First match is Thursday and its Philadelphia at Seattle. Anyone have a prediction for who it is? Also, when does Marrufo get his first Columbus Crew match? I'll go late-May, right before the World Cup. ManiacalClown can pull his magic and find the seemingly unfindable assignments.
It's not hard - you can get them off the Pro site, but only at game time. Also, mlsnet.com will usually put them up along with the game preview a few days ahead of time. My crystal ball says Vaughn, Rockwell, Vasoli, Geiger as the crew. But if my NCAA bracket is any prediction, none of those four will be on the game.
http://www.refereeassociation.net/index.php?articleID=26 I believe this is essentially the list of all Professional Referees in the U.S. (Grade 3 and above). Guaranteed any referee or AR on an MLS game this season is on this list. There are also some WPS-only officials on here.
Thanks, and sorry for the stupid question, but how will they narrow it down to the smaller group that they pick from week in and week out?
You are asking how assignments are made from week to week? Good luck answering that one. There are MANY factors that go into assignments. Some are: -frequency that a certain referee has seen a certain team -distance -past matches w/referee or between teams -assessments -ranking -politics But from week to week, it's too complicated to answer definitively.
Well there are 4 center officials who are paid by the USSF as full-time referees. Those are Terry Vaughn, Baldomero Toledo, Ricardo Salazar, and Jair Marruffo. Look for these guys to get games almost every week (possibly not Jair though, he ran into trouble with the USSF last season for some decisions he made during and after matches). Also, FIFA referees (a couple ex-FIFAs too) will probably be getting games almost every week as well. These referees are Kevin Stott, Alex Prus, Edvin Jurisevic, Mark Geiger, and Paul Ward. Other Center referees that have refereed more than one match last season are: Michael Kennedy, Jorge Gonzales, Chico Grajeda, Abiodun Okulaja. Those would be the main referees that you would see in the center this season. As far as AR's go. The only one's I know will be working on a regular basis will be Eric Boria, CJ Morgante, and Tom Supple.
No, sorry, I was asking what Alex answered for me. The big list in the link just seemed so much bigger than the real pool size they use, such as last year. Thanks to both of you.
USSF really doesn't release a list like the premier league does. The guys Alex mentioned will get 95%+ of the matches. There will be a handful of guys who get a match or two to see if they are ready for MLS.
USSF actually has released lists in the past. They just haven't been publicized in the way other leagues have since about 2005 or so.
I looked at the numbers from last year. There were more refs that got 5+ games then I thought (18). http://www.worldfootball.net/schiedsrichter/usa-major-league-soccer-2009_2/1/
Marruffo was fired and is no longer a full time referee and Jurisevic is now a FIFA AR so he will only be running lines. Abbi may no longer be active or receiving assignments because of fitness and performance. Look to Gonzales picking up the slack in the middle.
no, Edvin is a referee...not an assistant http://www.fifa.com/aboutfifa/developing/refereeing/association=usa/peoplekind=ref.html
Say what? I know he was suspended but fired as a full-time? No news clippings anywhere that I can find to bear that out. Can you provide a source?
Please, do you think US Soccer would advertise a failure like this? Ask Tambo, he will tell you. I won't print a source because it could get back to me somehow. But believe me he was fired. I was told that he was way too cocky about the whole issue. It is true. Doesn't need to be printed in a news paper.