General Discussion - ALL ASSIGNMENTS

Yeah. I just saw a confirmation... I didn't want to say it and turn out wrong.

Glad for Geiger and Fletcher.

 

VAR assignments:

https://t.co/aje9D2yQ92

3/4:

VAR: Geiger (USA)
AVAR: Dankert (GER)
AVAR2: Fletcher (CAN)
AVAR3: Valeri (ITA)

Final:

VAR: Irrati (ITA)
AVAR: Vigliano (ARG)
AVAR2: Asroza (CHI)
AVAR3: Makkelie (NED)

 

So much paperwork though! Let the next ref deal with it

 

Agree on that and it will be 24 years since a referee from outside UEFA or CONMEBOL has gotten the World Cup Final so it means that one of the other confederations is due to have their turn.

I, personally, don't think Faghani is that good and I feel like he has run into same type of luck that Irmatov has run into in his World Cup career.

Don't get me wrong, he's much better than Irmatov. He actually has some authority and management skills that Irmatov sorely lacks.

But I thought he kind of lucky this World Cup. The ending of the Argentina vs. France match was really ugly and if someone got hurt, it could have been disastrous.

But his lackadaisical style could really blow in his face like it did with Irmatov this World Cup. I think we can all agree that Irmatov was probably the worst referee this World Cup. Aguilar was probably second judging he only got one game and it wasn't his first World Cup.

But agree with you that there will be a lot of new faces in Qatar. Euro 2020 will decide who the front runners are from UEFA.

 

Why the negative comments about Faghani? He has had a great tournament. Not flawless, but rather perfect And by that I mean: his few mistakes were more than a case of no harm, no foul. They actually helped with the management of those games. And I have rarely heard of a referee record the speed that Faghani recorded trotting back to be where he needed to be on Mexico's quick counters!

I was also quite impressed with Pitana for his game management, which was Faghani's strong suit as well. Since unlike Faghani, Pitana didn't come from a lesser confederation, and had the physique to match his demeanor to boot, he didn't need to do what Faghani did with Kroos to let the previous World champions (who were having a tough game against Mexico) know who is in charge. And, like Faghani, who is wrongly criticized for not showing red cards and adding fuel to a potential fire that could get out of hand in the dying minutes of a match whose outcome was clear, Pitana also showed good discretion in the France-Uruguay game.

Overall, I thought Pitana did an excellent job managing a potentially troublesome match between Uruguay and France. I say that despite the fact that I was actually shocked that he was assigned that match in the first place. I would have never expected a South American referee to officiate a match between a UEFA side and another South American team at that stage, much less if that South American referee was from the same country (Argentina) which had been eliminated by the UEFA side (France) that he was to officiate. But he did the job well enough that none of that seemed to have had any effect or import on his decisions.

Anyway, while I was rooting for Faghani, I have to admit that if Faghani wasn't going to get the call, my preference would have been Pitana. And since Faghani didn't get the final, I am glad he at least got the 3rd place match. In a way, the 3rd place match is perfectly suited to reward the best referees from the lesser confederations. And Faghani was clearly the best among them if not the best among all at the World Cup.

 

C'mon ref!!! Let the players play the game!!! Its not about you!!!!

 

I really think what Geiger achieved should really be applauded and not just because he is a United States referee.

It's quite hard to go to one World Cup, much less two no matter what country you're from. It's even harder to do well enough to receive a knockout appointment.

Two knockout centers is quite an achievement. There are some very famous referees that went two World Cups and didn't get a knockout appointment in two World Cups.

The likes of Merk, Busacca, Roberto Rosetti, Marco Rodriguez, Archundia, Graham Poll, Lubos Michel and Carlos Simon all went to multiple or two World Cups and didn't get a knockout game in more than one World Cup.

Let's not forget that Felix Brych (for me the best German referee since Merk) went to two World Cups and never even did one knockout game.

It's really tremendous achievement and hopefully Mark has given US Soccer referees enough credibility that we should have a referee at every World Cup from now on. We should be in the pool of nations from the Americas like Mexico, Argentina, and Brazil that there should be an American referee at the World Cup.

 

One last point on Geiger. As well as he did his appointment this World Cup reflect just how far away a US referee has, and really any referee outside of UEFA or CONMEBOL has to go to get the Final or one of the last three matches of the World Cup.

Geiger came into this World Cup with really about as good of a resume as you can have for a referee outside of UEFA or CONMEBOL. Previous World Cup KO experience. Had the Olympics, CONFED Cup, and U20 World Cup Final under his built plus other FIFA youth tournaments. He also had added bonus of being one of the more experienced officials with VAR.

Yet he essentially ended up with the same assignments as Ramos of Mexico. I'm kind of disappointed in that.

Ramos got Switzerland vs. Brazil and Poland vs. Colombia in the group stage.

Geiger got Morocco vs. Portugal and Germany vs. South Korea. In terms of prestige and importance of assignments, it's either a wash or slight edge to Geiger.

Both ended up with a round of 16 match involving a power house European team and a South American team. Again, another wash there or, for me, slight edge to Ramos. Defending European champions and Cristiano Ronaldo vs. Suarez and Cavani.

Ramos ended up with a 4th on the semi-final and Geiger got a VAR on the 3rd place game. Make of that as to what you will in terms of what's better.

So far all he Mark did and all the work he put in the years prior he and Ramos were on the same level, essentially, as on field officials. Who knows. Maybe if the Colombia vs. England match wasn't so challenging and was a much quieter match, he might have gotten another match, but we'll never know there.

Ramos came into this World Cup with much less of a resume and, I think performed worse, than Geiger and yet he ended up with the same assignments.

It really tells me, at least, how far the referees from the non-established nations have to go to really make an impact on the latter stages of the World Cup.

List of countries that the final three matches of the World Cup since 1998. The last country listed is the country that the referee was from for Final.

1998: Spain, Paraguay, Morocco
2002: Switzerland, Denmark, Italy
2006: Mexico, Uruguay, Argentina
2010: Hungary, Uzbekistan, England
2014: Turkey, Mexico, Italy
2018: Uruguay, Turkey, Argentina

It's really a closed shop for anyone outside of UEFA and CONMEBOL. 18 matches. 9 went to UEFA, 5 went to CONMEBOL, 2 went to Mexico, 1 to CAF and 1 to AFC.

Really curious as to what Irmatov would knockout match Irmatov would have gotten if he didn't screw up his two group matches so poorly.

 

Can anybody think of any reason not to relax the referees' mandatory retirement ages for VAR ? It's not like they need to run...

I think it would be a neat reward to extend the careers of guys who might still want to stick around.Plus, of course, you get the benefit of their experience.

 

That's true and a great point about the 48 team World Cup. Will be fascinating as to what FIFA will do there. Will they bring in multiple referees from the same country? To my knowledge only the US and Mexico have had two referees do a middle in the same World Cup. Will they bring in more than one Italian, Englishman, Spaniard, Brazilian to referee? You have to think they will or will they spread the wealth and in bring in more countries to referee like they have with the teams.

Also, to my knowledge, the host nation has had their referee do at least one match in every World Cup. Karasev got one game this World Cup. It looks like Qatar will have someone do one game in 2022.

Mexico and the US will obviously have a referee in 2026. Really interested as if Canada will have someone? It doesn't seem like Canada will have someone join the whistle ranks in PRO anytime soon. 8 years is a long time, but if they don't have anyone doing regular middles in PRO, what will FIFA do?

With an expanded World Cup you will have a team like New Zealand or Tahiti there and some lesser nations like an El Salvador or someone from Asia that didn't make the cut. So you could put a Canadian who really doesn't do first division professional soccer on a match like Spain vs. New Zealand or Tahiiti that ends up like 10-0.

 

They do fly some guys around. Also, they can't travel to the game with the crew and are dressed civilian rather than similar to the refs.

 

Much has been discussed about why a particular referee has or hasn't got matches and I quite enjoyed reading about the fantasy referee guessing game but one aspect hasn't been discussed at all. The rest of the crew. Is it possible that a specific referee went further because he had a solid crew? Or vice-versa? I didn't get to see as many matches as I would like and many times I had to content to watching the highlights. Sure I've seen some of the incidents about some referees discussed here But what about the ARs?? Is it possible that Lahoz didn't get further because his crew just sucked? Or Kuipers not getting the whistle on the final rounds and getting stuck with two 4th official assignments?

What about fitness and injuries? Did we hear about any referee getting injured or not showing a good fitness level? Any good referees with bad ARS?

 

Video Replay Controller, no?

That's the tech person though, if I'm not mistaken.