GROUP H CHILE 1 SWITZERLAND 0:CHILE HAVE now won both their games but this was a victory marred in controversy, with allegations from the Swiss that they had been "cheated" and were the victims of shameful play-acting.
Valon Behrami’s red card, for an elbow into the face of Arturo Vidal, came after only half an hour and was the catalyst for Chile to take command, leading the Switzerland manager, Ottmar Hitzfeld, to condemn Chile.
A fractious match, not helped by the erratic refereeing of Khalil al-Ghamdi, was settled in the 75th minute when all three of Chile’s substitutes combined for Mark Gonzalez to head the decisive goal, but an angry Hitzfeld cited Behrami’s dismissal as the moment the game swung in favour of the South Americans.
The West Ham United player had been projecting his arms backwards as he tried to shield the ball and Vidal threw himself to the ground, clutching his face, while his team-mates crowded the Saudi Arabian official to campaign for a sending off.
“Of course I am angry,” he said. “I am entitled to be angry because I was three or four yards away and I could see clearly that Behrami was merely defending the ball. Vidal just fell down, acting, with a lot of drama – wow, that was quite a performance.
“It clearly wasn’t a red card, not even a yellow, but Vidal was rolling around, asking for a red, and that moment changed the entire match. Eleven versus 11 we would have had chances, but 10 versus 11 made it very difficult.”
Al-Ghamdi showed nine yellow cards and Hitzfeld said: “Some people whistle on the pitch, others should whistle on the beach.”
Switzerland’s argument was partly undermined by their own centre-half, Steve von Bergen, trying something similar to get Gary Medel in trouble in the second half, but their anger was understandable because it was inevitable that a side with Chile’s penetrative passing skills would make the extra player count.
In the circumstances Hitzfeld’s men did well to survive for so long, setting a new record of going nine hours and 18 minutes without conceding a goal in the World Cup (including previous tournaments). Yet the pressure was almost unrelenting and they were finally undone when Jorge Valdivia sent Esteban Paredes clear, running through the right-hand channel and splitting the Swiss defence.
Paredes took the ball too far round the goalkeeper to shoot but he had the presence of mind to look up and pick out Gonzalez, arriving at the far post to head into the exposed net.
Fifa’s head of refereeing Jose Maria Garcia-Aranda yesterday stated that he is “very, very happy” with the performance of the officials at the World Cup - despite a spate of controversial incidents.
There was an outcry in the US media regarding Koman Coulibaly’s decision to disallow Maurice Edu’s effort in the 85th minute of their 2-2 draw with Slovenia on Friday, and there were several questionable decisions during Brazil’s victory over the Ivory Coast on Sunday .
But Fifa said it had not received an official complaint from either Brazil regarding the play-acting from Kader Keita that led to Kaka being shown a second yellow card in the match, or the Ivory Coast, over Luis Fabiano’s handball in the build-up to his second goal.
Guardian Service
