Lacking superstars, referees hold spotlight in World Cup

Already, a record 20 red cards ejecting players have been handed out. There have been 238 yellow-card warnings, including three cases where a player drew two in a game and was expelled.

The ejection leader in the homestretch is Mexico’s Arturo Brizio, who threw out three players in one game in the first round, two more in the Netherlands-Argentina quarter-finals (Dutch defender Arthur Numan drew two yellows) and, with seven reds in sixmatches, already has set a record.He is not scheduled to work either semi-final.

“He has put himself ahead of the pack,” Fifa spokesman Keith Cooper said.While he said the statistic was released reluctantly, Cooper said it did not reflect poorly on Brizio or the state of refereeing.

“I don’t think it has anything to do with the referee. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, or the right place at the right time,” Cooper said. “He was in a game that developed to the point where he had to take that kind of action.”

Such a drastic action usually changes the landscape of the game. England outplayed Argentina for nearly the entire first half of a second-round game. But when David Beckham was ejected at the start of the second-half for a retaliatory kick at an opponent, the English had to pull back into a defensive shell, rarely moving upfield and hoping to get to a shootout.They did, but they lost that, too.

“It is extremely difficult to play 11-on-10,” England goalie David Seaman said. “Itchanges the game entirely.” The Germans were incensed about a red card given to their best defender, Christian Woerns, by Norwegian referee Rune Pedersen in the 40th minute for a foul on Croatian striker Davor Suker.

“The red card was a joke,” Woerns said. “I am aware of no guilt. It was the decisive moment of the game. The team still fought well. In your career, you have the chance to play perhaps only one World Cup, therefore it’s especially disappointing.”

Fifa apparently now is satisfied with the officiating. Twenty games into the tournament, that wasn’t the case, and president Sepp Blatter called on the refs to be less tolerant of fouls from behind.

In keeping with the governing body’s pre-tournament edict that red cards be given for such hard fouls. That brought a sea of red cards, including Brizio’s hat-trick in the South Africa-Denmark game.

Fifa then met with the referees and things toned down a bit, but strict attention still was made to the tackles from behind.

“I am sure thereferees were confused by what Fifa said,” American Cobi Jones said. “The players and the coaches didn’t know what they wanted.”What they want, simply, is clean, wide-open soccer.

“We can tell them, pay attention to this. This will not be tolerated,” Cooper said of a typical pre-game meeting between referees and the teams. “Are we worried (at so many red cards)? no. That’s the decision and we’ll stand by that.”