Kuipers and the "DOGSOs"

Apart from the fact that Brazil taught the world a lesson concerning how to beat the unbeatable World Cup champions Spain, this Confederations Cup final furthermore featured an impressive amount of tight and demanding situations for the match officials and specially for referee Björn Kuipers of the Netherlands.

Piqué was dismissed by Kuipers (c) kurier.at

A detailed review of the officiating team's performance will ensue in form of a report written by one of our observers, but three key incidents can be already analyzed now.
They all refer to Law 12 (Fouls and Misconducts) - Denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity (DOGSO).

Therefore, it might be useful to expose the exact definition of DOGSO in the Laws of the Game first.

"Referees should consider the following circumstances when deciding whether to send off a player for denying a goal or an obvious goal-scoring opportunity:
- the distance between the offense and the goal
- the likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball
- the direction of the play
- the location and number of defenders
- the offense which denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity may be an offense that incurs a direct free kick or an indirect free kick"

It must be clarified that, similar to handball offenses, all these criteria have to weighn up mostly within very few parts of a second by the referee. Even one criteria can be enough to support the referee's decision and back him. It is however also clear that some of those criteria can be considered as more relevant than others, which depends on each single situation.

Incident 1, minute 15.

Spanish defender Arbeloa clearly pulled and held Neymar's kit for a while having been the "last man". Björn Kuipers only issued a yellow card. Splendid onside call by assistant referee Zeinstra.

No other defender could have intervened. The deep forward pass made by a Brazilian midfielder went towards the goal. The infringement occurred 45 metres away from the goal and the likelihood of gaining and then keeping control of the ball was very, very low - despite Neymar's admirable football abilities. He would not have reached this ball probably. For this reason, at least two of the four criteria that come into question for this specific scene unequivocally support the referee's decision. In this particular case, specially the criteria regarding the likelihood of controlling the ball seems to be the most striking and relevant one.

Incident 2, minute 28.

Sergio Ramos of Spain clearly fouled Brazilian Oscar in a quite clumsy but of course tactical way. Oscar was running towards the goal and had a good chance to reach the ball. On the other hand, the angle and position of the incident do not support the term "obvious goal-scoring opportunity" in my opinion. Furthermore Spanish defender Piqué could have intervened as he was quite close. This call really was borderline and "more red" than in the previous incident. However, in dubio pro ref, meaning that one may support Kuipers also in this decision.

Incident 3, minute 68.

Somehow, it was clear that there would be a red card in this game as Kuipers had twice resisted the very severe protests by the home team and crowd (point of criticism here: he really should have punished the Brazilians for those protests). Spanish defender Piqué stopped Neymar on his way into the penalty area potentially facing goalkeeper Casillas in a 1vs1 situation. It is quite clear Kuipers sent him off for DOGSO and not for serious foul play. The distance between the offense and the goal was quite small, Neymar surely would have stayed in possession of the ball as no other defender could have immediately intervened. Thus the only doubt might arouse regarding the fact that Neymar slightly moved away from the goal. However, again the decision made by the referee can be totally supported and understood.

In a sum, Björn Kuipers faced three challenging DOGSO situations and, from my point of view, should be praised for his assessment of them. Specially the first incident exposes a storybook example of how to deal with such situations.