Group A
Host nation Sweden were drawn France - in their first major tournament since 1986 - together with Italia '90 semifinalists England, and Denmark, who finished a point behind behind Yugoslavia in qualifying group four. UN sanctions struck Ivan Čabrinović's side out of the finals only in very late May 1992. The tournament's curtain raiser pitted Sweden against the 1984 championship winners, 'Les Bleus'.
 |
| Referee José Rosa dos Santos of during the fixture between hosts Sweden and England |
The matches of Group A at EURO 1992:
Weds 10 June 1992, 20:15 (UTC +2) – Råsunda Stadium, Solna
1 – Sweden vs. France
Referee: Aleksej Spirin (CIS)
Linesman 1: Viktor Filippov (CIS)
Linesman 2: Andrej Butenko (CIS)
Reserve Referee: Vadzim Žuk (CIS)
Thurs 11 June 1992, 20:15 (UTC+2) – Malmö Stadion, Malmö
2 – Denmark vs. England
Referee: John Blankenstein (Netherlands)
Linesman 1: Jan Dolstra (Netherlands)
Linesman 2: Robert Overkleeft (Netherlands)
Reserve: Mario van der Ende (Netherlands)
Sun 14 June 1992, 17:15 (UTC +2) – Malmö Stadion, Malmö
5 – France vs. England
Referee: Sándor Puhl (Hungary)
Linesman 1: László Varga (Hungary)
Linesman 2: Sándor Szilágyi (Hungary)
Reserve: Sándor Varga (Hungary)
Sun 14 June 1992, 20:15 (UTC+2) – Råsunda Stadium, Solna
6 – Sweden vs. Denmark
Referee: Aron Schmidhuber (Germany)
Linesman 1: Joachim Ren (Germany)
Linesman 2: Uwe Ennuschat (Germany)
Reserve: Karl-Josef Assenmacher (Germany)
Weds 17 June 1992, 20:15 (UTC+2) – Råsunda Stadium, Solna
9 – Sweden vs. England
Referee: José Rosa dos Santos (Portugal)
Linesman 1: Valdemar Aguiar Pinto Lopes (Portugal)
Linesman 2: António Guedes Gomes de Carvalho (Portugal)
Reserve: Jorge Emanuel Monteiro Coroado (Portugal)
Weds 17 June 1992, 20:15 (UTC+2) – Malmö Stadion, Malmö
10 – France vs. Denmark
Referee: Hubert Forstinger (Austria)
Linesman 1: Johann Möstl (Austria)
Linesman 2: Alois Pemmer (Austria)
Reserve: Gerhard Kapl (Austria)
Match 1: Sweden vs. France, Aleksej Spirin (CIS)
ReplyDelete(Right click here to open highlights link)
Reflections from the opening game:
Delete(1/3)
a) Soviet officials crew were now representing the 'CIS', owing to the 1991 dissolution of the USSR. While the twenty man CIS squad contained over a third of players from other former SSRs (5 UKR, 1 BLR, 1 GEO), commentator Brian Moore was correct to identify the referee and two linesmen as "Russian", only the reserve referee, Žuk, hailed from elsewhere (Belarus).
A time of much change, and that can also be read in the assignment itself -- Russia lost much crucial influence in the (football) corridors of power after ’91, also in refereeing. Opening the EURO is not the same level of prestige as, say, the WC curtain raiser (Euro refs are more standardised anyway, so less focus on ‘style’, also EUROs tend to be much less radical in instruction/guidelines anyway). But that being said, even a few years later, I doubt that Spirin would have picked up this accolade.
b) Sweden vs. France was a great match! Really enjoyed watching it. Very dynamic and exciting play by both teams, ending in a probably deserved score draw (if one team deserved to win though, it was the French).
c) What an excellent performance by referee Aleksej Spirin! Really, my highest regards. This would have come as something of a surprise to viewers of FRG vs. UAE, Inter vs. Roma UEFA Cup final, I think. Spirin had since made a very self-aware choice to deliberately change his style: instead of holding his whistle loose (like eg. De Bleeckere/Busacca), he now used a lanyard on his right-hand. This coincided with him being visibly much more ‘in the game’, relaxed and assessing incidents more clearly.
The result was an officiating masterclass by the Russian ref. There are some key match incidents which need to be discussed (see below), but personally, I’d back ultimately him in all cases. Not an ‘Agnolin/Courtney’-type player manager, Spirin played his hand optimally - was always ready to both defend his decisions with firmness, step in preventatively to prevent escalation, and calm players down when necessary. Disciplinary was optimal. The high pace of the game and atmosphere of the crowd made for a hard game, which became very challenging for some periods.
Aleksej Spirin showed a quite spectacular + distinguished performance.
d) Also counting in the Soviet team’s favour was the very sound showing of their linesmen. Both Andrej Butenko (young brother of Mexico 86’s Valerij) and Viktor Filippov never made a clear mistake in many situations - unfortunately television often denied us good footage of them. The most important call actually came in minute two, and a later situation showed a well-seen incident for the same man, A. Butenko, optimally positioned to detect a tight offside.
Compared to WC86/90 stuff, the now dedicated linesmen were much more focused, professional in their signalling - will be interesting to see how much this was merit of this particular crew vs. improvement across the board.
e) A real shame that this ref team were not rewarded with a much-deserved second inset at EURO 1992, owing to UEFA’s strategy to pre-determine all fifteen appointments.
IMO, what would have been a much better strategy would have been to take twelve quartets, one from each country, and to reward the best three (whom’s nations didn’t qualify) with the KO ties. This could have been achieved by removing three refs. For me, it would have been:
- Pairetto, who was a bit exaggerated (political) choice anyway IMO
- Röthlisberger, who could have missed out like eg. Quiniou, Galler was in his final ever season
- one more, taking into account Puhl/Goethels as considered talents, rather then Forstinger/Rosa dos Santos (as a reflexive answer, the Portuguese, who already attended EURO88, ‘turn-taking principle’)
f) If all officials could keep such a high level as Spirin, Filippov and Butenko showed in match one, across the whole EURO: then UEFA could be very happy indeed. Again, my highest regards for this performance!
(2/3)
Deleteg) -- ANALYSIS OF KEY PLAYS --
01:00, 01:25, 01:50 - Potential caution incidents.
03:15 - Spirin plays on from a challenge by Limpar on Anglomar. I don’t want to over exaggerate how ‘rough’ football was in the early nineties, and there is no denying the intensity of Limpar’s open studs foul, but this was a ‘unique’ sort of incident where the play being made is more of a ‘block’ on the ball than a ‘challenge’ directly for it (reminds me a bit of Ramos Rizo / Henry), and obviously in those days there was much less education focused on detecting such fouls, etc. I don’t see toooo much problem with what the ref did here (in 1992).
05:55 - The trickiest incident in which to support the on-field decision, when France ought to have been awarded a penalty for grappling on Papin. Defender Jan Eriksson’s blocking of the striker was surely in the acceptable range, but when Papin wisely got goalside of him by running left, he was basically bundled over. I’d be quite firm in determining this situation was grey-ish enough to not be CM(E) material. But whether it should bring him down from 8 to 7 is much more open to question. The way that Spirin runs afterwards suggests that the Russian was caught much more rightwards here than he’d have liked, indeed Papin dissents probably more towards the far-side linesman than the ref. Even if the France striker does ‘want’ slightly too much, penalty is obviously the better call here, but I’d still back Spirin in the final reckoning.
06:45 - Correct opening game for SPA tackle (FRA - Anglomar).
07:50 - Caution for reckless tackle (SWE - Schwarz). Honestly, this is a case of tackle as an attack, and the maître of detecting such offences (too much so in Zola’s case :)) would have sent the Swede off at WC94 for that foul. In the more-1990 sphere, yellow is enough, though I’d (enthusiastically) support a red card as well.
09:35 - Potential second yellow card incident (FRA - Anglomar). A very classic case where the 1990s idea of reckless differs from today’s, with our much more technically co-ordinated players. A quiet, firm word wouldn’t have gone amiss, but Spirin was definitely right not to eject Anglomar - clumsy. The French defender tested the ref’s patience again (12:30), but not more than that.
11:20 - Caution for aggressive behaviour (FRA - Cantona). Fascinating incident. Eric Cantona jumps and quite deliberately lands on Patrik Andersson, at least partly on a very delicate area, and is booked by referee Spirin for it. Honestly, I would more praise the Soviet official for detecting the offence at all (de rigour of that football), rather than criticise him for, say, ‘bottling a clear VC’. I don’t think he did either - because Cantona is more of a ‘deliberate coming down on’, rather than a clear stamping motion, Spirin’s hands were (back then) pretty tied, tbh. It would be very interesting to know how UEFA assessed this scene by then.
14:20 - Potential caution incident (SWE - Limpar). He should really have had his name taken for reckless kick, but the context of: clear verbal warning given + game being verrryyy quite for preceding ten minutes, give context to Spirin’s management.
16:00 - Correct caution for reckless challenge (SWE - Thern). On Cantona, surely revenge for aforementioned 53’ scene. Mandatory booking, as given by Spirin.
-- ends --
(3/3)
Deleteh) In what seems a surprising choice, given that he was only forty and now amongst the European TOP, Aleksej Spirin decided to retire from both the int’nl and domestic refereeing scenes completely at the end of 1992. I guess that his choice was quite politics related (both in reffing and also more general issues ‘at home')? I looked carefully for an interview with him where he explained his choice but I couldn’t find anything.
It was sad to note that while his compatriot in the committees, Zuev, was a strong fighter in his corner for years, when his case ought to have been made for the most prestigious assignments, Spirin was no longer around. After retirement, he continued extensive work as an RFU reffing leader and UEFA ref committee member at different times - interviews with the former WC/EURO ref whilst in those roles display that he was a real student of refereeing, extremely knowledgeable and a very able refereeing leader in his day. His last, and now surely final, assignment as UEFA observer was in 2019.
Match 2: Denmark vs. England, John Blankenstein (NED)
ReplyDelete(Right click here to open highlights link)
Familiarity with the Dutch referee at EURO 1992 usually coincides with the subject of sexuality - John Blankenstein noteworthy for being openly gay during his career at the top level, and alas this point generated note in our media at home when UEFA announced the appointments for the group games at this tournament (see below). Even outside of my focus, perhaps the most exciting thing about this game was indeed the sexual orientation of its referee: this a rather sleepy goalless draw, from which late-replacements Denmark earned much more credit than Graham Taylor's England.
DeleteThough he wasn't tested in this match (very normal difficulty), in terms of refereeing skills, Blankenstein was rather more in the 'solid' range of the highest level international officials. If the tournament plan was organised as argued for in e) above, even besides his nation's qualification for the semis, the Dutch team wouldn't have been in the mix for SF/Final appmnt if I were making the assignments.
Two members of this quartet would attend further major tournaments - reserve referee Mario Van der Ende and first linesman Jan Dolstra, both correct/deserved technical choices in my opinion. Dolstra actually distinguishes himself as only one of two linesmen 'survivors' of this EURO who would also be selected for WC 1994. Quite impressive, given that the dedicated 'ARs' project was very much in early infancy in the early nineties; his performances were strong in America as well. On this evening, like his team leader, both he and Robert Overkleeft were not really challenged.
--
Some links:
https://imgur.com/a/BWzGJwA
(a record of how one British tabloid newspaper, the Daily Mirror, reported John Blankenstein's appointment to the game)
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/brexit-news-europe-news-gay-referee-john-blankenstein-trailblazer-euros-8064892/
(article with interesting parts, where they translate a now disappeared interview with Blankenstein, explaining his PoV on eg. removal from the CL final in 1994 which he was originally appointed to, and some stuff on what he did after retiring as an active ref)
Unfortunately we have to end on a sad note: in 2006, John Blankenstein tragically died of a rare kidney complication, aged only fifty-seven. A fierce advocate of LGBT rights, one wonders what Blankenstein would have made of the societal changes witnessed in the sixteen years since his passing, also in the football sphere. Rest in Peace.
Match 5: France vs. England, Sandor Puhl (HUN)
ReplyDelete(Right click here to open highlights link)
In a tournament of pretty political assignments, the choice of Sándor Puhl to handle a game (a relatively top one too) was quite refreshing - it rewarded a smaller association, whom's last EURO ref was Palotai, and gave a chance to an up-and-comer, the Hungarian being then a relative youngster aged just thirty-six.
DeleteFrance against England was quite a weird game, very flat, and played in a strange atmosphere of almost equal flatness. The game is mostly remembered for Basile Boli's flagrant headbutt on Stuart Pearce (80' // 09:35), which went undetected by the Hungarian officials. Honestly, Puhl should have seen it himself - the ball had only just been headed over from a corner, and he had obviously turned his back straight away, to run back into position for the ensuing goalkick.
There was little subtle about Boli's assault, given the game had gotten quite edgy by this point + that 'tension' was quite easily expectable, it was a pretty poor miss by the Hungarian referee. In modern times - besides of course VMO's intervention - I'd like to think that the non-active AR or (especially) 'reserve referee' would have been alert enough to detect the offence and report it to the referee.
Even besides Boli's non-ejection, this wasn't my favourite performance of the EURO so far by any means. Chiefly actually because of foul recognition, though I wouldn't call disciplinary a strength either. Puhl's thesis for when to blow up and when not was really weird. Actually it reminded me strongly of Carlos Silva Valente at WC90 - not even really an attempt to deeply assess duels at all. It was instead a quite unpredictable mixture of sometimes 'letting the game flow', and sometimes 'keeping the game on a short leash', with no attention paid at all to any kind of 'accuracy'. The most egregious such scenes are included in the highlights.
Real control over the players actions was ZERO after Boli had escaped scot-free, but that Puhl managed to escape a final ≈12mins also scot-free is testament to the element where the Hungarian was a master probably without equal: his cocksuredness. You actually can't buy such an impressive presence on the FoP as Puhl had. No matter that his work to obtain good 'viewing angles' during the game was basically p*ss poor, and that his technical stuff (foul calls/disciplinary) was so bad as to be practically risible - he could survive such games by sheer presence.
I don’t want to call him a ‘bully’ on the pitch, because that is too unfair/pejorative, but I would definitely stick by ‘dictator’. The difference between him and other such officials was that he could handle his games ‘quietly’, ie. by not resorting to (m)any cards or demonstrative gestures. This is what caught the eye of football politicians, scoring him highly in the crucial overall ‘trust principle’, and ultimately catapulted Puhl to refereeing’s greatest honour two years later.
All that probably felt a long way from this windy Sunday afternoon in Malmö. Looking back, such weak 'refereeing skills' as Puhl presented in this game was always going to trip him up eventually, and indeed I would have rejected this performance - not only for Boli's VC which he carelessly managed to miss. He was very lucky that this game didn't get really ugly at the end, but alas, it wasn't all luck - Puhl's presence on the pitch counted for much, even if wasn't a terribly aesthetic way to referee in my opinion.
He stumbled over the line, but ultimately this *was* a hoop successfully scaled by the Hungarian, and he would survive to go onto much bigger things later in his famed career. (as for the linesmen: were quiet, one L. Varga mistake in a non-crossover scene is enough to determine that he was pretty weak with the flag; Szilágyi looked fine by contrast, quite convincing).
Match 6: Sweden vs. Denmark, Aron Schmidhuber (GER)
ReplyDelete(Right click here to open highlights link)
Hosts Sweden defeated Nordic neighbours Denmark by a goal to nothing at Råsunda, putting the home nation atop of Group A heading into the final round of matches (SWE-3, FRA-2, ENG-2, DEN-1). The derby match played free of ill-spirit was well officiated by Germany's Aron Schmidhuber, the European Cup final referee of a few weeks previous. Issuing a couple of cautions, the German referee was always securely in control of the game, using his characteristic firm style. Both sides had one penalty appeal of note (Sweden: 05:50 || Denmark: 07:35), but this was overall a quite controversy-free evening for the German officials. Schmidhuber was accompanied by the same teammates as at Wembely, the busiest of them was second linesman Uwe Ennuschat, who played some nice onsides. But in one scene Ennuschat had quite a bad blackout: wrongly flagging Dahlin offside, having not computed a deeper Denmark defender (03:05). Luckily for him, nothing came of the attack.
DeleteMatch 9: Sweden vs. England, José Rosa dos Santos (POR)
ReplyDelete(Right click here to open highlights link)
(1/2)
Delete‣ Match:
Group A was very tight heading into the final round of matches (see above), with the hopes of all four nations resting on the final series of matches (SWE vs. ENG; DEN vs. FRA). Though top of the group at the start of play, hosts Sweden looked in a perilous position having gone behind to an industrial England side as early as four minutes in, but an inspired second half performance saw the home nation turn the game around and score a deserved two-to-one victory, eliminating ‘The Three Lions’ in the process.
‣ Referee:
José Rosa dos Santos of Portugal was appointed to control the match, and the context (host’s decisive match at imposing Råsunda stadium) pointed towards a tough assignment for him. Still noting that only officials from non-qualifying nations were used from this point of the EURO, Rosa dos Santos’s palmares in UEFA club competition was relatively modest for quite a grand appmnt - though the Portuguese sported experience from a group match at the previous ‘Euros’ tournament.
‣ KMI - Penalty Area Incidents:
32’ - (02:50) • Potential penalty to Sweden (Dahlin)
40’ - (03:40) • Potential penalty to England (Sinton)
43’ - (04:40) • Potential penalty to Sweden (Brolin)
Rosa dos Santos faced three big PAIs in the 1H. We can’t state too much about 40’, but it seems as though the ref was close-by and made clear gestures. The two penalty shouts for the home side are much more interesting. Where have I seen a comparable situation as the Dahlin one… ;). Sweden striker *is* unlucky as Keown’s leg is where his ideal next movement would have been, before the English defender realises he isn’t winning the ball, and then withdraws, so Dahlin ends up falling completely of his own accord. Keown doesn’t play any of the ball and could hardly have complained if penalty was awarded against him though…
The biggest appeal was the one just before halftime, and the BBC commentary duo of Barry Davies and Trevor Brooking agreed - unlike in the first two cases, Rosa dos Santos missed a penalty there. I would be more ambivalent personally, but what really argues against the Portuguese ref is a) his positioning, which informs, b) his decision to award a corner kick, either self-preservation or more likely because José R.d.S. believed that Batty had prodded the ball behind. The corner decision was objectively incorrect, and together with his bad position, this leaves the referee in quite a ‘vulnerable’ position when assessing his call here.
In the end, I’d support the referee in all three scenes. 43’ doesn’t leave the best impression though (even if for me the play on/non-penalty was correct for me).
‣ Managing the Game:
I really didn’t know what to expect from him, with my honest expectation that UEFA hadn’t really thought about the (possible) level of difficulty in this match when making this assignment, but José Rosa dos Santos quite disabused me with a good performance in a tough game, whilst presenting an actually exemplary style as a referee. To be honest, my feeling after the game was that I’d actually just seen one of the pre-eminent international officials of the whole late 80s/early 90s period. A real pleasure to watch!
The biggest problem with Rosa dos Santos’s performance in this match was his too pedantic thesis for judging body contacts. He was mostly consistent in this, but there were a small handful of simple exaggerated foul calls - and more problematically - in a couple of ‘stressful’ moments in the match, he let the game go simply ‘unhinged’. Disciplinary was mostly excellent (especially opening YC), but his hesitancy in carding Schwarz, probably lead to (sequence from HL 9:00) Björkland’s crazed intervention a minute later - which could easily have seen him sent off. My feeling is that this was sth like a ’50/50’ call in 1992, though certainly more on the reddish side.
This is all relatively criticism on a high level, as to pass through this game without issues would have been very impressive. Overall, José Rosa dos Santos left a rather strong (+tive) impression on me as a referee.
(2/2)
Delete‣ Teammates:
The Portuguese refs trio were beautifully co-ordinated: the same watch on left wrist, check, the same sweatbands on the right, check, and finally they were all sporting moustaches! Optical alignment also coincided with cohesive work as a team on the FoP, they quite stood out in this EURO in that regard. Valdemar Lopes and António Carvalho weren’t individually *the* most convincing of all linesmen in Sweden, but at the very worst they were in upper midfield in that regard. Certainly, Rosa dos Santos’s two ‘collaborators’ would have been no argument against a hypothetical second appointment for Portugal’s crew in 1992.
‣ Balance:
In a match which would have tripped up many officials (also some who attended this EURO), José Rosa dos Santos showed a strong performance, displaying a very elegant way of refereeing. I was quite split on whether to carry him to a semifinal game in ‘my’ tournament -- especially some of his foul recognition calls, added to other ‘crudités’ in the whole picture, perhaps count against him.
As UEFA organised the tournament, there was of course no second assignment for Rosa dos Santos. Or indeed in any competition at all for him - aged 47, his place on the international list was dependant on the two year ‘grace’ period that FIFA allowed for plus-45 officials, which finished at the end of 1992. So Rosa dos Santos finished his career after the 91/92 season, and this was his final ever match as referee.
Both in the game that he was in charge of (Sweden vs. England match at EURO finals at Råsunda) -- also in terms of performance IMO -- it is surely fair to say that he could be quite satisfied with how the curtain fell on his refereeing career.
Match 10: France vs. Denmark, Hubert Forstinger (AUT)
ReplyDelete(Right click here to open highlights link)
‣ ⚽:
DeleteThe day the tournament came alive! Outsiders Denmark stunned France to catapult themselves into the semifinals as late replacements, whilst dumping Michel Platini's side out of the competition in the process. The Danes had played an excellent first half, and came good in the second despite momentum shifting and Papin's equaliser, to score a goal twelve minutes from time, deservingly holding on to squeeze through Group A in second place.
‣ 📟:
UEFA assigned an Austrian quartet to handle the match, led by referee Hubert Forstinger.
‣ ⌚:
It is really rare to see such a pure policemen referee at the top level as Forstinger was - a very good mover, he was singularly focused on making his decisions on the field of play, only interacting with the players in a very transactional + distant way. Overall, I must say that his performance was good in (IMO) the hardest game of the EURO so far. There is one big problem though: he should have ejected Eric Cantona in the fifty-seventh minutes for a crafty SFP-type violent conduct on John Jensen (from 13:18). Contrary to his attempt in the Sweden game, this was a definite RC for 1992. Content (it was quite hard/unexpected to see, even most players missed it) and context (France lost 1-2, though Cantona did assist the Papin goal) argues against a CME though. The end to the game, featuring another maybe red card, was a bit chaotic, but as a precis, I found Mr Forstinger’s refereeing convincing without doubt.
‣ 🟨/🟥:
Disciplinary control was good. Six yellow cards were issued:
14’ to Povlsen for Dissent (by action)
15’ to Casoni for Reckless (tackle)
32’ to Perez for Reckless (challenge)
38’ to Boli for Reckless (tackle)
+47’ to Frank for DtR (kicking the ball away)
74’ to Deschamps for Reckless (tackle)
‣ 🚩:
An overall sound level presented by the linesmen Möstl and Pemmer. The former was more convincing over the piece, but Denmark’s winning goal was a very good onside (for 1992) by the far-side official. If that is the strongest incident in Pemmer’s favour, the weakest is a Papin hit out in his (extended) vicinity, which he could have informed Forstinger about - the ref was following play and the offence happened behind HF’s back (9:30).
NOTE:
ReplyDeleteHere are the original appointments for the tournament, as set out by UEFA in March/92.
1) Sweden vs. France - Aleksej Spirin (CIS)
2) Yugoslavia vs. England - John Blankenstein (NED)
3) Netherlands vs. Scotland - Bo Karlsson (SWE)
4) CIS vs. Germany - Gérard Biguet (FRA)
5) France vs. England - Sándor Puhl (HUN)
6) Sweden vs. Yugoslavia - Aron Schmidhuber (GER)
7) Scotland vs. Germany - Guy Goethals (BEL)
8) Netherlands vs. CIS - José Rosa dos Santos (POR)
9) Sweden vs. England - Peter Mikkelsen (DEN)
10) France vs. Yugoslavia - Hubert Forstinger (AUT)
11) Netherlands vs. Germany - Pierluigi Pairetto (ITA)
12) Scotland vs. CIS - Kurt Röthlisberger (SUI)
(Pre-selected referees for knockout games were (still) Lanese, Soriano and Galler)
Two changes can be observed:
Deletea) The switching out of Yugoslavia (UN resolution) for Denmark. Despite this, Denmark played with exactly the same officials as Yugoslavia would have gotten.
b) José Rosa dos Santos and Peter Mikkelsen changing matches. My feeling that Rosa dos Santos was a somehow 'surprising' appointment for Sweden vs. England was on the right lines - Denmark joining this group meant that Mikkelsen could no longer handle the game. If not wanting to make huge changes, the only options to take the hosts' final group game were Goethals (Scotland vs. Germany) or Rosa dos Santos (Sweden vs. England). UEFA placed in Stockholm the referee at the very end of his career, rather than the 'newbie' making his bow on the top stage. It proved the correct choice, IMO - Rosa dos Santos had a satisfying performance in the big game.