CONCACAF Champions Cup, Can we get a break from the poor refereeing?

[Alberto]

Well, we had yet more inept officiating tonight, not quite as bad as the first legs in Central American, but certainly of a very dubious standard. Mauricio Navarro did his usual poor job by almost allowing things to get out of control in the DCU vs. Olympia match.

The Houston vs. Puntarenas was much worse. Benito Archundia had a terrible match. How he did not call a penalty in the 80th minute +/- and did not send off the keeper was a terrible non-call. DeRosario was right to complain early. Archundia was ready to let both teams basically hammer each other without sanctioning rough play with any verbal warnings or cautions. Terrible foul recognition too. Once again, though not as bad as at Puntarenas, the Tico team got the benefit of every marginal call.

The players deserve better.

[mw26]

well, not really. champions cup? i've never even heard of this one. didn't see the latter match, but Archundia is one of the best in the world. I'm a fan of Navarro's as well. I only saw the last 10 minutes or so of his match, but he did fine in that span, and the (american :eek:) commentators gave him credit for his performance.

[bluedevils]

I wasn't riveted to the TV during the Houston match last night, but I watched some good-sized chunks of it while multi-tasking. It did seem like a rough match and there were some tackles that definitely looked like fouls that were not sanctioned, and some others that were sanctioned with a FK but no card.

[superdave]

For some reason, announcers love referees who "let 'em play," and that is true for all sports. Me, I signed up for Fox Soccer Channel, not Fox Rugby Channel.

[macheath]

The Mexican crew in the initial DC United-Olympia match, last week, did an excellent, excellent job. Especially the ARs--made some very good, tough calls, replays indicated that they didn't miss any. As most of the calls were against Olympia, and the match was in their stadium, it was even more impressive. A few odd calls here and there, but nothing that affected the match, and very good match control and fair calling.

There's a tendency in these matches to let a lot of rough, physical play go. I don't like that, but it does seem to be a style in CONCACAF. It does often seem that this works against U.S.-based teams, or the national team, both in the level of force allowed, and in the asymmetry of the calls. But that may be just me as a fan. Again, I was quite impressed with the work in the initial DC United (my team) vs. Olympia match.

[steever]

The Mexican crew in the initial DC United-Olympia match, last week, did an excellent, excellent job.

Someone will no doubt correct me if I'm mistaken, but I believe only the CR was Mexican; the rest of the crew was Honduran.

I thought the same as you regarding their performance.