was there as well and agree with this assessment. It just wasn’t that intense. The Mexico game was crackling with energy for 90 minutes - this seemed pretty dull the only person that seemed fired up was the referee, who would sprint to a lot of marginal fouls in midfield like Roy Keane and Allan Shearer were squaring up Pulisic and McKennie seemed pretty frustrated as they wanted to play through in midfield but kept getting the call, which they clearly did not want the only real gamesmanship I saw was time wasting - ES started around 20 minutes in and the US picked up hard after the goal (Turner is definitely ready for the EPL - he wasted at least 90 seconds on a goal kick) he and at least one ES player should have been cautioned but eh, it worked out Tactical fouls not cautioned at all but again, eh. It worked out and nobody seemed to care one of the less bad concacaf refereeing performances I’ve seen in a while
One of the many reasons why I felt like Lopez was refereeing scared. I get it's CONCACAF and things can go sideways at any moment, but he was anticipating a storm and it never came. He refereed like it was his first time working a MBB amateur match and he had no idea what was coming. I'm actually surprised his hyperactivity didn't result in a more tense affair.
I feel a little better about the red and intervention once I saw that side angle at around 2:05. Although I'm pretty sure it's a no intervention at the World Cup.
MD11 definitely brings out a few of the CONCACAF "big-ish" guns. Not surprisingly for me, Barton is on MEX-PAN. Depending on tomorrow's events, that game could effectively be do or die for Panama. It is interesting to see Marrufo not on the JAM-CRC game (hope it's not Covid-related), but having a Liga MX referee on that match makes a lot of sense. I would imagine no one has a major issue with it, but still a little interesting having Villareal on a Canada match given past practice of not having a referee from a country who played that country before in the window AND Villareal being a MLS referee.
Both MD10 and 11 for Mexico will be interesting. They are behind closed doors due to FIFA imposed sanctions. Let’s see how they impact the calls or if they do.
I’m reliably told Marrufo is nursing an injury. He has refused or turned back a preseason game recently. Anyone have the 12 VAR pairs for these matches? I know we know the 6 FMF announced ones. And Chapman sent down the SFP red in Jamaica. Kind of wondering if Marrufo’s VAR duo will stay in place or if we will now end up with 7 Mexican pairs.
I hadn’t noticed that they were keeping referees off games if the referee’s nation played the team at all in the window. I only noticed the “you can’t work them if your nation plays them next” rule (even if it was in the next window). If you’re right—and I don’t doubt you are—the restrictions in place have been pretty amazing. It makes the fact that VARs are now put in the position they are all the more ridiculous, though. And it also makes MD12-14 so very tough.
So on the VAR front, we have... United States : El Salvador - ESCOBEDO (MEX) Jamaica : Mexico - CHAPMAN (USA) Costa Rica : Panama - FISCHER (CAN) Canada : United States - HERNANDEZ (MEX) Panama : Jamaica - GALVAN (MEX) Honduras : El Salvador - MONROY (MEX) Mexico : Costa Rica - JURISEVIC (USA) Jamaica : Costa Rica - ESCOBEDO (MEX) United States : Honduras - MIRANDA (MEX) Anyone know who was on Honduras - Canada? Seems like it was probably Ford, if it was an American as you would expect. Got to assume American VAR with Villarreal in the MD11 Canada match. That just then leaves the assignment that transferred from Marrufo to Ortiz. On paper, you would assume Penso is either with Villarreal or was slated to be with Marrufo.
49’ was a foul and probably a card. Replay didn’t really confirm or refute my suspicion that it was pretty bad.
By my count, I’m at 7 minutes of stoppage time at the 75 minute mark. So plan on four minutes at most.