Antonio Mateu Lahoz, the Spanish referee overseeing the Netherlands vs Argentina match that often looked one tinder short of a conflagration doled out 18 yellow cards, a World Cup record. Lahoz went two better than the previous record set during the Portugal vs Netherlands match in 2006 World Cup.

Eight Argentinian and eight Dutch footballers were sanctioned. The list also included Lionel Scaloni, the Argentinian manager and Walter Samuel, his assistant. The profligate carding set off Messi and Emiliano Martinez, calling for a ban and for being useless.

So was this new bar set because the match invited these number of bookings or because this particular referee just likes that color? The match was undoubtedly feisty and played with an edge. However, Lahoz has always been a controversial choice. He has a well established reputation from officiating La Liga matches as having a “quirky” and attention seeking character. Messi has had some run ins with him before from his Barcelona days and has not been shy from criticizing him.

Lahoz is very verbal and often talks to an offending player for extended periods of time as if he is counseling or seeking their contrition. He is also very physical, not shy of pushing goalies back to the goal line, putting his hands on a player while making his point, or pulling them up from the pitch after a tackle.

There appears to be an equal measure of policeman and priest in him. And in booking Scaloni and Samuel, the Spaniard was also playing true to form. He is not averse to an off pitch dragnet, sending Pep Guardiola off during the Manchester City vs Liverpool quarterfinal second leg in the 2018 Champions League quarterfinal. Guardiola was furious Leroy Sane’s goal was declared offside and remonstrated with Lahoz, in charge of that match. City would have been two up half time if Sane’s goal had stood, instead they went onto lose with Guardiola banished. To be fair, Lahoz was also widely praised for his officiating during the 2021 Champions League final between City and Chelsea.

In True Detective style, Lahoz likes to know everything about the players before a match. The latest gossip, their booking record, whether they have a reputation for diving. It appears, he likes to get inside their head and spends hours reading, watching videos of them, taking notes. This could explain his judgment booking players for what appear to be innocuous fouls or engaging in banter while ignoring potentially dangerous ones.

These are the numbers on Lahoz and his peers including the feared Daniel Orsati and Michael Oliver during this World Cup. He clearly heads the bookings column with the Argentina vs Netherlands match as a definite outlier. We cannot predict Orsati and Oliver would not have taken a similar path but it is quite possible Orsati with Italy out of the World Cup does not carry the same baggage and Oliver with a quieter, less histrionic character might have not attracted the same sort of censure.