I know it is easy to blame the referee but as soon as I had heard it was Jarred Gillette, I knew the Nix were on a hiding. I don't know if it is a personal thing with him against New Zealand or whether or not he is just a straight out incompetant buffoon but last night confirmed his either bias or buffonery.
I saw a Nix player comit a minor fould that only warrented a free kick. Fair enough but Gillette gave him a card too. Five minutes later and a WSW player comitted the exact same type of foul and play was waved on.Sometimes small insignificant things like that frustrate the crap out of players and the game can turn sour. Krishna's was a penalty. WSW's was not. That shot was like a rocket and Durante didn't have time to think of raising his arm. There was no intent other than to turn his back on it. And if VAR is going to be used what about the two WSW blatant dives when replays showed at least a 24 inch gap between the players and no contact which should have scored them 2 yellow cards for simulation rather than 2 free kicks indangerous positions.
I make no excuses for the Nix not playing their best, nor the fact that the worse playing conditions for severals seasons because at the end of the day WSW adapted better to those conditions. But I do question the integrity or competance of the match officials. I have yet to hear them admit that they got it very wrong for most of the match. I don't mind good calls for both sides and bad calls for both sides. I can live with that, but to give bad calls only against one side and give very dubious calls in favour of the other, does make one doubt about their ability's.