CONCACAF Referees' Anti-American Bias

[GolazoSr]

With the blatant complicity of the referee, the Guatemalans played extremely dirty, with cunning, artful, dirty-player Carlos Ruiz as their cheerleader. (The MLS should ban Ruiz from playing in the league, that man is a disgrace to the game. He is a cheater, dirty and cunning; he is not a soccer player. He doesn’t know what decent play is.)

The referee definitely sided, flagrantly, with the Guatemalans. The yellow-card fouls he marked on Oguchi Onyewu were completely inexistent.

The US Federation should demand European or South American referees for any CONCACAF game the USA plays.

Mexican, Central-American and Caribbean referees come from countries of deep anti-American sentiments and they, the referees, patently manifest those sentiments when refereeing. Those unprofessional referees could make our team lose games. Worse, our players could easily get maimed for life due to the largesse and leniency that CONCACAF referees manifest in favor of dirty play by any team playing the USA.

The game TNT-El Salvador was a great difference. Although the game was mediocre, as typical of CONCACAF soccer, both teams played clean, and the refereeing was completely impartial.

They are lousy only when it affects the USA. It's time to do something effective about it. US fans should complain en masse to the US Soccer Federation (www.USSoccer.com, Contact Us) about it and demand action.

[Beazley17]

Yes Sirr

[imasyko]

With the blatant complicity of the referee, the Guatemalans played extremely dirty, with cunning, artful, dirty-player Carlos Ruiz as their cheerleader. (The MLS should ban Ruiz from playing in the league, that man is a disgrace to the game. He is a cheater, dirty and cunning; he is not a soccer player. He doesn’t know what decent play is.)

The referee definitely sided, flagrantly, with the Guatemalans. The yellow-card fouls he marked on Oguchi Onyewu were completely inexistent.

The US Federation should demand European or South American referees for any CONCACAF game the USA plays.

Mexican, Central-American and Caribbean referees come from countries of deep anti-American sentiments and they, the referees, patently manifest those sentiments when refereeing. Those unprofessional referees could make our team lose games. Worse, our players could easily get maimed for life due to the largesse and leniency that CONCACAF referees manifest in favor of dirty play by any team playing the USA.

The game TNT-El Salvador was a great difference. Although the game was mediocre, as typical of CONCACAF soccer, both teams played clean, and the refereeing was completely impartial.

They are lousy only when it affects the USA. It's time to do something effective about it. US fans should complain en masse to the US Soccer Federation (www.USSoccer.com, Contact Us) about it and demand action.

We should quit whining about the refs and realize that Gooch never adjusted to the way the game was being called. He should have realized that the ref wan't going to let him put his hands on Ruiz, and simply stood his ground, and not continually try to manhandle him. Shoot, he was fouling Ruiz 40 yards from goal!

Every ref is different, and every game is different - players need to adjust.

[studloans]

With the blatant complicity of the referee, the Guatemalans played extremely dirty, with cunning, artful, dirty-player Carlos Ruiz as their cheerleader. (The MLS should ban Ruiz from playing in the league, that man is a disgrace to the game. He is a cheater, dirty and cunning; he is not a soccer player. He doesn’t know what decent play is.)

The referee definitely sided, flagrantly, with the Guatemalans. The yellow-card fouls he marked on Oguchi Onyewu were completely inexistent.

The US Federation should demand European or South American referees for any CONCACAF game the USA plays.

Mexican, Central-American and Caribbean referees come from countries of deep anti-American sentiments and they, the referees, patently manifest those sentiments when refereeing. Those unprofessional referees could make our team lose games. Worse, our players could easily get maimed for life due to the largesse and leniency that CONCACAF referees manifest in favor of dirty play by any team playing the USA.

The game TNT-El Salvador was a great difference. Although the game was mediocre, as typical of CONCACAF soccer, both teams played clean, and the refereeing was completely impartial.

They are lousy only when it affects the USA. It's time to do something effective about it. US fans should complain en masse to the US Soccer Federation (www.USSoccer.com, Contact Us) about it and demand action.

Can the US Federation demand officials from countries outside of CONCACAF?

[Marko72]

I'm not so sure that CONCACAF referees really have it out for the US so much as I think that their style of refereeing is born of the same culture as the players who play against us, and so the way they dive and hack us and go studs up from in front does not seem flagrant in their eyes, it seems like typical professional play to them, and the way that we (ie Onyewu and Frankie and Mastroeni) manhandle them or lunge in from behind or the side (even when well-timed and definitely going for the ball) does seem flagrant to them and draws the whistle and the cards.

I think as far as refereeing goes, we're a victim of being a different soccer culture in a confederation that plays by a different code than we do, and the referees ref by their code, not ours. Granted, it's a really crappy, irritating culture to have to play by/with, but... can't fault geography.

(What I mean to say is, I honestly think that if you were to ask a typical Central American referee what he thinks of the US style of play, he would say that we complain when our opponents are playing to win in a hard, professional manner, and then we get frustrated and retailiate in an unacceptable manner. In other words, I honestly feel that they actually see US, not them, as the dirtier team. Because of the difference in culture.)

It also doesn't help that we play away games in extremely hostile venues while most of our home games draw far less than true "home field" support.

[GolazoSr]

Yes, it can; but even if it were only symbolic, the message would be conveyed and CONCACAF would have to rein in its referees and make them officiate objectively when refereeing USA games.

[fifa010]

It seems to me that its not just concacaf refs with an anti american bias

See 2002 Handball no call but blatantly obvious
See 2006 well it wasnt just the Americans getting bad calls but it seems we recieved an disproportiant amount

[GolazoSr]

I follow CONCACAF leagues soccer closely for I came from Central America as a teenager and can attest to the good refereeing they do in their home games. It is only when the USA plays them that they referee the way that fellow did in the game against Guatemala. There is a marked bias there, and playing ostrich won't help us solve something that should be solved. We fans should request from the US Soccer Federation to ask CONCACAF address the subject. Remember that after 9/11 and until two to three years ago, the public in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama used to chant Obama! Obama! during local games against the USA MNT, or even MLS teams. CONCACAF referees got infected, and instead of chanting the Obama serenade, they allow dirty play against our teams, and penalize them when violations don't exist, or excessively whey they do.

[GolazoSr]

I'm not so sure that CONCACAF referees really have it out for the US so much as I think that their style of refereeing is born of the same culture as the players who play against us, and so the way they dive and hack us and go studs up from in front does not seem flagrant in their eyes, it seems like typical professional play to them, and the way that we (ie Onyewu and Frankie and Mastroeni) manhandle them or lunge in from behind or the side (even when well-timed and definitely going for the ball) does seem flagrant to them and draws the whistle and the cards.

I think as far as refereeing goes, we're a victim of being a different soccer culture in a confederation that plays by a different code than we do, and the referees ref by their code, not ours. Granted, it's a really crappy, irritating culture to have to play by/with, but... can't fault geography.

(What I mean to say is, I honestly think that if you were to ask a typical Central American referee what he thinks of the US style of play, he would say that we complain when our opponents are playing to win in a hard, professional manner, and then we get frustrated and retailiate in an unacceptable manner. In other words, I honestly feel that they actually see US, not them, as the dirtier team. Because of the difference in culture.)

It also doesn't help that we play away games in extremely hostile venues while most of our home games draw far less than true "home field" support.


I follow CONCACAF leagues soccer closely for I came originally from Central America as a teenager and can attest to the good refereeing they officiate in their home games. It is only when the USA plays them that they referee the way that fellow did in the game against Guatemala. There is a marked bias there, and playing ostrich won't help us solve something that should be solved. We fans should request from the US Soccer Federation to ask CONCACAF address the subject. Remember that after 9/11 and until two to three years ago, the public in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama used to chant Obama! Obama! during local games against the USA MNT, or even MLS teams. CONCACAF referees got infected, and instead of chanting the Obama serenade, they allow dirty play against our teams, and penalize them when violations don't exist, or excessively whey they do.

[GolazoSr]

Can the US Federation demand officials from countries outside of CONCACAF?

Yes, it can; but even if it were only symbolic, the message would be conveyed and CONCACAF would have to rein in its referees and make them officiate objectively when refereeing USA games.

[Professor B]

I follow CONCACAF leagues soccer closely for I came from Central America as a teenager and can attest to the good refereeing they do in their home games. It is only when the USA plays them that they referee the way that fellow did in the game against Guatemala. There is a marked bias there, and playing ostrich won't help us solve something that should be solved. We fans should request from the US Soccer Federation to ask CONCACAF address the subject. Remember that after 9/11 and until two to three years ago, the public in Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Costa Rica and Panama used to chant Obama! Obama! during local games against the USA MNT, or even MLS teams. CONCACAF referees got infected, and instead of chanting the Obama serenade, they allow dirty play against our teams, and penalize them when violations don't exist, or excessively whey they do.

I assume you meant to say that they were chanting for "Osama" (the terrorist) and not "Obama" (the Senator and Presidential Candidate).

[Marko72]

I'm not disagreeing with you that we are repeatedly victimized by lopsided refereeing. As a matter of fact, I agree absolutely that we are, and we are on a regular basis. The fact that the stat line shows that a similar number of total fouls were called against both teams last night and at least one card given to both teams hides the fact that the Guatemalans were routinely allowed to hack away at our shins and routinely dive (particularly Ruiz, who is a well-noted diver, and you'd think the referees would be particularly sensitive to that), whereas because Onyewu has a reputation for using his hands too much while defending, he's whistled for it repeatedly and gets sent off eventually, but Ruiz doesn't get so much as a warning when he grabs a shirt, pushes off, loses the battle and flops. Or the rest, when banging away at our shins, are simply told to play on. I'm also sure that a lot of us remember a Costa Rican game a few years ago in which Clint Mathis was punched in the face and was red carded for retaliating with a push. (The retaliation always draws the card, sure as day, but the initial foul doesn't always...)

However, I honestly don't know that you could say that it's purely because of a loathing for the USA and the Stars and Stripes. (Certainly in the case of the CONCACAF fans, most particularly the Mexicans, they hate us for sure.) I'm quite sure that the difference in soccer culture has a lot to do with it. But to call it racism/nationalism... while I'm not saying that it couldn't be true, I'm saying that there are some fairly obvious other factors that I think certainly play a role, and that one... the evidence is only circumstantial.

The day that one of these guys is stupid enough to publicly make an anti-American remark, well, that's the day that I would strongly, strongly urge the USSF to make its case to CONCACAF and FIFA regarding referee bias, but I doubt any of them will be that stupid, and so we'll never honestly know.

[asdf2]

The ref'ing hurt us big time at WC 2006 but the other night was a different story. The ref let too much hacking go on but made no blatantly bad calls. That 2nd yellow (OK, not the first) on Gooch was a no brainer. So was Heydude's yellow.

It may have made for ************ soccer but too be honest I'd take a ref like this who is at least pretty consistent over someone clueless like the Pendergast guy from Jamaica we used to get.

[gejal01]

No I do not call it racism, Nationalism or anything else. I do call it personal prejudice however. How many times did Ruiz actually run into the player without so much as playing the ball. He contiinually plays the man not the ball. There is ahuge difference about playing the ball but to ram into a plaer with his ass and arms to keep him off the ball is by definition obstruction. Yet never once was he called for that. The two cards against Onyewu were absolutely ridiculous, particularly the first one. Which should have been called aginst Ruiz. He also did not retaliate he never even kicked at the ass. He kicked at the ball to sho his frustration.
If this referee was not prejudiced I am not human and hey that may be true, But after 50 years of soccer as player, coach as well as referee, I say that ref. was not fit to referee a dogfight.
He even negated linesman's (assitant Ref.) calls.

He should be barred from refereeing any important game PERIOD.

Soccer culture or soccer culture not withstanding, FIFA sets the laws and he was not using them equally for both teams. That is prejudice, no matter how you define it.

[FakeFlopper]

I think I'm all for no-contest games afterwards and instant replay in soccer when seriously needed. That way ref's can't justify some of the bullshit calls they make. All the ref has to do is look up at the screen re-evaluate the situation and make the damn call. If not, get more lines men or refs on the field. If FIFA is going to ban and disqualify teams for their fans being idiots, I don't think it's not asking much for FIFA to do what's right and move soccer in the right direction to make sure the game is rid of a lot of this nonsense. People winning WC games by pushing the ball in with their hands is just ridiculous. I think making the game more fair by giving refs tools to make the right calls will also cut back some of the violence and riots. FIFA has worked to get some of the non-game issues out like violence and racism, but I think there's a serious game problems glaring them in the face that they've ignored for decades now.

[DestroyerDaMarc]

I'm not so sure that CONCACAF referees really have it out for the US so much as I think that their style of refereeing is born of the same culture as the players who play against us, and so the way they dive and hack us and go studs up from in front does not seem flagrant in their eyes, it seems like typical professional play to them, and the way that we (ie Onyewu and Frankie and Mastroeni) manhandle them or lunge in from behind or the side (even when well-timed and definitely going for the ball) does seem flagrant to them and draws the whistle and the cards.

I think as far as refereeing goes, we're a victim of being a different soccer culture in a confederation that plays by a different code than we do, and the referees ref by their code, not ours. Granted, it's a really crappy, irritating culture to have to play by/with, but... can't fault geography.

(What I mean to say is, I honestly think that if you were to ask a typical Central American referee what he thinks of the US style of play, he would say that we complain when our opponents are playing to win in a hard, professional manner, and then we get frustrated and retailiate in an unacceptable manner. In other words, I honestly feel that they actually see US, not them, as the dirtier team. Because of the difference in culture.)

It also doesn't help that we play away games in extremely hostile venues while most of our home games draw far less than true "home field" support.

Well I think your quote of the style they play verse us is different. I noticed that referee's from countries of a flowing football like Costa Rica and Mexico do rather well handling US games. It against the Central American countries like Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador ref's seem to thing our style is different. We are not so much physical as athletic; something similar to a Dutch stlye of play.

Ref's from the Center of America believe our flow is based off of a physical presence while there players are of a stop and start play. Lot's of headers and diving to distract the intention. If a good Euro or Mexican ref saw what was going on he'd have a fit and tell Ruiz straight up to stop or face a card. Sometimes dives even to Euro ref's are hard to see but the majority of it is fair play.

[GalaxyOne]

Can the US Federation demand officials from countries outside of CONCACAF?


Don't know if that would do any good. The US gets screwed over even worse by European officials at the World Cup. At least the ref. in the Guatemala game didn't hand Guatemala a phantom PK, which he very easily could have for one particular play late in the game, as I recall.

Also, I think Gooch's red card was completely deserved. His second yellow was completely avoidable, but he was careless.

[Heist]

Don't know if that would do any good. The US gets screwed over even worse by European officials at the World Cup. At least the ref. in the Guatemala game didn't hand Guatemala a phantom PK, which he very easily could have for one particular play late in the game, as I recall.

Also, I think Gooch's red card was completely deserved. His second yellow was completely avoidable, but he was careless.

I agree about gooch's 2nd yellow. It was a boneheaded play.

Its pretty sad though when our bar for bad refereeing is so low that we are happy when we have a game where a team isn't given a phantom PK...

I wonder if we feel this way because we really get treated differently or are we just less able to deal with horrible refereeing or something else?

[nowherenova]

I agree about gooch's 2nd yellow. It was a boneheaded play.

Its pretty sad though when our bar for bad refereeing is so low that we are happy when we have a game where a team isn't given a phantom PK...

I wonder if we feel this way because we really get treated differently or are we just less able to deal with horrible refereeing or something else?

I think as Americans we may be a little more sensitive because we have seen most of our other major sports attempt to IMPROVE officiating. FIFA has done little that has effectively improved the quality of officiating over the last 20 years. Hell, it might even be worse now.

A good start would be instant replay of all penalties awarded at the WC. There is always plenty of time before a pk where the keeper mopes around getting ready and the shooter places the ball perfectly. The 4th ref could use this opportunity to check the replay, confer with the ref, and award a penalty or goal kick if bogus.

[Sachsen]

I assume you meant to say that they were chanting for "Osama" (the terrorist) and not "Obama" (the Senator and Presidential Candidate).

Same thing, isn't it?



















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