Controversy Surrounds Officiating

I think everyone knew it was a matter of time when someone or a team wanted to voice their displeasure to a penalty call in the Women’s World Cup Soccer Championship.

Well, we never had to wait long as (apparently) China was upset with the call albeit the Head Coach of China Hao Wei said that “he did not have a clear view of the play.”

The head referee in the match was Kateryna Monzul’s from the Ukraine and her decision to award a stoppage-time penalty allowed Canada to pull off a 1-0 win in the opening match of the Women’s World Cup.

It was Christine Sinclair who scored on a penalty kick in the 92nd-minute giving Canada the victory, which was Sinclair’s 154th international goal.

Canadian coach John Herdman applauded the call, given its timing, importance and the nature of the offence.

After the match he told the media “All credit to the referee and I mean that was a brave decision. Some refs just sort of overlook those ones, because you can go ‘OK, well it was a bump.’ It wasn’t like blatantly obvious, (like) it was a blatant trip or something like that when someone’s through on goal.”

He continued “I thought she was brave and she had a very good game and if that’s the standard of the referees in this tournament, this is going to be a solid tournament.”

Canada’s Sophie Schmidt sent a looping ball into the box to Jessie Fleming, who toppled backwards as she headed the ball back towards Adriana Leon.

The Canadian forward and China’s Zhao Rong both went after the ball with Leon going down after she was partially clothes-lined by Zhao.

The Chinese player appeared to be trying to hold her position as she headed towards the ball, but her outstretched arm caught Leon, whose burst of speed seemed to take Zhao by surprise.

Zhao’s height didn’t help either in terms of the collision. She is listed as being three inches taller than the five-foot-three Leon.

A former FIFA match commissioner and MLS vice-president Joe Machnik agreed with the call when asked about it on the Fox Sports broadcast.

“I don’t think it’s a controversial play at all. What makes it controversial is the time of the decision — the 90th-plus minute,” he said. “We wouldn’t be talking about it if it happened in the 31st minute.

“For me, it’s a penalty whether it’s the 31st minute or the 90th minute. The referee makes a great call.”

Ah yes let’s not forget that the US might have a say in this as fellow Fox Sports analyst, Alexi Lalas, a former U.S. international disagreed with the call.

“Was it a foul? Yes. But the calls in a soccer game don’t happen in a vacuum,” he said. “I have to look at this in the context of the game. This was a 0-0 game. I thought in the first half, China played better than Canada, so at the end of the game, what really happened was the soccer gods smiled on the host nation, the referee walked to the spot singing ‘O Canada’ and gave them a gift.”

“In the context of this game, I would not have called this a penalty.”

Retired and former Canadian international player from Oakville Ontario Kara Lang, now working as a TSN analyst, said “it was the right call, the result of sloppy defending.”

FIFA’s laws of the game define 10 offences that should result in a direct free kick, or a penalty if committed inside the penalty area.

One could argue that China’s Zhao committed five of those offences, regardless of whether she deliberately meant to or not.

• jumps at an opponent
•  charges an opponent
• strikes or attempts to strike an opponent
• pushes an opponent
• tackles an opponent.