MD6 assignment for Jamaica v Curacao will be fun. That could be an all-timer match depending on results from MD5 games. If Curacao beats Bermuda and gets 3 points, then it'll be fine. But if they win with a large goal difference and Jamaica draws 1-1 in Trinidad, then you've got a match for all the marbles even though both teams will be qualified to the next round. Neither will want to finish 2nd place in the group and rely on the playoff if they can qualify straight through. Could we see Barton on the Jamaica v. Curacao match?
Why is a 1-1 draw a prerequisite? You have four (and a half) big games for MD6 and five big referees left, right? Barton and Escobar cannot go in Group A. Calderon and Martinez cannot go in Group C. Fischer can go anywhere. The big games are: A Guatemala - Suriname A Panama - El Salvador B Jamaica - Curacao C Costa Rica - Honduras Trinidad & Tobago versus Bermuda in B is more of a throwaway. And Haiti-Nicaragua in C is either irrelevant if Haiti loses MD5 OR a likely Haiti win+qualification if they win MD5. So there are a number of permutations but it does seem like Barton either lands on the Jamaica match or the Costa Rica one. With Escobar getting the other. Calderon and Martinez would land in Group A and that would put Fischer in Haiti. So maybe it isn't that clean. I could see Fischer in Costa Rica and then Escobar in Haiti. There's also the chance that one of them doesn't work, too. Here's an interesting stat: Barton hasn't done a WCQ this round.
1-1 for Jamaica and 5-0 for Curacao would put them even on GF (11), GA (3), and GD (+8). Those results would give Curacao a 1-point advantage in the standings, but the point really doesn't matter cuz it'd be winners-take-all in this game. Both would have already advanced in that scenario with T&T eliminated by the draw, but Curacao would have a tiebreaker on head-to-head victory over Jamaica in the first game between them. This is projecting, but 5-0 Curacao over Bermuda isn't crazy and 1-1 Jamaica v T&T crazy either. Those results would make the Jamaica v. Curacao fixture crazy though. And it would call for the best referee assigned to it. I'd be watching that one on MD6.
Barton in Jamaica v Curaçao. Calderon, Martinez, Escobar and Fischer have matches, one is missing that I haven't been able to get information about yet.
MD6 Panama : El Salvador - MARTINEZ (HON) Costa Rica : Honduras - FISCHER (CAN) Guatemala : Suriname - CALDERON (CRC) Haiti : Nicaragua - ESCOBAR (GUA) Jamaica : Curacao - BARTON (SLV) Trinidad & Tobago : Bermudas - TORRES (PUR)
I'm rarely praising competition authorities of late, but give CONCACAF credit for doing what I said CAF should have (obviously) done. I just noticed MD5 and 6 are all aligned on Thursday and Tuesday, with simultaneous kickoffs for Tuesday. CONCACAF prioritized competition integrity over financial considerations (no televised matches Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday) which is something I absolutely did not expect to see. And that, in turn, lessens the pressure on Escobar and Calderon, who depending upon results could find themselves in pretty interesting situations relative to the best second-place team issue.
Penalty in Suriname, start at 2:05: So referee calls a handball in favor of Suriname, which at the moment the foul is whistled, El Salvador seems to think the foul would be in their favor (and the nearest opponent definitely thinks the foul call is initially against him). Suriname restarts quickly and it leads directly to the (stonewall) penalty. Which is also DOGSO, but no card was given. Just atrocious refereeing from Nation. He makes a dubious call (I don't see a punishable handball, though admittedly it's only one angle from distance), does so in a dramatic fashion without a clear indication of direction or a signal/mechanic consistent with the LOTG, and allows the quick restart leading to a penalty the other way. Oh, and he is still signalling handball while dynamic play goes in the other direction before he starts to sprint, thereby allowing himself to be in a bad position and almost(?) missing the easy penalty decision. He made his own bed here.
So Barton with the Group B decider, as expected. Suriname with an away win needed in Group A is the big one there, so that's Calderon. And Group C is now a mess. Haiti needs a win on neutral ground, which is Escobar. But Fischer has a do-or-die for both teams; Costa Rica needs a win (and more) and Honduras needs at least a draw, but probably more. Fischer is going to have his hands full. Neither team with nothing left to lose. For what it's worth, on paper Calderon is in a bad spot. Costa Rica can likely only get to best second-place by passing whoever finishes second in Group A. And the easiest path to that is Suriname losing an away match by a couple goals. If Calderon gives a penalty or red against Suriname, expect a lot of scrutiny there.
Meanwhile, for those of us who complain that referees shy away too much from reds in friendlies, there's this: https://streamain.com/en/9nIa9AuHu7LwNXA/watch Fernando Hernandez of Mexico is the referee.
Since Suriname has 3 better GD than Panama right now, wouldn’t the simplest scenario for Costa Rica to be in the lucky-loser spots be for Panama to lose? Any Panama loss, with Costa Rica and Haiti winning, would see Costa Rica in as a lucky loser if my math is correct. Right? Granted, you may say it’s more likely for Suriname to lose by 2+ on the road. Regardless, this is really, really bad assigning. I mean, there is a clear conflict of interest here. Calderon (as well as any referee whose country could’ve been in play for the lucky loser spots) should’ve been doing one of the MD5 games, and an American or Mexican here in their place. I almost want to say Concacaf should remove Calderon from this appointment. No fault of his own, of course, but how do you let something like this happen?
Yeah, that's where my mind is at. Suriname losing on the road feels more likely than Panama losing at home. Though, funnily enough, Panama has drawn both home matches thus far. And for that matter Suriname hasn't lost on the road either. How's this for a stat? Suriname's home win tonight is the only home win among all 10 group matches! One giant step forward with the synched calendars on Tuesday, but a pretty standard step with this sort of assignment. Just not a lot of visionary thinking, but yes it still seems easily avoidable by using the US and Mexican referees more heavily on MD6 as opposed to tonight. I mean, we literally said this a few days ago.
And I assume NOT reviewable since the attacking phase technically starts with the restart; not the foul itself? Or could the foul which created the restart be reviewed?
Not reviewable. Don't get me wrong, there could be a plausibly punishable handball here. I think even if such an incident could be reviewed, it might not be a phantom call. But it sure looks like he didn't deliberately control it and, if it did hit the arm, the more expected call is the push from behind, with the foul going the other way. But the merits of the decision aside, Nation's problem is how he makes it and all the mechanics and lack of awareness around it. I'm painting with a very broad brush, but in now (gulp) almost 30 years I feel like I've never seen a Caribbean referee who had good overall situational awareness. A few here and there could blow a whistle, get most of the calls right, and keep a lid on the less-heated CONCACAF ties. But beyond that? This sort of stuff just seems par for the course and time after time the "top" referee from the islands just gets exposed with basic deficiences. This was not hard.
Extra fascinating because I read this is the same referee who missed that really bad one in LigaMX like last week
So here's a question that applies to Nation and all the other refs from smaller countries.....how does the fact that they don't get to ref big domestic matches harm their development? I can't imagine that there is ANY match in the Jamacian domestic league that adequately prepares someone like Nation for contentious CONCACAF matches. Has there any been any thought, anywhere in the world, to trying to arrange for refs from smaller countries to ref domestic matches in larger countries as part of their development?
The both sarcastic and truthful answer is: What American or Mexican referee who has worked their entire career to become a professional and have their full-time job be to officiate in MLS/Liga Mx wants to give up a few assignments so Oshane Nation can fly over and try to get better in his 30s? The answer is basically no, it's not happening. There are some exchanges here and there, but now they are essentially at the very top level with elite guests referees (e.g., Barton going to Asia... Irmatov and Geiger swapped CONCACAF and AFC a decade ago... UEFA and CONMEBOL have a standing exchange but it's at the World Cup level or just below). You also have some cases that don't really apply to what you're asking, but are sort of in the realm (Saudi/Kuwait using international referees... New Zealand refs in Australia [though this isn't much different from Canadians in MLS]... Dutch and Belgians have historically done some crossover... Greece needing a referee bailout every few years or months). But very small countries sending their guys to top professional leagues? No. Forget the referees. What top league is going to tell its clubs "we're flying this guy in who isn't good enough to really hack it internationally so he can try to get better?" What interest does a league have in facilitating that? I get the perspective from which you're asking the question. But any stakeholder who could help solve this "problem" would only be making a million problems for themselves. And they have zero interest in solving the problem. It's not their problem. Which means the answer is no.
I think there is a potential solution here but will state up front it's very unlikely to happen. It would be one of the more productive uses of development funds for FIFA to compensate both leagues and referees in nations with more competitive professional leagues for allowing it. Say, paying the salaries/expenses of the visiting referees, compensation for missed match fees for existing league officials and "development" funding for a league which allows them to be less angry at the presumably sub-standard officials that are brought in? Of course, this requires decision makers to be bothered enough to give up some proportion of their funding. This seems like a remote possibility but FIFA has the money to make it work for everyone involved, if they wanted to do so.
Honestly I think the more likely solution (to the extent that I’m surprised this hasn’t ever happened before) is for multi-national leagues to form. Like, it would make so much sense for there to be a Caribbean Super League that pools the teams and referees from every Caribbean nation and puts them into one pyramid. Same thing could be done in Central America. Surprisingly, Oceania is the first place to try something like this, with the new OFC professional league forming. From a referee perspective, this could give real “domestic” opportunities to referees from small nations, to be consistently officiating in a fairly decent “domestic” league instead of being stuck in the St. Kitts and Nevis domestic league between CONCACAF appointments.
But why not do that with players? Or coaches (which, come to think of it, might actually be done to some extent and probably would be the best investment of the three options anyway)?
Well, I was looking at this specific issue from the perspective of referees only which probably is the simplest in terms of the number of persons involved. Also, there is much more open movement of players and coaches already. It's not unlimited but there are mechanisms for scouting and moving players from lower leagues to higher leagues, regardless of the national associations. All professional clubs have an interest in putting the best product on the field whatever the source. There are still salary cap and transfer restrictions but there are far less than what are seen with referees where it's essentially nonexistent. I was thinking of a way to get around what seems to be a significant stumbling block in development, but like I said, I don't think this will happen.
Having been to Dallas Cup several times, there's always a CONCACAF group of officials there reffing the big games like Super Group and U19s. And they tend to get the semis and championship games too. These groups have higher national refs from the USA and current FIFAs from Central America or the islands. I know the Dominican female ref and the Puerto Rican female ref were there this year and one was at the U17 WWC recently. Kwinsi Williams was at Dallas Cup recently too but I can't remember what year. They weren't out of their depth, but they hadn't seen the quality of play that high ever.
I haven’t been to that event myself, but hearing from other referees who have, their impression of some of the FIFAs that attended (not just the Caribbean ones - from non-minnow European countries too) was that it must be a lot easier to get a FIFA badge in other places than it was in the US because some of them were out of their depth.
Not sure if this is the right thread to post this in, since it was a CONCACAF-CONMEBOL friendly, but the Guatemalan ref in the US-Paraguay friendly had one of the worst matches by a CONCACAF official I've seen in a long time. Utterly inconsistent with his foul recognition, unclear with his cards, all leading to a mass confrontation in second half injury time in which he doesn't even bother to card the instigator, who committed by yellow (delaying the restart) and red (putting the US player in a headlock) card offenses.