This article is an analysis of a referee’s performance during a game (based on my personal opinion). I watched the Holland vs Serbia European U-21 Championship final closely and took notes on how many good and bad calls the referee made and who was generally favored.
There were a few guidelines I laid down for myself before the game started which I feel should be shared to facilitate your understanding of the article:
- no outs were counted unless the decision was bad;
- if the referee ignored a challenge that seemed to be a foul but turned out to be legitimate, I did not put it down as a ‘good decision’;
- the issuing of yellow or red cards were not taken down as either ‘good’ or ‘bad’ decisions, however if the call was dubious it would be discussed in the commentary;
- if the referee played the advantage and I thought it was a foul, it will come out to be a ‘good’ call;
- in the ‘Referee statistics’ section, the number in brackets represents calls made by either of the linesmen;
- the accuracy percentages are rounded to the nearest unit, they are calculated as (right calls/all calls )* 100.
With that out of the way, let’s move on to the match itself.
Match Report
The championship final between the hosts, Holland and Serbia was a quiet but entertaining affair. The referee, 30 year old Damir Skomina from Slovenia (he was the youngest referee at the tournament) had several key decision to make, but they were clear calls for the most part.
