Uzbekistan’s referee team will host the round of 16 of the 2023 Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup between South Korea and Saudi Arabia. Referee Iliz Tantashev (40), who is the referee, is a referee who had not had a good relationship with Vietnam’s national soccer team coach Park Hang-seo and Indonesia’s national team coach Shin Tae-yong in the past. The fact that the number of times the card is taken out is a jagged tendency is also something to be cautious of for South Korea, which has many “warning variables.”
According to AFC, referee Tantashev will host the match between South Korea and Saudi Arabia at 1 a.m. on the 31st (Korea Standard Time) at Education City Stadium in Alayyan, Qatar. Deputy judges are Andrei Chapenko and Timur Gainulin of the same nationality. Adham Mohammad Tumakh Makadmeh, the Jordanian referee, will play the role of waiting center, while Kuwait’s Amhad Ally and UAE’s Adel Ali Ahmad Kamis Al-Nakvi will play the role of VAR.
This is the third time that referee Tantashev will play as a referee. Previously, the matches between Indonesia and Iraq in Group D, and Iran and the UAE in Group C, respectively. Coincidentally, Indonesia is a team led by coach Shin Tae-yong and UAE is led by former South Korean national team coach Bento, all of which suffered bitter losses.
Beyond the objective difference in power, the referee made an incomprehensible decision. In the Indonesia-Iraq match, Iraq scored without VAR even in Iraq’s offside situation. Iraq’s Osama Rashid stood in the offside position and put his foot on it, and Mohanad Ali connected the deflected ball with a shot, and the referee Tantashev acknowledged Iraq’s score. On the slow screen, Rashid’s touch was confirmed, but he did not go through VAR. Coach Shin Tae-yong strongly protested to the waiting center, and even after the game, he directly mentioned the referee’s misjudgment through a press conference.
He did not have a good relationship with coach Park Hang-seo. It was the final qualifying round for the 2021 World Cup in Qatar, when Park was leading Vietnam. At that time, Vietnam scored the first goal in the first three minutes of the first half, but was completely defeated by giving up three goals after being outnumbered by a player who sent off a accumulated warning in the ninth minute of the second half. When Tantashev was assigned as the referee for the match against Japan in half a year, Vietnamese media introduced the bad relationship at the time.
The number of times he takes out his cards has been jagged. At this year’s event, he pulled out two warnings in the match against Indonesia and Iraq, and four in the match against Iran and the UAE. However, he pulled out a relatively large number of cards in the AFC Champions League right before the Asian Cup. In the match between Alduhail and Al-Nasr, he gave five warnings, one from the direct exit, and five from the match between Alduhail and Al-Nasr. As many as seven players at Zhejiang FC and Buriram United received warnings from referee Tantashev.
Given that the game is expected to be very fierce, the card can be a big variable depending on the referee’s tendency. Whether it is Korea or Saudi Arabia, there is a possibility that the numerical balance will be broken, such as accumulated warnings or direct exits. Another tricky part for Korea is that as many as eight players, including Son Heung-min (Tottenham) and Kim Min-jae (Bayern Munich) and Hwang In-beom (Turbena Zvezda), are in trouble with warnings. If players with one more warning are given additional warning in this match, they will not be able to play even if Korea makes it to the quarterfinals. 토토사이트 추천
In FIFA rankings, Korea ranks 23rd, while Saudi Arabia ranks 56th, showing a 33-step gap. However, the two teams have had five wins, eight draws and five losses in previous matches. In September last year, the Korean team beat Saudi Arabia 1-0 in an exhibition match held in Newcastle, the U.K. At that time, it was Cho Kyu-sung (Mit Whelan) who scored the finishing goal.