Saturday June 25, 2016 - 8:00 (ET) - Glendale Referee: Daniel Fedorczuk (URU) Assistant Referee 1: Richard Trinidad (URU) Assistant Referee 2: Luis Sanchez (VEN) Fourth Official: Yadel Martinez (CUB) Reserve Assistant: Gabriel Victoria (PAN) This thread is for all pre-match, play-by-play and post-match discussion and analysis of the refereeing team. Per the forum guidelines (http://forums.bigsoccer.com/threads/welcome-forum-guidelines.2032251/), this thread will be heavily moderated. For more general or partisan discussions of the match, please go to the general Group thread or the individual team forums.
You know, if....... If..... USA and Columbia had won their semi-finals, the opening and closing games of Copa would have been between the same two teams. Does anyone know if that has ever happened in a major tournament?
Arias fouls Orozco, gets booked. Arias moves his head towards Orozco, undetected by the officials. Orozco pushes Arias in the face. Orozco is sent off. Then, Arias does something (maybe just sitting there wasting time) and gets his second yellow. Interesting ending!
The end result in this match is the same, so I think I'm justified in saying this is not simply sour grapes. That being said, I don't see how in the world you rationalize a straight red to Orozco but a 2ct to Arias. Both are contact to the face, both are unnecessary, and both meet the criteria we discussed earlier re: the Jones red card. So color me flummoxed as I try to understand a caution for a headbutt to an opponents face (and specifically the eye area).
I am guessing the officials did not see the headbutt. I know I didn't see it until the replay, and I think the ref would have been a lot quicker to give the 2Y if that was why. I could be wrong though!
Looking at the match report posted on ESPN, they have Arias as receiving both a caution (#1) and an ejection in the lead course of that play. Perhaps the yellow was for the original foul and the red for what occurred afterwards? IMHO, it could have been handled better. If you're going to card Arias, card him immediately when he stands up. And then how do you not smell that dust-up from a mile away when you see them walking towards one another and jawing at one another. Just mark me down as unimpressed with that whole episode.
Colombia's #5 seemed to be invisible to the CR...He was a walking example of PI from halfway through the 1st half. The CR called tight, then swallowed his whistle, and when he loses control in extra time, ends it on the spot rather than extend play for the 2 minutes Colombia ate up in that period. Sigh.