In the 35th minute of the match between Vietnam and Indonesia, defender Alfredo Tata caused Ho Tan Tai to fall in the penalty area. Slow motion footage shows the Indonesian player pushing the Vietnamese star to the ground.
However, the referee did not consider this a foul and refused to award a penalty to the home team. VAR technology was also not used.
Accordingly, the referee in charge of this match is Mr. Abdullah Alshehri, two assistants are Mr. Ibrahim Aldakhil, Saad Alsubaie - both from Saudi Arabia. The table referee is Songkran Bunmeekiart from Thailand. The above decision has caused Mr. Alsheri to face a lot of criticism.
Speaking to Lao Dong, a FIFA-level referee said: “In my opinion, this was a situation where the Indonesian defender’s movement was strong enough to constitute a foul on Ho Tan Tai. The Vietnamese team deserved a penalty. It was clearly a strong impact that caused Tan Tai to fall in the penalty area.”
According to this referee, Mr. Abdullah Alshehri may have made a mistake in judgment. The Saudi Arabian "king in black" believes that Tata's move was not enough to cause Tan Tai to fall like that. However, the above decision is not accurate.
In addition to the above situation, Mr. Alshehri's omission of some dangerous plays by Indonesian players also made Vietnamese fans unhappy. However, these situations were not violent enough to warrant a direct red card.
Vietnam beat Indonesia 1-0 with the only goal by Nguyen Quang Hai. Coach Kim Sang-sik and his team rose to the top of the table with 6 points and a goal difference of +4.
