Concacaf Olympic Qualifying Referee Discussion

This tournament is entirely in the US in a tournament location that I believe has regular MLS games.

Why couldn't they use the existing set up with MLS officials handling the off field VAR? It's the MLS off-season.

I thought the object was to minimize mistakes, not make things cheaper for CONCACAF, or to only use female VAR referees...?

 

Because it's called the "CONCACAF Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament" not the "MLS/PRO Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament" and thus require female officials that is representative of all of CONCACAF not MLS.

Right or wrong that is the way international soccer tournaments have had referees assigned since the beginning.

 

Is there actually a written requirement that the the officials be all female?

I know that's been the way they have tried to do it for Women's games, but I wonder if it is codified anywhere?

I would further wonder if this is the requirement for VAR officials since CONCACAF doesn't even have them yet...

 

Oh god! I haven't enough thought of the Gold Cup with VAR! Combination of amateur/semi-professional teams from the Caribbean along with Central American teams with an inherent national and sporting inferiority complex towards the US and Mexico who treat the Gold Cup matches like World Cup Finals and look the other way officiating from the likes of Aguilar and Co. and you have a recipe for a train wreck.

No matter what bar you set for "clear and obvious" the officiating on the field will be so random and bizarre along with the play as well that it will be impossible to have any standard consistency on application.

 

I'm pretty sure that NWSL doesn't even have VAR yet.

There are probably very few officials in CONCACAF, outside of the ones from the US, that have any experience or training.

 

There were male officials who served as VAR in the Women's World Cup, so I guess it is technically possible.

 

Remember, here is the Concacaf standard for phantom goals

 

Good appointments - on the premise that Beaudoin / Chenard (has she recovered from breast cancer? She has my deepest best wishes for a full recovery) are not there, the two best referees in the confederation.

These are such big games!

 

In the most recent news I've seen, this CONCACAF piece says she underwent chemo and then had surgery last October, but she plans to be back on the field sometime this year.

 

Probably because they don't have permission from the IFAB. According to the IFAB's rules on this:

So even if there were the technology and some MLS VARs available, unless all the on-field officials (referees and ARs) have been fully trained in how to work within a VAR system, they would not get permission to use the system. As others have pointed out, it's unlikely that all the on-field match officials have had the required training.

 

I think it would be more accurate to say that CONCACAF was not interested in making the investment in training and equipment necessary to meet the requirements--and it would have been quite an investment. So far as I know, the WWC is the only women's competition that has used VAR, so to do VAR right, CONCACAF would have had to make the same training investment that FIFA made for the WWC--that is an awful lot to ask.

 

She was supposed to be center on the team Katy Nesbitt was on at the Women's World Cup in France. I went to a presentation Katy made in the fall and she said she was on the road to a full recovery.

 

Why Concacaf is not using Goal-Line Technology (GLT)?

 

$$$

 

VAR $$$, GLT $$$, everything is $$$; however, UEFA, CONMEBOL, AFC and even CAF are using technology. MLS/PRO are claiming they are among the leaders in using technology, so why Concacaf cannot join the other confederations? CAF does not have MLS's resources, but is already using VAR. FIFA has dedicated funds to support member associations through various programes (eg FIFA Forward).

 

Maybe - I was just basing it on an earlier post that said all the grounds being used for these games would already have VAR technology available because they're used for MLS games, and that they could use VARs from the MLS as they're on a break. I don't know how true those claims are but I was pointing out that even if true, the competition still wouldn't get IFAB approval if the match officials were not trained.

 

Did both games pass without any bigger trouble (if there are any interesting scenes then I can upload them as clips)?

 

Check stoppage time (92:30 or so) in 2nd half of Canada vs Costa Rica. Appeared to be an offside call from a goal kick, then ref realized error and gave a drop ball.

 

I thought there was a call in the US game where Lloyd was an offside position, the defender clearly played the ball to her, and when Lloyd retrieved it, she was called offside...

There were also a couple of really close shout outs for PK's, both given just outside the box. I'd love to see the opinions of the refs here on those, but someone more technological than I am would have to find the videos.

 

Final
United States - Canada

REF: Tatiana Guzmán Alguera (NCA)
AR1: Enedina Caudiilo Gómez (MEX)
AR2: Tonia Deane (BAR)
FO: Francia María González Martínez (MEX)

Expected if somewhat surprising appointment IMO - nice test for Guzmán in a partly synthetic game, big moment for her career.

 

But it sure would be entertaining, even if in a train wreck sort of way!!