What didn’t you like about the ref? Just curious. I thought he did rather well.
The ref was too quick on cards against Germany (like Schweinsteiger) while Kramer nearly lost his head, in the box, with no penalty.
Later Argentina finally started getting cards though, but at least those were earned.
One of the cards he gave to a German player was not warranted, to much rough play was allowed, and there was a bit too much grabbing and pulling allowed.
To me, Mark Geiger of the U.S. was the best ref. He was highly rated after every match and I think he was passed over for the final because he is not a European or South American. Geiger established a very good tone early on by calling a few fouls for pushing and grabbing. As a result, the players knew they wouldn’t be getting away with that type of stuff. His matches were not marred by numerous arguments and the play flowed well.
His only contoversy was giving a yellow card on the one sliding tackle that could have easily been a straight red.
The Italian wasn’t bad, but not all that good. The Germans were not happy that he was the referee designated for the match. Aside from the one bad German tackle, the calls did seem to favor Argentina a bit.