Referee vs. Costa Rica (R possible)

[Zathras]

After all of the threads about horrendous referees, I believe that the referee tonight (sorry, his name escapes me at the moment) had a wonderful match. One of the best refereed games I've seen in a long, long while. :)

[WShine]

You're right. Damn good ref.

[peledre]

Except for the fact the he gave 2 players cards for diving in the box when neither actually did.

[Liviu]

After all of the threads about horrendous referees, I believe that the referee tonight (sorry, his name escapes me at the moment) had a wonderful match. One of the best refereed games I've seen in a long, long while. :)

He should be inducted in the Referee Hall Of Fame. There's also no question that he'll ref the World Cup '06 final. Incredible, just an awesome performance out there today.

[stinky]

i wept a good part of the game.

[Ray Luca]

You're right. Damn good ref.

I know you have to kidding right? He let the Costa Rican players play through the man to get the ball without callling any fouls :-)

[WShine]

You're right that CR ran through our guys all night, but he called those fouls. Maybe he should have pulled some cards on them.

[Zathras]

Except for the fact the he gave 2 players cards for diving in the box when neither actually did.

I beg to differ. Both were dives; while at least in Frankie's case there was contact, but he was going down well before the contact came. I am not certain about the CR dive. I believe Frankie also set up the card with his acting job when he was tackled earlier in the match (Which led to a deserved caution, but he was OTT.)

[MassachusettsRef]

There's also no question that he'll ref the World Cup '06 final. There's actually no question that he won't referee the WC06 final. Even if he were the best in the world--which he's not, but let's pretend--a Mexican refereed the 1990 final and it will be awhile before another Mexican does. Like it or not, politics still play a role. Gonzalez (Spain), Merk (Germany), Michel (Slovakia), Poll (England), Shield (Australia), Batres (Guatemala) Kamikawa (Japan) and yes, possibly even Brian Hall, if he somehow makes it to Germany (he's not, technically, a candidate) would all be in line to referee the final before Archundia.

That being said, I thought Archundia had a hell of a match and deserves a spot in Germany.

As for the diving (and the complaining about the cards), I posted this at the end of the PBP thread:

Hejduk lept high into the air in supposed pain before he was even touched. Hejduk touched the ball too far in front of him into the area , realized it, and decided to simulate a foul in the hopes of getting a free kick (any alleged contact would have been outside the box). The replay angle from behind where the camera was low to the ground showed that he took a dive rather clearly, I thought. The--minimal--contact took place after Hejduk had flung himself into the air. The ref was well-positioned and dealt with it.

The reactions from both Hejduk and the Costa Rican player who got booked earlier both seemed to be in the vein of "wow, that's embarrassing--I just got caught". Neither put up any real appeals for penalties.

I'm a little surprised, to be honest. Most fans complain incessantly about how there's so much diving in the game and it's never dealt with by referees. Tonight we find a ref who was willing to address it--from both sides--and yet there are those that think Hejduk was "clearly" fouled and the officiating was "inconsistent". Honestly, other than the first yellow on the Costa Rican (which I felt could have/should have been red), and the non-card on Cherundolo's scissor tackle, I thought the ref had a very good match.

[entropy]

Except for the fact the he gave 2 players cards for diving in the box when neither actually did.

Ummm....No.

And that's all there is to say about that.

[MetroFever]

Except for the fact the he gave 2 players cards for diving in the box when neither actually did.

Hejduk's dive is one of the worst I've seen in a long time. I thought it was clear on the replays. :confused:

[Elninho]

I've thought quite highly of Archundia for a while - one of the best in CONCACAF, IMHO, along with Batres and Hall. To be fully objective, I wasn't absolutely sure from the replay that the Costa Rican took a dive, but the ref had a better angle.

I'm going to echo the comments of others: this was the best-refereed match I've seen in a long time, at any level and in any region.

I was especially impressed by the fact that Archundia always seemed to be in the right place to make the call. Positioning is important!

As a side note, speaking of referee positioning... who was the ref for the Cuba match? About midway through the first half, one of our players, I think it was Quaranta, lost the ball to the referee's foot when he tried to cut inside from the wing. It's one thing for a pass or a clearance to be deflected by the ref... it's another for the ref to fail to get out of the way of a player dribbling the ball. I remember immediately thinking "oh great, we're literally playing against twelve men."

[crunky]

Frankie even smiled as soon as he got caught...maybe even before. No doubt it was a dive.

I can't recall any players during the match having a serious beef with the referee, an indication that he called a pretty fair match.

[Aquarius21]

Frankie even smiled as soon as he got caught...maybe even before. No doubt it was a dive.

I can't recall any players during the match having a serious beef with the referee, an indication that he called a pretty fair match.

Oh, this time I beg to differ. In the first half Frankie almost got both his legs broken b/c a Tico went over the balls, studs up, into his shins. Studs up is a card, but intent to hurt is a red. But hey, it's CONCACAF, so we get screwed when we're at home. I had a lot of problems with the ref today, mostly b/c he consistently let Ticos go straight through our players to get to the ball. Someone could have been killed.

[Dr Jay]

I thought the ref did a good job overall. It was a tough game to ref. Many times the US players played through the CR fouls. The ref has to decide whether to interrupt the flow of the game to call the foul or ignore it since play was not disrupted. In most cases, he let the play go on.

Sure he might have pulled out a yellow for persistent infringement after one of these but most were not so egregious to warrant it.

None of the dives yesterday were of WC quality. Especially Frankies.

[Dr Jay]

Oh, this time I beg to differ. In the first half Frankie almost got both his legs broken b/c a Tico went over the balls, studs up, into his shins. Studs up is a card, but intent to hurt is a red. But hey, it's CONCACAF, so we get screwed when we're at home. I had a lot of problems with the ref today, mostly b/c he consistently let Ticos go straight through our players to get to the ball. Someone could have been killed.


True. Could have been a straight red. Ref decided on yellow probably because the CR players' body was shielding the refs view to the contact and also because Frankie isn't a **********. When he REALLY gets fouled, he doesn't roll around like he's dead.

[peledre]

Hejduk's dive is one of the worst I've seen in a long time. I thought it was clear on the replays. :confused:
Hejduk embellished, but there was contact, I had it on slo-mo on my dvr, it's pretty clear there's enough contact to warrant him going down, and the CR player got clipped. Neither play deserved a penalty, but they didn't deserve cards either.

[adi21]

True. Could have been a straight red. Ref decided on yellow probably because the CR players' body was shielding the refs view to the contact and also because Frankie isn't a **********. When he REALLY gets fouled, he doesn't roll around like he's dead.
Hmm, he was shielded ?
I thought he was always in perfect position (according to some )
About Frankie's foul near the box ,on one of the replays you can see (if you look) that his right ankle was tripped from behind. :)

[blech]

Hmm, he was shielded ?
I thought he was always in perfect position (according to some )
About Frankie's foul near the box ,on one of the replays you can see (if you look) that his right ankle was tripped from behind. :)

there was some contact, but it was after Frankie had already gone airborne in my opinion (and even possibly initiated by him). ref must have seen it the same way, and as we often forget, does not have the benefit of replay and/or slo-mo.

there was also a very nice delayed offside call against CR, where the US defender got the first touch but then lost the ball to the offside attacker who had attempted to momentarily take himself out of the play. i've seen that call botched before.

i only watched the second half, but was reasonably impressed by the officiating.

[Thomas Flannigan]

That being said, I thought Archundia had a hell of a match and deserves a spot in Germany.


How quickly we forget. Archundia refereed the U.S.-England game 6 weeks ago and it was a very dubious performance. He ignored 2 obvious handballs in the box by the English defense, one which caused a big roar from the outraged crowd. He sure got out the whistle fast for the free kick in the 4th minute though.
Archundia had a strong game last night but I would be very suspicious of the guy after the England game. There have been much better refs in CONCACAF. Marco Antonio Rodriguez called his usual superb match in the Honduras-Columbia game and Carlos Batres, the best ref in the world in my view, was great in the Colombia-Panama game that opened the tournament. Batres was one of the reasons that was a thrilling match. As soon as Panama scored they started stalling and he immediately got out the yellow card. He gave 2 or 3 cards for delay of game and that had the Panamanians running like there was no tomorrow. Medina looked like he was afraid of him after Batres showed him the yellow card.
Batres got an octafinal match in 2002 (Paraguay-Germany) but the phone didn't ring after that. I would not expect Marco or Carlos Batres to get quarter final or higher games in Germany even though they obviously deserve it.