Today’s World Cup Yellow Card Presenters

June 26th, 2006 | by: WC Bob |

They have a lot work cut out for them if they want to surpass Russian referee Valentin Ivanov’s record setting card performance on Sunday, but today’s referees are fired up and ready to dish out some cards.

In the day’s first game, Italy vs. Australia, Luis Cantalejo Medina of Spain (pictured left) will be the man who’s right arm will become all too familiar to you. Medina works as a sports assessor when he isn’t refereeing. I have no idea what that means. In his spare time he likes music, literature, sports, nature, and traveling. No mention of long walks on the beach or puppy dogs. Here is his track record to date in this World Cup:

Argentina vs. Netherlands – 5 yellow cards, 0 red cards
Germany vs. Poland – 7 yellow cards, 1 red card

The second game between Switzerland vs. Ukraine features Benito Archundia from Mexico. Archundia works as a lawyer so he is used to being disliked. In his spare time he likes playing football, video games, and reading. One can only wonder if he questions the calls of the referees when he is playing football video games. His track record thus far:

Croatia vs. Brazil – 4 yellow cards, 0 red cards
Czech Republic vs. Italy – 3 yellow cards, 1 red card
France vs. South Korea – 4 yellow cards, 0 red cards

So there you have it. The two men who hopefully will not be the story today but very well could leave you seeing red (and yellow).

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matilda

Excellent forward planning Bob.

Australia is already familiar with Mr Cantalejo because he refereed the last gasp, nailbiting, penalty shootout win over Uruguay that got us into the World Cup.

Not that he’s a good omen or anything because the idea of a ref being a good omen sounds really dodgy and I don’t want to sound dodgy because this world cup has enough problems with refs already. Ok, going to shut up now.
http://fifawc6002.blogspot.com hesseh

Luis Cantalejo Medina can register a record of cards…
check this blog too:
http://fifawc6002.blogspot.com
Vin

Quoting an American announcer’s only good comment:

“Players usually only receive that many cards around Christmas.”
http://www.worldcupblog.org/world-cup-2006/liveblog-australia-vs-italy.html Liveblog: Australia vs. Italy – FIFA World Cup 2006 – World Cup 2006 Blog

[...] 40 minute countdown: In 2002, Guus Hiddink’s South Korea team eliminated Italy in the second round. Today, the Dutch master is hoping for a similar result from his Australia side. Italy reached this point with a different style of play in all three of its first round games. Today they face an Australia team that has garnered a reputation for being physical. The referee for today’s match is from Spain and he could have his hands full. My hands are too blistered to be full so a livebloggin’ we will go. Starting lineups next. [...]
David

Cantalejo’s penalty call today was the epitome of hijacking a game. It’s tiresome to see this happening year after year in the world cup. In this instance it’s particularly stunning because Australia outplayed Italy by far. I realize one doesn’t want to change the game by imposing a cumbersome review process, but this is getting ridiculous. Today, bad refereeing left out a good underdog team.
http://deleted Karl

How could Cantalejo officiate such and even match and then blow the most important call in the 93rd min? Everyone knows Italy has a reputation for diving and it was pretty damn obvious.
Claude

Marcelo Balboa of ESPN thought the PK was justified. Since Balboa never knows what he is talking about we can safely conclude that this was a bogus call.
damian

Cantalejo should be made to share at least half the money he got paid off to make that PK call!
Why doesn’t FIFA run a separate world cup for the referrees so they don’t have to go spoil ours?
http://habenichtpress.com/index.php/?p=26 Primitive Information » Blog Archive » World Cup Winding Down

[...] Needless to say I’m annoyed with FIFA and the plethora of red and yellow cards, dubiously culminating in their shameful decision to suspend Torsten Frings for a love-swipe after the Argentina quarterfinal. Overall, the reffing has been — I was going to type “fair” — let’s just say it hasn’t changed the outcome of any of the games from the quarterfinals on (with the possible exception of the above-mentioned, but that was FIFA, not an individual ref). Prior to that I can think of no less than three matches that I saw that were hugely altered by outright gaffes or over-reactions: Italy-U.S. (no need to say more); Italy-Australia (total dive for the PK); and of course the Dutch-Portugal bloodbath. Then there was the Rooney incident and of course, the double-yellow/no red in Croatia-Australia, which I didn’t see. (All of which led one blogger to ask, “which was the worst refereed game you saw?” Frankly, I can’t decide.) I’m not even counting U.S-Ghana here, which feels like small potatoes compared to some of these. [...]