Brazil Vs. Germany Semifinal: Will Referee Marco Rodriguez Be At The Center Of Another Controversy?

The referee who questionably showed Italy’s Claudio Marchisio a red card in Italy’s decisive group play match against Uruguay, only to later “fail to see” Luis Suarez bite an opponent, has been handpicked to officiate Brazil’s World Cup Semifinal match against Germany.

Mexico’s Marco Rodriguez has been selected to referee the match set to take place at Estadio Mineirao in Belo Horizonte on Tuesday.

Rodriguez is known as “Chiqui Dracula” due to his hairstyle and demeanor amongst Mexican faithful. His controversial call against Marchisio and then failure to deal with the Suarez situation later led to a lot of criticism:

“The referee decided this game. If either team should have gone through, then it was us. Giving a red card to Marchisio and no red to Suarez decided the game. There was a different treatment for both sides and that decided the game and decided who went through.” said Italian defender Giorgio Chiellini who was bitten by Suarez and pleaded with Rodriguez to show him a card.

Despite not showing Suarez a red card, Rodriguez ironically has been the most card-happy referee throughout the tournament. This could bode well for the semifinal match as Germany coach, Joachim Loew publicly requested that Rodriguez clamp down on what he called “brutal and crude” challenges that took place in the quarterfinal match between Brazil and Colombia.

That particular match saw a World Cup record 54 fouls and just two yellow cards which didn’t arrive until after 65 minutes. Both teams complained of rough, physical play on their superstars, James Rodriguez and Neymar, the latter of which suffered a broken vertebra in his back and is out for the remainder of the World Cup.

“Colombia against Brazil was a real fight with numerous fouls from both sides: not just the one foul against Neymar but many others as well. You saw how many fouls there were from behind which were really dangerous for the players: slide tackles from behind and from the side. You have to protect the players when you’re a referee. That’s something that’s important for everyone working in football. You have to protect the attackers. They have been roughed up in a very bad way. I don’t think it was a good thing that we saw there.” said Loew.

The game kicks off at 4:00PM EST on Tuesday and we hope that we see a fair and just officiated match without controversy. FIFA also announced that United State’s own Mark Geiger will be the fourth official for the match.