I didn't watch every minute, but for a WCQ with zero cards and 35 fouls it felt like he did a decent job. OTOH, it looks like he didn't have five or six KMIs like Mr. Roldan did in Ecuador.
Grading on a curve it was fine. Not grading on a curve, it wasn’t great. 30’ was an easy yellow and there were two late easy yellows against El Salvador that he seemed to just not want to give. And Weah got hit at 31’ and Zardes had a bad foul that both got missed. For actually calling 35 fouls… that’s a lot of misses.
CRC-PAN is rife with tension. Elfath and company are going to need a good game to keep a kid on things. Big assignment for them.
Saghafi wearing a headset that makes him look like he’s taking orders at the Culver’s drive up in the 4O role…..
Saghafi is like tethered to a pole and using an old school radio broadcaster’s headset as fourth official.
The difference between Elfath working CRC-PAN and Lopez working USA-SLV is striking. One in full control and keeping a charged game under wraps while the other called every little touch like he was worried the match would explode at any second. I know MLS and PRO get ripped a lot, but it’s so obvious to see the gulf in quality between them (as well as the Liga MX guys) and those who don’t work regularly in decent professional leagues.
It was the very old school walkie talkie for communication with the VAR in JAMvMEX I see studs hitting the ankle. over I do to, though, I think the defender came in way late,over. We have a chance to award the first VAR send off in CONCACAF WCQ history. Over Okay, might as well, red card it is, over and out.
We know Elfath is generally liked by FIFA but I'm betting having good performances when Rizzoli is focusing on him won't hurt when it comes to Collina getting feedback.
It might be selfish to ask it, but something I would like to see on this forum within these sub-forums (Premier League, CONCACAF, etc.) is that people who watch the random type of games like CRC-PAN could make a nice list of the minutes of important or interesting referee decisions that occur.
I genuinely don’t think it matters. Elfath might be the only actual lock for Qatar from CONCACAF at this very moment.
Sorry-I was watching more as a fan and someone with a vested interest from a USMNT perspective than really analyzing Elfath and team in detail. All told, nothing big or controversial. A couple of tight offside calls against Panama, but neither took a ball out of the net. Elfath missed one foul against Suarez (in my opinion) when it looked like Suarez tripped himself near the Panama penalty area about 30 minutes in. But the fact that this game, with a lot riding on it, really had no flash points or big controversy is a big credit to the crew. They controlled things very, very well.
I just watched this at full speed on DVR. It’s one of those rare situations that actually looks worse sped up versus slowed down. You can appreciate how much force the Jamaican came in with. The result was definitely a possible consequence of the nature of the challenge. That said, while I’d get behind red called live I am still not sure I can get to clear and obvious red. I also find it humorous the referee was 5 yards away and called nothing.
So after seeing Saghafi and now watching how the OFR in Jamaica went down… were VARs only linked up to the fourth officials?
Regarding one of those “two late easy yellows”, I’d swear I saw the AR tap his badge after signaling one of those tactical fouls. If that’s what I think it was, the center didn’t agree.
I saw the same thing. I'm trying to remember the specific play, but it was right in front of the AR and I thought he was tapping his badge as well. And I thought the AR was right. 35 fouls and zero cards is not a good look. At some point, the foul count is high enough where some sort of persistence card needs to come out. I thought it was another instance of Lopez refereeing scared. He just kept blowing his whistle to slow the game down hoping it wouldn't boil over. Like I said earlier, comparing Lopez and Elfath last night should be an advanced training seminar to show how to referee with confidence compared to without it.
CAN-PAN had a VAR review for a possible red that seemed to occur normally (like ref was notified over the headset) and there were a few other situations where the CR held up play for a review like I would see in Europe. So possibly just a situation in that one stadium?
Which match? Canada v Panama didn’t happen! Is this the Costa Rica one? If so, that’s where Saghafi was wired up as fourth. So if there was a check it all might have been relayed through the fourth. Even if it was a direct link, still means something was off/weird for the fourth. If you’re talking the Canada match with Honduras, that’s good to know.
We were at the US-SLV game last night and I agree with most everyone's assessment of the refereeing. It was all over the map and really inconsistent. One of those late fouls happened right in front of where we were sitting and it was the most obvious yellow card - the El Salvador player just flat out grabbed the US player after he got a step on him. The whole game had sort of an odd atmosphere - neither team really seemed to have a lot of desire to be there. The US was happy enough to get their one goal and get out of there with the 3 points, but otherwise, the whole game fell sort of flat.
Did it seem odd the USA/SLV referee would blow his whistle for the foul, then blow repeatedly after? I assume he was marking the free kick location, heading off any retaliation, stopping dissent ... felt like after every foul there were multiple whistle tweets. Hadn't seen that before.
There was at least 3 or 4 times when he would blow his whistle like a madman, running over to the two players like he was expecting a fight to break out. Pretty much all the time, the two players involved would get up, pat each other on the back and move on. I think the ref was expecting the worst all night.
It is an interesting contrast between the two Guatemalans (Escobar and Lopez). Escobar had a game in Canada earlier this year (CAN/MEX I think) where his whole approach seemed like "it's cold, so I'll relax if you relax, and let's just get through this together." He called a bunch of fouls but definitely exuded more of a "don't make me come over there" attitude. Then Lopez comes into a similar environment last night with a very different attitude--more of like "holy smokes, everything is on fire! Nobody do anything!" Both games (iirc) had like 30 fouls, but Lopez seemed amped up and whistle happy--tweet tweet tweet tweet--while Escobar seemed more detached and inclined to let the players "sort it out."