Kateryna Montzul: Ukrainian Arbiter's career has been replenished with world-class matches

09.07.2019 15:15

Photo of UAF press service

The 2019 Women's World Cup ended on Sunday. The forum, which took place in France, brought together the entire elite of women's football. It is nice to note that among this elite were representatives of Ukraine.

The judges corps of the mundial included three Ukrainian arbitrators. This trio was led by Catherine Montzul.

Finals for the 2019 World Cup

The most serious appointment for the Ukrainian delegation in terms of match status was the semifinal between the Netherlands and Sweden. Kateryna played this match as the fourth referee. The stage of the competition forced the teams not to spare the opponent - during the whole game together with the extra time the players broke the rules 38 times! Thanks to the goal in extra time, the representatives of the Land of Tulips won.

Also as the fourth referee, the Kharkiv player played her first match at the World Cup - the meeting of Brazil with Jamaica (3: 0). As the main referee, Kateryna Monzul played in three games: Germany - Spain (1: 0), Cameroon - New Zealand (2: 1) in the group round and France - USA (1: 2) in the quarterfinals.

The most difficult one can probably be considered the quarterfinal between the tournament hosts and the players from the United States, despite the moderate roughness of the teams (19 fouls). The work of the Ukrainian woman at the match provoked applause from journalists and fans.

In total, Kateryna Monzul showed five yellow cards during the last women's World Cup.

This is not the first time the Ukrainian has been called up to work at the World Cup matches. It will be recalled that Monzul worked at the 2015 World Cup final, in which the US team defeated Japan - 5: 2. In general, 2015 can be considered significant in the career of the Kharkiv woman, because that year the International Federation of Football History and Statistics named Kateryna the best referee in the world among women.

At the Olympics and the Champions League ...

She became FIFA's arbiter in 2004 and made her international debut in the friendly match between the Finnish and Polish national teams in September the following year.

Gradually, Monzul made her way to the main referee of the matches for Euro-2009 and Euro-2013. Kateryna also has refereeing experience at the Olympic Games. Thus, at the 2016 Olympics in Rio, she refereed two matches - between the United States and New Zealand in the group stage (2: 0) and between China and Germany in the quarterfinals (0: 1).

As for international club competitions, Monzul started working on them in parallel with the "increase" in Ukrainian football - in 2010-2011, Kateryna was appointed to the first league matches among men. At the same time, she began to appear as a referee in the field of the Women's Champions League match. And for four years, in 2014, the ambitious Kharkiv player worked in the Champions League final between "Tureso" and "Wolfsburg" (3: 4).

At that match, the entire referee team consisted of representatives of Ukraine. Our referees had a good interaction, because with equal strengths of opponents on the field (51% -49% possession of the ball) and increased tension (26 fouls for both teams), the actions of the Ukrainians did not cause any complaints in the international football community.

In the last draw of the Women's Champions League, Monzul judged one match - the winning quarterfinal for "Lyon" with "Wolfsburg" (2: 1). The teams showed average rudeness (22 violations for two), but our compatriot showed as many as four yellow cards in 90 minutes, three of which were in the last 17 minutes of the match. It is also worth noting the feeling of the elbow in Monzul and her assistants - they unmistakably recorded all six positions "out of the game".

... And also in UPL

Kateryna Volodymyrivna has a character - she will not allow herself to be offended. This is evident from the strictness of the players in the Premier League. Last season, the Kharkiv woman won eight matches in the elite men's division and showed a total of 31 yellow cards, which averages 3,87 "mustard" per game. Anatoliy Abdula, for example, has a similar indicator.

It is impossible to ignore the Ukrainian "classic". However, Monzul did not have to judge a match of this level as a field referee. She was a reserve referee in the match of the 1/4 finals of the Cup of Ukraine 2018/2019 between Dynamo and Shakhtar at her native Metalist.

Finally, we note that Kateryna Monzul is distinguished by a prudent manner of refereeing, because the overall career rate of her "severity" is 2,71 yellow and 0,09 red cards per game.

Roman Dyachenko