Here is the profile of the man who will be in the middle, Ravshan Irmatov of Uzbekistan. He has been in charge of two games in the tournament and both finished 3-0. His first was Mexico versus Gambia and the other, Chile versus Congo.
Over the years Uruguay has gained a reputation for producing some pretty brutal sides – brutal in the sense of dirty. However, check out this statistics page and it looks like this Uruguay side has been the #### cats of the tournament so far.
Even the red card given to goalkeeper Mauro Goicoechea was for a rugby tackle on a Zambian forward after he had missed what should have been a straight forward clearance. Only Costa Rica committed fewer fouls (29) in the first three games of the tournament than Uruguay (33).
On the other hand only Congo (59) has committed more fouls than the USA (57).
I am the soccer analyst for the Fox Soccer Report and appear twice a week - every Monday and Friday at 10:00 EST. I have also been a regular contributor to the Fox Soccer Channel website since the summer of 2004. Over the last twenty years I have contributed to various radio and television programs throughout North America as well writing about the game for newspapers, magazines and websites.
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