Referees: Loustau (ARG) Vargas (BOL) Lopes (BRA) Bascunan (CHI) Roldan (COL) Zambrano (ECU) Caceres (PAR) Carrillo (PER) Cunha (URU) Argote (VEN) Montero (CRC) Martinez (CUB) Aguilar (SLV) Garcia (MEX) Pitti (PAN) Geiger (USA) [Morgante/Fletcher] Marrufo (USA) [Manikowski/Rockwell] Reserves: Villarreal (USA) [Parker] Sampaio (BRA) Lamouroux (COL) Fedorczuk (URU) The USA situation is quite interesting--not sure what to make of it. Also, no one who is going to Brazil for the Olympics was appointed here, so that accounts for a lot of what might otherwise be surprises (like Lopez not being here and Ricci of Brazil and Pitana of Argentina).
Estos serán todos los árbitros y sus respectivos asistentes: -Patricio Loustau, Ezequiel Brailovsky, Ariel Scime (Argentina) -Gery Vargas, Javier Bustillos, Juan Montaña (Bolivia) -Heber Lopes, Kleber Gil, Bruno Boschilia (Brasil) -Julio Bascuñan, Carlos Astroza, Christian Schiemann (Chile) -Wilmar Roldan, Alexander Guzman, Wilmar Navarro (Colombia) -Roddy Zambrano, Luis Vera, Juan Macias (Ecuador) -Enrique Caceres, Eduardo Cardozo, Milciades Saldivar (Paraguay) -Victor Carrillo, Jorge Yupanqui, Coty Carrera (Perú) -Jose Argote, Luis Murillo, Luis Sanchez (Venezuela) -Ricardo Montero, Octavio Jara, Juan Mora (Costa Rica) -Yadel Martinez, Hiran Dopico (Cuba), Christian Ramirez (Honduras) -Joel Aguilar, Juan Zumba, William Torres (El Salvador) -Roberto Garcia, Jose Luis Camargo, Alberto Morin (México) -John Pitti, Daniel Williamson, Gabriel Victoria (Panamá) -Mark Geiger, Charles Morgante (Estados Unidos), Joe Fletcher (Canadá) -Jair Marrufo, Peter Manikowski, Corey Rockwell (Estados Unidos) Suplentes -Armando Villarreal y Corey Parker (Estados Unidos) -Wilton Sampaio (Brasil) y Gustavo Rossi (Argentina) -Wilson Lamouroux y Alexander León (Colombia) -Daniel Fedorczuk (Uruguay) y Darío Gaona (Paraguay)
Appears as though Williamson, who was slotted as AR1 for Pitti's Panamanian trio, is out due to fitness. Pitti is assigned to the first game in Seattle and his AR2 is now AR1. The stand-in AR2 is Ramirez of Honduras who is not a Reserve AR but is actually part of Martinez's (Cuba) trio. Lot of shuffling around before the tournament even starts. Sort of surprised Pitti didn't get a new AR from the reserves listed above.
No American crew will be used for the two matches tomorrow. So all of the first round of group matches will have passed without an American with the whistle. Should anything be read into that?
As of today: USA vs. Costa Rica Referee: Roddy Zambrano (ECU) Assistant Referee 1: Byron Romero (ECU) Assistant Referee 2: Luis Vera (ECU) Fourth Official: John Pitti (PAN) Reserve Assistant: Gabriel Victoria (PAN) Source: http://www.ca2016.com/article/referee-assignments#sf28020719
With only 8 matches and 17 main referee crews I don't think there is much to see here. Now if we hit some of the later matches this week and started seeing repeat crews before all were used then I think you have something to look at.
Does the fact that he has Cunha's ARs mean Cunha now takes the reserve role, or do you believe will we see both Uruguayan referees in the middle? Also, any idea why Ramirez has replaced Williamson on the Panamanian crew? Seems like that should be a role for Parker or one of the other Reserve ARs. Now Ramirez has to work in two crews...
Cunha will also do some match more forward. Williamson was not in the tournament due to injury. With the precedent of Fedorczuk now all bookings can theoretically make a game, just have some political force.
Right. But instead of taking a new Panamanian from home or taking one of the Reserve ARs, they used Rodriguez, who is part of Martinez's crew. Any idea why that decision was made?
So a coach from Mexico sent to the stands, and it looks like we have another 2CT but on Mexico this time.
Is there a place for USians to see replays of these matches online? I know FoxSportsGo has them live, but I don't see anything from the past.
There was no time to call a new Panamanian, and choosing Rodriguez was a choice of the committee, found better be him, since it would not influence on future assignments of Martinez
And Geiger gets just about the least competitive game possible in Brazil/Haiti. Or, as I prefer to think about it, a game with the highest profile team. June 8 Ecuador vs. Peru Referee: Wilmar Roldan (COL) Assistant Referee 1: Alexander Guzman (COL) Assistant Referee 2: Wilmar Navarro (COL) Fourth Official: Yadel Martinez (CUB) Reserve Assistant: Hiran Dopico (CUB) Brazil vs. Haiti Referee: Mark Geiger (USA) Assistant Referee 1: Joseph Fletcher (CAN) Assistant Referee 2: Charles Morgante (USA) Fourth Official: Roberto Garcia (MEX) Reserve Assistant: Jose Camargo (MEX)
Remember that Geiger can't touch Group A and likely can't touch Group D because of Panama and what happened last summer. That leaves Group B and C. And the last round of the Group B matches could determine who plays the US in the next round if the US advances--putting an American referee in that position is usually frowned upon and waiting to give him one of those games definitely makes no sense. So options are limited and one of the two matches tomorrow made total sense if you wanted to see Geiger on the earlier side of things. If he does well, I'd expect there's a chance you see him on Uruguay-Jamaica or a QF.
Also, I don't think we've quite got enough info to say this is an agreed upon rule, but there is a pattern developing. All-CONMEBOL matches have had CONMEBOL referees exclusively. Uruguay-Venezuela is the next announcement where that pattern could be broken.
Sampaio has Mexico-Jamaica, which makes him the second "reserve" to get a match. This means both Brazilians are working. We'll have to see if Cunha still works for Uruguay. Loustau has a second match already (Uruguay v Venezuela). I think we're at the point where 5 of the announced 17 referees have not had games or are not already appointed to games. Nine matches remain (Aguilar is already confirmed for Friday). Will be very interesting to see if everyone works and to see which referees get second matches in the first round.
Marrufo has Chile v Bolivia with his crew + Villarreal. So that breaks the streak of all-CONMEBOL matches having CONMEBOL referees. Aguilar is on Friday's other game. That leaves the following referees without a match as we head to Matchday 3: Vargas (BOL) Cunha (URU) Argote (VEN) Martinez (CUB) Martinez and Vargas are two of the least experienced referees at this tournament. If they are all going to be used, I find it interesting that they were held until the round of matches that matter the most. I suppose Colombia-Costa Rica and Argentina-Bolivia might be two places where they could end up fitting well, though.
What do we think about the Marrufo assignment? I can't say I am familiar enough with the fixture to know if it will be an especially heated match but I work on the pretense that all Conmebol matches are heated. Furthermore Bolivia lost its only coastal province to Chile in the past. No clue if that will have an effect on the temperature of the match but my interpretation is that this is a juicier assignment than Geiger's.