doubt should go to the attacker according to FIFA.

46' Good call by the far side assistant.

51' Good advantage and great save by van Bronkhorst

53' Good advantage. That was somewhat of a dive by Forlan.

59' Not sure what that was. That was kind of a dive I thought. A good tackle there on van der Vaart.

62' That looked like a bit of a flop by van der Vaart.

65' Easy call for the foul on Caceres, but I think he made the most of it. Replay shows he had the bottom of his spikes hit...So it was a foul, but there was no need for his yell and roll.

70' Looked like a good call on no offsides. It didn't look like Sneijder's shot was touched by van Persie. He wasn't in the keeper's line of vision despite what Ian Darke (commentator) says. Replay shows that this was the case. Great job by the far side assistant.

73' What a great header by Robben on a good cross by Kuyt.

75' Looked like that ball might've gone out, but then there have been a few called this World Cup that I thought were definitely in that were called out. The near side assistant hasn't been at his best, but the far side assistant has been outstanding.

77' Another good call by the far side assistant.

78' Easy yellow for Boularouz. Hmmmm. Replay shows he got all ball and it was a clean tackle for me. I think Irmatov missed that one.

89' It looked like a lot of the Uruguayan players were offside there. My own DVR-enabled replay looks like the near side assistant got that one right on.

90' That looked like a decent tackle by von Bommel, the early contact might've been a foul. Replay showed it was easily a foul by van Bommel.

90'+3 Not sure what van Bommel's yellow was for.

Not sure why an extra two minutes were added. The goal and van Bommel? Probably.

Ratings:
Assistants: Very good. 8/10. The near side assistant started off a bit shaky, but pulled it out. The far side assistant was outstanding all game.

Overall: Very good. 8/10. Irmatov kept the game under control and didn't fall for any diving. He missed only a couple small incidents and got all the big decisions correct except probably the booking for Boularouz. A great showing from a refereeing team that has done excellently this whole tournament.