Let's do a catch-all thread for all Olympics matches--men and women. Any controversial incidents or games can spawn off into other threads, but the appointments and most of the standard comments and analysis can go here. Reminder of the referees there: MEN IRMATOV (UZB) NISHIMURA (JPN) WILLIAMS (AUS) GASSAMA (GAM) JEDIDI (TUN) GARCIA (MEX) GEIGER (USA) OROSCO (BOL) ROLDAN (COL) SOTO (VEN) O'LEARY (NZL) BRYCH (GER) CLATTENBURG (ENG) KRALOVEC (CZE) MOEN (NOR) ROCCHI (ITA) WOMEN NEGUEL (CMR) HONG (KOR) YAMAGISHI (JPN) HEIKKINEN (FIN) MITSI (GRE) PALMQVIST (SWE) PEDERSEN (NOR) STEINHAUS (GER) ALVARADO (MEX) CHENARD (CAN) SEITZ (USA) DI IORIO (ARG) There are six women's matches on the first day, so there's really not the traditional "opener" that there is at other tournaments, though "Match #1," the Great Britain v New Zealand encounter, does kickoff one hour earlier than the rest. With the US not in that group, and a non-UEFA referee needed, it does look like a nice match for Seitz. Men are similar, with 8 eight matches at staggered kickoff times. The Great Britain men's match against Senegal is held until local primetime, though, so technically the first kickoff is Honduras v Morocco. Assignments should be public sometime tomorrow for the women and then Tuesday for the men.
Safe assumption for first round, yes. All 3 matchdays are literally a single day each, so you have to use 8 referees at a time. Come to think of it, with fourth officials, all 16 referees will be working simultaneously; if there were a major injury, an AR on a rest day would have to step in to act as fourth official. In 2008, some referees in the QFs then got a third game (Marrufo and Baldassi) while some were working their second game (Skomina and Moradi). The guys doing the SFs were then also doing their third matches. But, interestingly, the Bronze and Gold medal referees (Einwaller and Kassai) were only working their second matches, both having been held aside after the second group stage matchday. Not sure any of that can indicate a pattern to be followed, though.
I highly doubt FIFA would want an AR potentially in position to replace a referee. I suspect if there was an injury, FIFA would request a replacement from the FA, and you'd see someone like Marriner or Probert step in to do 4O roles.
I believe that at the U-20 Women's World Cup in 2010, a German "local" was called in to do a 4th due to injuries and other reasons and, through a combination of situations, actually ended up getting the center instead, so I think Englishref is correct about what would 'probably' happen.
MEN Matchday 1 Spain : Japan - GEIGER (USA) Mexico : Korea Republic - JEDIDI (TUN) Honduras : Morocco - KRALOVEC (CZE) UAE : Uruguay - O'LEARY (NZL) Gabon : Switzerland - ROLDAN (COL) Belarus : New Zealand - GASSAMA (GAM) Brazil : Egypt - ROCCHI (ITA) Great Britain : Senegal - IRMATOV (UZB) Irmatov gets what would certainly be classified as the big match. I'd argue Geiger and Rocchi get the next best appointments for this first matchday.
WOMEN Matchday 1 Great Britain : New Zealand - SEITZ (USA) Japan : Canada - HEIKKENEN (FIN) USA : France - YAMAGASHI (JPN) Cameron : Brazil - PALMQVIST (SWE) Sweden : South Africa - DI IORIO (ARG) Colombia : Korea DPR - CHENARD (CAN) Still two assignments to fill out. Seitz is not a fourth on the four announced matches, so the US crew appears available for the GBR-NZL match. EDIT: filling out the final two assignments
Might be worth mentioning the USA officials are keeping a blog for the tournament. It can be found at http://usaolympicreferees.blogspot.com/
Ah. At first I thought that you meant gold metal game. Good thing I thought about it for more than a second. . .
My clairvoyance does not extend that far. MrRC will attest to that, I'm sure. Should have said "of the day," though, you are right.
Assignments are going to be kind of easy to predict with FIFA's new policy of not allowing an official from the same confederation as one of the teams to officiate the match. Only exception is if both teams are from same confederation i.e. 2010 World Cup Final. Archundia would have gotten the Final if Uruguay beat the Netherlands. It's no surprise that Irmatov got the GB vs. Senegal game and that Geiger got Spain vs. Japan, only real candidates for those matches under new policy. It's why Geigerr got the U20 Final. It practically had to be him.
Nishimura could have easily gotten that opener. O'Leary would fit on either game. Garcia could have had Geiger's match (he's the 4th). And you could have slotted a South American into either match, though maybe FIFA would shy away from that for the first Spain game. And though the Africans are new faces, they were both options for the Spain v Japan game. Irmatov and Geiger aren't surprising assignments, considering they've both done FIFA-level finals. But by no means were they the "only real candidates."
I will note that this is the second Olympics in which Kari, Marlene and Veronica have the very first game, which is the first actual competition of the entire Olympics, not just soccer.
Certainly some talking points in the first half of USA-FRA. US second goal very nearly offside but it did appear that Wambach missed on her attempted header so the no-call there was correct. The tackle on Morgan certainly looked like a foul to me. While the French defender did play the ball she also scissored Morgan down at the same time. But the referee didn't seem like she was going to call much of anything, especially at the beginning of the game when several trips could and most likely should have been called. But I guess it is par for the course for these tournaments.
Any thoughts on the Alex Morgan takedown around minute 40-42 in the box? Looked like it could have gone either way to me. Also - isn't it odd to have a Japanese ref for the US-FRA game after two of these teams are potentially Japan's biggest rivals?
Close, but I think she got enough of the ball....50/50 for me. For a non-referee related plea, can someone please explain to the announcer the difference between a breakaway and a counter-attack?
As I say at any game I attend—usually to people that are edging away from me—the referee crew is the one bunch of people at the field with no interest in who actually wins the game. Well, except for that RFK parking attendant directing traffic while wearing his Dallas Cowboys jersey.
Well, he's a classy parking attendant! I hear what you're saying about objectivity, but say an American called off an apparent PK for Japan - wouldn't that possibly appear to be retribution in the eyes of the foil-capped conspiracy theorists? Why bother creating any risk of untoward controversy? Calls are tough enough as it is without adding any intrigue from assignments.
That's quite the prestigious appointment for Geiger. He get's the opening match in the Men's Olympic Soccer Tournament.
Interesting predicament for FIFA in the next round of women's appointments. Presumably they'll continue the "you can't referee a country from your confederation" policy. That means the 3 Europeans left should do the 3 games not involving European sides. That leaves Hong (KOR), Alvarado (MEX), and Neguel (CMR). The predicament lies with Hong. In theory, she has to do the GBR match given the other two feature Japan and North Korea. However, she spent a couple of years in England doing a PhD, was affiliated to The FA and even refereed the FA Cup Final while here. Does that preclude her from doing GBR, and if so, I assume she'll have to wait until matchday 3 to get her first game.
I would say that the 'different confederations' rule is first and foremost. It's a political thing. Hong has a perhaps unique background that may bring other factors into play but I don't see the different confederations rule being ignored for her. Four years ago, the Americans only got two games, the first game and a quarter-final, so this isn't a 'ref till you drop' type environment in the first place. FYI, the assignments have already been done for the prelim round games, but the referees and the public don't know them yet. That way, they can be changed in case of injury or major screw up.
It would appear Chenard was faced with some unexpected difficulties prior to kickoff today: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/ol...omen-footballers-protest-over-flag-gaffe.html Surely it took IOC officials to sort this out, but I wonder if Chenard will blog about it at all or she's been advised not to comment publicly.