The Spaniards can only hope that there will be no such arbitrariness in Qatar.
No matter how you fight it, the result of a football match is influenced not only by the players, but also by the referees. Most often, mistakes cannot be called intentional, but sometimes referees purposefully kill specific teams. This happened in the World Cup match with the participation of the Spanish national team in 2002.
At the same time, the chief referee of the match had the audacity to blame the Spaniards for the defeat!
There is only one quarter-final, but the paths to it are different
The Spanish national team at the group stage of the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea confidently confirmed the status of one of the favorites of the tournament. “Red Fury” won all three matches. At the same time, the Spaniards finished with a good goal difference – 9 scored and 4 missed. The case when the team shows not only the result, but also a beautiful game.
However, the ease of the Spaniards vanished when the team of Antonio Camacho met with the strong Irish in the playoffs. The players of the “Red Fury” went to the 1/8 final match with the desire to go further and do it beautifully. But a combat team from Ireland forced the Spaniards to move away from this thought. As a result, the meeting ended only on penalties, where Camacho’s players turned out to be stronger.
Despite the slippage in the match with a clear outsider, the Spaniards still looked like contenders for the title. The Koreans, on the other hand, got to the match with the Red Fury through scandals and stories with ambiguous refereeing. Already at the group stage, decisions towards South Korea raised questions. And with every match they only got bigger. The match of the 1/8 finals became clear evidence for the fans that the hosts of the tournament are being brazenly dragged along the net. The victim was a strong Italian team. And the head coach of the losing team, Giovanni Trapattoni, spoke most eloquently about the refereeing.
— From the first minutes I understood which way the wind was blowing. I’m not going to talk about conspiracy, but refereeing at this World Cup deserves a separate consideration. Officials talk about fair play, and then we see this on the fields. I have never seen anything like this in my entire career,” Trapattoni said.
And now it’s time for the quarterfinals. Neutral fans, tired of the arrogance of the referees, were waiting for a major victory for Spain, and the “Red Fury” with its attacking line could do it.
“Excellent refereeing” drowned the Spaniards
In the first half, the Spaniards dominated the field and were close to a goal. However, none of the six shots on target shook the net. The “Asian Tigers” did not play football, but survived on the field. This is just screaming statistics – in 45 minutes, the hosts of the tournament struck only one blow, which flew past the gate. It couldn’t go on like this forever, and already four minutes after the start of the second half, the Spaniards played a penalty kick like a textbook and took the lead. As it seemed.
After a perfect pitch from a partner, Ruben Baraja jumped above the opponent’s defense and sent the ball into the goal with his head. The Spaniards ran to celebrate the tortured goal, but their joy was quickly interrupted by the chief referee of the meeting, Gamal Gandur. The referee saw in the moment with a goal scored a violation in the attack. Allegedly, Spanish national team player Ivan Elgera, when fighting in the penalty area during the pitch, played too hard against the player guarding him. But for viewers who had the opportunity to review the episode, it was obvious that Baraja scored a clean ball.
The goal was canceled, but the Spaniards felt the taste of blood. The ball has already found its way into the opponent’s goal. It remained to score again, but already so that no one had any questions. However, the South Korean players closed in a dead defense and were able to survive until the end of regular time. It became clear that the Asian Tigers team under the leadership of Guus Hiddink wants to reach the post-match penalties. There, their chances would have increased significantly.
But the Spaniards, on the contrary, tried to finish this unpleasant match as early as possible. And in the 92nd minute, Camacho’s team was close to this goal. Fernando Morientes burst into the penalty area at speed and closed the flank pass with his head. But this time, the referee team decided to rob the Spaniards: the side referee mistakenly raised the flag.
“Red Fury” did not pay attention to refereeing, but continued to run forward. In the second extra half, Luis Enrique ran one-on-one with the opponent’s keeper, but did not have time to break through on goal – again a far-fetched offside. And then a series of penalties and tears of the Spaniards … Camacho said after the match that his team that day did not deserve relegation from the tournament.
– Of course, I expected that the referees would be on the side of South Korea. But I thought that at least in the quarterfinals they would judge more or less impartially. You can’t judge the quarter-finals of the World Cup like that,” Camacho said after the game.
But the judge who drowned the Spaniards was talking about the quarter-finals after almost 20 years. At the same time, he never admitted his mistakes or loyalty to the “Asian tigers.” On the contrary, he blamed the Spaniards themselves for that defeat. And also mockingly called his refereeing excellent.
“The Spaniards can’t blame me for that loss to Korea because they had a few clear opportunities until the end of the game. They could have won the game before the penalty shootout. Only the judge can judge, sometimes our assistants make decisions. I stick to what I said: I played a great game. In fact, FIFA gave me 8.7 points out of 10 that day,” said the former referee.
