Shooting the Breeze: World Cup 2010 Day 11 - Group H - Chile vs Switzerland
Chile left it late to cement their superiority with a 1-0 win over 10 man Switzerland after substitute Mark Gonzalez' header finally rewarded their attacking play.
The Saudi Arabian referee was harsh in clamping down on any infringements with a flurry of early yellow cards, many debatable, before West Ham's Vallon Behrami saw red for elbowing Arturo Vidal.
Behrami can't say he wasn't forewarned about the card-happy referee but the Swiss adjusted to the body blow of going down to 10 men by reverting to all out defence and withdrawing experienced striker Alexander Frei before half time to help shore up the midfield with Tranquillo Barnetta.
Alexis Sanchez was once again the most influential Chile player and thought he had broken the Swiss resistance early in the second half when his 20 yard effort went in off Jorge Valdivia but it was ruled out for offside.
The Swiss beat the World Cup record for keeping a clean sheet at the World Cup as the 67th minute of their second game passed but it wasn't long after that their resistance was finally broken in the 75th minute when Estaban Paredes beat the offside trap and the Swiss 'keeper Diego Benaglio to cross for Mark Gonzalez whose goal was a relief for the Chileans despite a suspicion of offside when Paredes made his first run.
Swiss substitute Eren Derdiyok had a chance to level the scores late on but he couldn't find the target when presented with the chance.
There will be undoubted criticism of using referees from outside the so-called 'big' footballing countries but surely the point of the World Cup is that the referees can come from any FIFA member nation?
Either way, you'd expect poorly performing referees to not be asked to run further matches at this tournament regardless of what country they are from.
