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.
If you're counting, that's two goals and one penalty denied #MEX in three games. Incredible, they should be easily through.
— Alex Schieferdecker (@theschief) June 23, 2014
Clear compensation for giving a made-up penalty against #cro in opening game. Two good shouts for #mex ignored...
— Giancarlo Rinaldi (@ginkers) June 23, 2014
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.
Srna with a blatant handball in the box, but no penalty given #MEX are furious!!
— FansAllStar Football (@FASfootball) June 23, 2014
Srna should've seen a second yellow and conceded a penalty. If Croatia win this match, it'll be criminal.
— SoccerWatcherKnight1 (@samknight1) June 23, 2014
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
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.
At the end, #refball was key. Two nulled (good) goals + 1 very clear penalty not called. #MEX was supposed to be 1st in its group.
— Dudette (@elimaguire) June 24, 2014
With the disallowed goals from the first match and the denied penalty tonight, Mexico should have won the group on goal differential. #MEX
— Jason Marquitz (@soccermexicana) June 23, 2014