Anyone with access care to post the preseason assignments thus far? CHI-MTL had JJ Bilinski in the middle, who I think was last seen on the AR track working USL games.
A couple things: First, JJ is referee track -- He has had multiple assignments that, while not particularly high profile, were at a very high level, including a whistle on a full men's national team scrimmage. Second, he was also in charge of DCU vs. Philly Union a couple days ago. He's based in Florida, making him a convenient, competent choice for MLS preseason.
This is the key point. There are 5s and 6s (and a 7, in one case) from Florida and Arizona who get "MLS preseason" assignments in the middle, due mostly to convenience. There are some requirements on when PRO referees have to be used for MLS preseason matches, but suffice it to say that not all MLS preseason matches need to have PRO officials. So reading that Bilinski has a few games is not indicative of him being on the PRO radar. I think the purpose of the initial post was to identify referees who are on the PRO radar, are getting MLS preseason whistles in PRO or otherwise highly-rated crews, but have not yet had MLS regular season whistles. The following officials would qualify for that category far: Luis Guardia Guido Gonzales Jr. Matthew Franz Rosendo Mendoza Malik Badawi Ramy Touchan Greg Dopka Victor Rivas
Yes and no. While there are plenty of people who fall into this category, Bilinski is not one of them. He was in tier 2 of the PRO Development Group last year, and there are rumors he is being added as a tier one (full PRO) fourth official this year.
I don't think this is right at all, but maybe I'll be proven wrong. The last time I saw a published list, in summer 2017, the Elite Group (Tier 1) had seven names, the Elite Development Group (Tier 2) had six names, and the Premier Group (Tier 3) had 34 names. Bilinski was not a member of any of those groups. If that's changed and he's in one of the groups, great. But I would be shocked if he immediately vaulted into one of the top two tiers, particularly given a few of the names in Tier 3. Also, from a factual standpoint, "Tier 1" is not "full PRO fourth official." The Elite Group has a few people who worked as VARs, a couple people who did a few fourths, one referee (Dickerson) who got a trial whistle last year, and one guy (Badawi) who hasn't touched regular season MLS at all. The "full PRO fourth officials" are already part of the PRO roster; Tier 1 is the first step below that.
I would add Michael Radchuk. He had an MLS team v. USL Pro team. As well as you mentioned below Dickerson, he had two MLS teams. But he has had his first MLS regular season debut...
Fair point. And he had the Anderson brothers on the line. To be more complete, Mark Allatin and Elvis Osmanovic are both in the PRO groups and both have had whistles. Also, the mid-January combine in Orlando had the following referees (all ARs were local)--you'll note there's some overlap with a few preseason referees: Christina Unkel Victor Rivas David Barrie Guido Gonzales Jr. Jorge Ramirez Yusri Rudolf Bilinski has had two whistles in February that involved at least one MLS team--one with local ARs and one with PRO ARs--so who knows? Entirely plausible he's in one of the PRO groups now but almost certain he hasn't jumped toward the front of the queue.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems the only way to get on PRO’s radar is to do DA games and showcases. Is this true?
Or to be the top FIFA referee in another country and willing to move to the USA. I kid (well, I don't--but that's beside the point). In the US, DA Playoffs are going to be an important place to be ID'd and tested. So going to Summer Showcase a few times and doing well matters. That seems like the most direct path. There are certainly some other more indirect paths, but they all involve a decent rise up the USSF ladder, which inherently now seems to require DA. You might get lucky getting noticed at Dallas or by doing some USSF-assigned USL matches and doing them well. Or maybe the right person is at the right place at the right time at a national amateur event. But to get to any of those three spots, you almost certainly have gone through a few DA showcases in the first place. So, to answer your question, yes. But the showcases are what matter for identification, not DA games back home (unless you have high-level USSF and/or PRO people in your immediate neighborhood, tracking and observing those games).
No. There are other ways but like MASS said you need to either a) go to a PRO ID event (which most now are invite only thru US Soccer) b) or have a PRO assessor in your backwoods that can vouch for you; and get pushed that way. Either way tho they are looking for DA showcases as checkmarks in a box to get into the development group.
Time for me to eat a little crow... I was just shown an updated list that got sent around to assessors recently. That list has 34 referees total (instead of the 47 total in the July 2017 list, which was then broken down into 7-6-34). All thirteen referees from the first two Tiers are still on this new list. Seventeen names have been dropped while four have been added. Bilinski is--no surprise after this discussion--one of those four names added. It's unclear if the three tiers have been scrapped. I can't imagine why they would be so quickly. My gut says this is a consolidated list sent to assessors for convenience, and that the three-tier structure is still in place since it just got adopted over the summer (worth noting that different tiers had different expectations, standards and requirements). But stranger things have happened. Bottom line is that I was wrong and Bilinski is formally on the PRO radar. EDIT: math corrected in second paragraph; one list is alphabetical and the other isn't, so I missed a few names when cross-referencing
Probably also worth nothing, since they both did MLS VARs, that Henrik Karlsson and Jorge Ramirez are both not on the new list, despite being on the July 2017 list. Not sure what that means, but it's probably something either really good or really bad for them. I'd lean toward the former direction. EDIT to add that Yusri Rudolf, of Canada, was on the July list but not the recent list, too. And he was clearly on the ascendancy so makes me think that these three guys are now in some sort of separate category (or the new list just has some mistakes in it).
Closing the loop on this, both Ramirez and Rudolf are now PRO VARs, which might explain why they are no longer listed in the developmental tiers (though a few new MLS VARs are listed in the development tiers, so at the very least it just shows they are still around and have been promoted). That really only leaves Henrik Karlsson as the big missing name. Not on the PRO website as a 4O or VAR and not in the list of PRO development referees I have seen. Anyone have intel on his status?
In JJ's case, I don't believe he's been in FL for very long and that has increased his "seen-ness", which is why he probably was not on last year's list. They may simply be reducing the list because they have been pushing states to have similar tier-like/mentor programs (some seem to be better at it than others, of course), which doesn't seem to be helping funnel people up any quicker, but hopefully that will change soon.