Montreal Gazette

OFFICIATIN­G LAGS IN WOMEN’S WORLD CUP

- JACK TODD jacktodd46@yahoo.com twitter.com/JackTodd46

The Women’s World Cup has come a long way since the American women put their sport on the map by winning the 1999 championsh­ip on home soil.

The women are faster, more skilled, more athletic. Far more nations are able to compete, with the number growing exponentia­lly from one World Cup to the next.

Their game can bring a crowd of 51,176 to the Olympic Stadium for a semifinal and pretty much live up to the hype.

Unfortunat­ely, if there is one area where the women still lag behind, it’s in the way their game is officiated. It’s the Norwegian Ref Syndrome, dating back to the 2012 Olympics when Canada was flat robbed in its game against the U.S. by Christiana Pedersen.

We’ll probably never know whether Pedersen was incompeten­t or whether she was bullied into the calls by poor sport Abby Wambach and the sheer weight of American influence but it was a historic bad performanc­e by an official.

We’ve seen it again at this World Cup, with referees’ decisions pivotal in Germany’s win over France and the 2-0 U.S. victory over Germany at the Big O Tuesday evening.

If there was a difference, it’s that this time, the U.S. really was the better team on the night, although had German striker Celia Sasic converted her penalty kick, Germany might have advanced to Sunday’s final.

All the referees working this World Cup (and their assistants) are women. That is as it should be. The men make mistakes too, lots of them, but the top referees also get loads of experience working high-pressure games in the Premiershi­p, the Champion’s League, Serie A, La Liga and all the rest of it. On balance, experience at that level shows, especially in the biggest matches.

Some of the women working this World Cup have been very good. Some, notably Canadian referee Carol Anne Chenard, have not. Ironically, Romanian referee Teodora Albon seemed to be doing a very good job managing Tuesday’s semifinal match before she got two critical calls wrong.

The first was on the penalty called on the Americans. Julie Johnston of the U.S. team was the last defender when she hauled down Lena Petermann in the area, so Johnston should have been red-carded and sent off. Instead, she received a yellow and remained on the pitch, so the Americans still had their full complement of players.

Albon got the call right on the penalty kick (despite the braying of the overwhelmi­ngly American fans, who proved again and again that their passion for winning isn’t matched by their understand­ing of the game).

But the absent red card would prove decisive after Germany’s Celia Sasic unaccounta­bly missed the kick.

Germany had never missed a penalty kick at the Women’s World Cup — and Sasic herself had tied the quarter-final against France five days earlier from the penalty spot and converted the fifth and deciding kick when that match had to be settled on kicks after extra time.

From Sasic’s reaction, you could tell that the possibilit­y that she might miss hadn’t entered her mind. She appeared stunned more than dismayed. Hope Solo had guessed wrong and dove the wrong way — all Sasic had to do was tap it into the open net but the shot off the inside of her foot went wide.

At that, the missed kick might not have been decisive if the Romanian referee had made the correct call. It became doubly crucial when Albon made a second, more crucial mistake — albeit an understand­able one.

With American star Alex Morgan on the verge of breaking into the area in the 69th minute, German defender Annike Krahn turned her back on Morgan just enough to obstruct her. If the foul itself was doubtful, the spot where it happened was not. Replays showed clearly that the foul occurred outside the area, which meant that it should have been a free kick, not a penalty kick.

Even on the replay, I missed that on first viewing and it was not until I saw the play from different angles after the match that Albon’s mistake hit home. Without that goal, it’s possible the U.S. might not have prevailed despite dominating the first half and some of the second — especially if they had been down to 10 players as they should have been.

But U.S. captain Carli Lloyd converted a penalty shot six minutes after Sasic missed.

Lloyd also set up the goal that iced it for the Americans after the Germans had worn themselves out trying to find the equalizer, slipping the ball to Kelley O’Hara, who made it 2-0 and put the match out of reach in the 84th minute.

Given the way this tournament was set up, it’s hard to see any way the Americans could lose Sunday’s final in Vancouver against the winner of the England-Japan semifinal Wednesday night. For reasons FIFA has never explained, the top three teams (Germany, the U.S. and France) were put on a collision course before this tournament ever started.

Germany and France drew the short straws: the French (still the most talented team in this tournament, despite the loss to Germany) got the Germans in the quarter-final. Germany had to play a murderer’s row of Sweden, France and the U.S. just to get to the final. In the end it was too much.

Of course you’ll never get an explanatio­n for the seedings out of FIFA, which may have been trying to clear a path to the final for Team Canada, whose mediocre showing left them well short of that goal.

The officiatin­g will get better in the future. Even FIFA might improve.

But in this World Cup, referee mistakes have played far too large a role in the outcome.

 ?? DENNIS GROMBKOWSK­I/BONGARTS/GETTY IMAGES ?? Carli Lloyd of the U.S. scores the opening goal from a penalty kick in Women’s World Cup semifinal action against Germany at Olympic Stadium on Tuesday. Lloyd also set up the goal that iced a 2-0 victory for the Americans.
DENNIS GROMBKOWSK­I/BONGARTS/GETTY IMAGES Carli Lloyd of the U.S. scores the opening goal from a penalty kick in Women’s World Cup semifinal action against Germany at Olympic Stadium on Tuesday. Lloyd also set up the goal that iced a 2-0 victory for the Americans.
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