Topics: FIFA World Cup, World Cup 2014, Mexico, Croatia, Irmatov
After a disastrous performance by referee Irmatov, Mexico is left thinking why everything seems to go against them.

During the 2014 World Cup opening game between Brazil and Croatia, a horrible performance by Japanese referee, Nishimura, saw Brazil been awarded a non-existent penalty kick and Croatia being denied a legitimate goal.

Afterward, the Colombian team of officials that refereed the clash between Mexico and Cameroon, denied the Mexicans two valid goals by Dos Santos, leading to the linesman Humberto Clavijo’s replacement.

Despite the many complaints, todays referee, Ravshan Irmatov, had possibly an even worse day than all of the above combined. In fact, at the 62nd minute, the Uzbekistani referee does not see an obvious foul by Rakitic, but awards the Croatian a free kick seconds later for a much lesser contact.

Minutes later, the referee in question failed to see a rather obvious push on Chicharito who could not reach a cross and instead fell to the ground. A penalty seemed justified. During the same play, Irmatov incredibly failed to see Srna’s dive to save a follow up shot with his hands. Two penalties in the same play, yet the score stayed 0-0.

Chicharito screaming to the ref after Srna's handball went unpunished

Mexico's Chicharito furious over Srna's unpunished handball.

Luckily for the referee, Mexico eventually went on to win a very deserved game, but had it gone the opposite way, we would not be taking those mistakes so lightly. One must wonder why there seems to be such bad luck with the officiating almost exclusively penalizing Mexico.