In Focus: Match 48 - Cameroon vs. England, Edgardo Codesal
The first African nation to reach the last eight of the World Cup very nearly went one better. Cameroon gave England quite the run for their money in their quarterfinal tie. However, having led, then been behind with eight minutes left, only to then go ahead in extra time, it was the Three Lions who progressed to the semifinals after a 2-3 victory on what was a dramatic night in Naples.
A dramatic evening also for the referee, Edgardo Codesal, who awarded three(!) penalties. Codesal of Mexico hadn't entered Italia '90 as one of the favourites to do the final, but his performance here certainly announced himself in the race to receive football most prestigious refereeing appointment the following weekend. Analysis of his in-box calls, and final merits, all to follow in this post.
A dramatic evening also for the referee, Edgardo Codesal, who awarded three(!) penalties. Codesal of Mexico hadn't entered Italia '90 as one of the favourites to do the final, but his performance here certainly announced himself in the race to receive football most prestigious refereeing appointment the following weekend. Analysis of his in-box calls, and final merits, all to follow in this post.
Refereeing Highlights
Preface
A historic match. Never before had an African nation contested a World Cup quarterfinal, and it was an honour well-earned for Cameroon having followed up their defeat of Argentina in the opener, with further remarkable victories against Romania, and then Colombia in the second round, to take their place in the last eight. Their opponents were big-name England, previous winners of the competition, who had topped the dreary Group F, and defeating Belgium with a last-minute goal in the round of sixteen.
Cameroon against England was to be the second match at World Cup 1990 to be refereed by Mexican official Edgardo Codesal; the first had gone well, a good performance in Italy's one-nil group stage victory over the United States. Having been part of the support group of local referees at Mexico 1986, while Codesal's experience at the global showpiece was extensive (fulfilling his fourteenth finals appointment here), there is no doubt that FIFA had kept him pretty quiet in Italy.
Codesal felt that too, stating that he felt this match gave him a chance to shine at the World Cup, having mostly carried out linesmen or reserve ref work thus far in Italy. It is interesting to speculate why FIFA managed him like that. He was obviously a referee they trusted to a quite significant degree. One wouldn't appoint him to deal with the hosts or handle the second leg of the intercontinental playoff (Israel vs. Colombia) having given Michel Vautrot the first otherwise.
Cameroon against England was to be the second match at World Cup 1990 to be refereed by Mexican official Edgardo Codesal; the first had gone well, a good performance in Italy's one-nil group stage victory over the United States. Having been part of the support group of local referees at Mexico 1986, while Codesal's experience at the global showpiece was extensive (fulfilling his fourteenth finals appointment here), there is no doubt that FIFA had kept him pretty quiet in Italy.
Codesal felt that too, stating that he felt this match gave him a chance to shine at the World Cup, having mostly carried out linesmen or reserve ref work thus far in Italy. It is interesting to speculate why FIFA managed him like that. He was obviously a referee they trusted to a quite significant degree. One wouldn't appoint him to deal with the hosts or handle the second leg of the intercontinental playoff (Israel vs. Colombia) having given Michel Vautrot the first otherwise.
All three of his linesmen appointments were to the islandic Group F, which was treated quite delicately by FIFA in terms of refereeing assignments; his reserve inset was Argentina against Romania. I'm sure that this quarterfinal assignment wasn't out of the blue, and he was surely being saved for it quite deliberately. Indeed, only Codesal from outside Europe or the two big CONMEBOL nations would handle a knockout match at all in 1990; if FIFA had wanted to keep him 'safe' for that, they had succeeded.
Cameroon against England seemed the most natural fit of the four quarterfinals for the Mexican - the Indomitable Lions had been tough to ref so far, and required a strict official to keep their combative and sometimes agricultural play in check. Codesal, a 'law-enforcer' type referee, seemed to fit that brief. In addition, the value of a confederationally-neutral ref was not insignificant either. To that effect, FIFA appointed a full 'neutral' trio, compromised of CONCACAF and AFC officials.
Vincent Mauro (USA) and Jassim Mandi (BHR) were the designated linesmen. Both had worked quite extensively with the flag in Italia '90, this being their fifth such assignment each at the tournament. For the American Mauro, it was a deserved appointment after his solid performances throughout the competition, but Bahrain's J. Mandi was a touch fortunate to be retained after a not-so-convincing last time out, at José Ramiz Wright's side in Republic of Ireland vs. Romania.
Still, in a World Cup where the level of linesmanship had undoubtedly been disappointing, there weren't many options besides Mandi, and he had been decent enough besides. Completing the refs team was big name Michel Vautrot from France. One has the impression that FIFA didn't pay much attention to the reserve appointments - the Frenchman with England for the second game running, and even worse with Cameroon whom he reduced to nine men in that famous opener, suggested as much.
Cameroon against England seemed the most natural fit of the four quarterfinals for the Mexican - the Indomitable Lions had been tough to ref so far, and required a strict official to keep their combative and sometimes agricultural play in check. Codesal, a 'law-enforcer' type referee, seemed to fit that brief. In addition, the value of a confederationally-neutral ref was not insignificant either. To that effect, FIFA appointed a full 'neutral' trio, compromised of CONCACAF and AFC officials.
Vincent Mauro (USA) and Jassim Mandi (BHR) were the designated linesmen. Both had worked quite extensively with the flag in Italia '90, this being their fifth such assignment each at the tournament. For the American Mauro, it was a deserved appointment after his solid performances throughout the competition, but Bahrain's J. Mandi was a touch fortunate to be retained after a not-so-convincing last time out, at José Ramiz Wright's side in Republic of Ireland vs. Romania.
Still, in a World Cup where the level of linesmanship had undoubtedly been disappointing, there weren't many options besides Mandi, and he had been decent enough besides. Completing the refs team was big name Michel Vautrot from France. One has the impression that FIFA didn't pay much attention to the reserve appointments - the Frenchman with England for the second game running, and even worse with Cameroon whom he reduced to nine men in that famous opener, suggested as much.
Big Decisions
A big game, and some big calls required of its referee. Edgardo Codesal was on hand to award three penalty kicks in this match - one for Cameroon, followed by two for England - all of which were scored. Immediately then, Codesal's performance and those key calls went under the sharpest media microscope. Let's do the same ourselves: a quick-fire video containing all three penalty calls, and two further in-box situations, can be found below (full timestamps for the whole incidents also provided below).
Analysis
21' - (play on, no penalty for Cameroon):
Quite a remarkable scene which shows how much football has changed since World Cup 1990. After what would be a clear penalty (+ intervention) nowadays, Cyrille Makanaky just gets up and carries on playing! The key to understanding this scene is the heaviness of Makanaky's touch. It: 1) gives the impression that Terry Butcher might have played the ball (he didn't at all), before taking Makanaky out; and, 2) makes any contact less than reckless (as this was in 1990), more-or-less irrelevant, as it would be today - though obviously our line for reckless is much lower than back then.
60' - (play on, no penalty for England):
Quite a remarkable scene which shows how much football has changed since World Cup 1990. After what would be a clear penalty (+ intervention) nowadays, Cyrille Makanaky just gets up and carries on playing! The key to understanding this scene is the heaviness of Makanaky's touch. It: 1) gives the impression that Terry Butcher might have played the ball (he didn't at all), before taking Makanaky out; and, 2) makes any contact less than reckless (as this was in 1990), more-or-less irrelevant, as it would be today - though obviously our line for reckless is much lower than back then.
60' - (play on, no penalty for England):
To be honest, it is impossible to state anything to unequivocally about this scene, as it impossible to gather what kind of a touch (if any) that goalkeeper Thomas N'Kono gets on the ball before crashing into David Platt. One can say that if Platt doesn't left his right leg from the ground, then N'Kono is going to make a very dangerous trapping contact on it. To Codesal's credit, he obviously sees the situation clearly, making very clear explanatory gestures (I don't know quite what though! :D).
61' - (penalty #1, for Cameroon):
One can be quite quick here - absolutely clear foul, correctly detected and penalised by the well-positioned referee. Right call, no discussion.
82' - (penalty #2, for England):
One can be quite quick here - absolutely clear foul, correctly detected and penalised by the well-positioned referee. Right call, no discussion.
82' - (penalty #2, for England):
Having not really moved from his position at the initial freekick, the Mexican ref found himself in a very good position to adjudge on Benjamin Massing's challenge on Gary Lieneker. The England striker ends up falling of his own accord (look at how he prepares his fall), but Massing surely catches Lineker on the leg which he prepares to plant on the ground. At the very least, Codesal's penalty call is supportable, but in reality, it is surely the correct decision after Massing's very careless action.
105' - (penalty #3, for England):
Another very interesting discussion involving Lineker and a potential simulation, and surely the most rugged World Cup player of the last thirty-five years, Benjamin Massing. Goalkeeper N'Kono does accuse Lineker of diving, and to be honest, he does have a point - the striker trawls his leg over N'Kono, before performing basically a swan dive. But - I'm sure that part of the reason Lineker decided to fall was that he could feel someone running just behind him (Massing), who then scandalously lunges in on him as he is partly falling (isn't this a professional foul?). For me, Massing's actions override any potential Lineker simulation, meaning that Codesal got this decision quite right in my opinion. The final penalty was decisive for the outcome, England scoring the only extra time goal.
Precis: Edgardo Codesal comes out of these series of decisions (very) well in my opinion. In both of the first two situations, play on was the expected call 'back then', and then the Mexican was on the spot to award spot kicks in the three memorable penalty scenes later in the match.
Another very interesting discussion involving Lineker and a potential simulation, and surely the most rugged World Cup player of the last thirty-five years, Benjamin Massing. Goalkeeper N'Kono does accuse Lineker of diving, and to be honest, he does have a point - the striker trawls his leg over N'Kono, before performing basically a swan dive. But - I'm sure that part of the reason Lineker decided to fall was that he could feel someone running just behind him (Massing), who then scandalously lunges in on him as he is partly falling (isn't this a professional foul?). For me, Massing's actions override any potential Lineker simulation, meaning that Codesal got this decision quite right in my opinion. The final penalty was decisive for the outcome, England scoring the only extra time goal.
Precis: Edgardo Codesal comes out of these series of decisions (very) well in my opinion. In both of the first two situations, play on was the expected call 'back then', and then the Mexican was on the spot to award spot kicks in the three memorable penalty scenes later in the match.
A firm tick in the key match incidents box!
Managing the Game
The big, overarching discussion point about this refereeing performance has to be - did it deserve to win Edgardo Codesal earn the World Cup final appointment? Well, three correct penalties and a widely satisfying performance would point much towards yes. Personally - I'd be a bit more ambivalent.
I find this a tricky performance to assess. There are quite a lot of elements to consider when coming to an overall judgement. We've already touched on one of the biggest, the three penalty calls. For sure, Codesal showed that he wasn't overawed when having to take big calls in big games, but I'm not really sure it says much more than that. The actual detection of these three offences was, mostly, pretty expected really
So how about the match as a whole? Well, it was definitely much harder psychologically than it was technically for Codesal. Cameroon must have been a very demanding team to referee, for many reasons, but especially because one had no real idea of what they were going to do next. With the penalty calls, extra time, and so on, it must have been a (very) stressful event for the Mexican referee.
However, in terms of management, disciplinary - this wasn't really a tough match at all. And Codesal didn't excel to be honest. There were some very good calls, such as Massing's card after advantage (29'), but these were balanced out by a couple of clearly reckless fouls overlooked (69', 115'). Foul detection was decent, but he fell for a blatant dive in one situation (45'), and blew up for a handful of zero fouls.
Personality skills was a similar mixed bag. On some occasions, with a single smirk or small chat, he was able to brilliantly defuse some situations or connect with players. On others, he seemed rather shy and distant, preferring to run the game with the whistle in his mouth, not necessarily succeeding in the (Cameroon) cautions scenes, and so on.
In summary, this was a performance of real contrasts - while on the one hand, he showed bottle and never hesistated in all of the above penalty scenes. On the other, I'm sure that he detected the recklessness of the 69', 115' offences, but decided to 'not rock the boat', and just let the play go on. To be honest, I was quite stunned by the latter two incidents - disciplinary was (is!) a huge strength of Codesal as a referee.
Codesal did well for sure. But, to my mind, one should temper how positive an evaluation this performance deserves, considering all the (many) factors.
Codesal did well for sure. But, to my mind, one should temper how positive an evaluation this performance deserves, considering all the (many) factors.
Linesmen
The English media voiced their concern with the appointment of Mexican, American and Bahrani referees for this key match, and besides any other reason, they needn't have worried about any mistaken offside judgements, as both Vincent Anthony Mauro and Jassim Abdulrahman Mandi were extremely quiet in this match! I didn't note even one situation under Mauro's name. Besides a Mandi mistake in the second minute - a wrong offside flag - he was well too. Hence, expected level for both.
Balance
Codesal's quite dramatic final whistle signal definitely displayed that the Mexican believed, as he did, that he had just had "the game of his life". Taking a step back from our technical evaluations, I do get where he was coming from: FIFA are interested in big calls being right, and the match being delivered on a management level. On that level, he did quite announce himself on this evening.
And he definitely got the big calls right. Cameroon deserved to win on the night, but their carelessness (and arguably much more...) inside the penalty area was consequently punished by the Mexican referee. Though: in the same way that analysts sometimes talk of "good crises" for politicians, perhaps these three penalties can come under a similar heading. To not give each one would have been a serious erring.
I find Codesal a very interesting personality in refereeing. Somehow, I believe he proved something not only to FIFA, but maybe even to himself in this match. With his performances in Italia '90, he inspired a sixteen year-old Marco Rodríguez watching back home in Mexico. Actually, I believe there are many similarities between the two indeed.
I warm to him greatly, actually. But on performance, Edgardo Codesal wouldn't have been my choice for the final of Italia '90. Without doubt though, the Mexican did well in Cameroon vs. England, and put himself firmly in the frame for the biggest appointment in world football. A great night for him!
I warm to him greatly, actually. But on performance, Edgardo Codesal wouldn't have been my choice for the final of Italia '90. Without doubt though, the Mexican did well in Cameroon vs. England, and put himself firmly in the frame for the biggest appointment in world football. A great night for him!
| Edgardo Codesal (MEX) Vincent Mauro (USA) Jassim Mandi (BHR) Michel Vautrot (FRA) Officials | Cameroon 2-3 England (after extra time) Quarterfinal Sunday 1st July at 9pm (Naples) |
 Massing (29') - Challenge N'Kono (105') - Unsporting Behaviour Milla (120') - Dissent | Pearce (70') - Challenge |
