Given that Honduras and El Salvador aren't in this window, I'm really hoping for Said Martinez for the Jamaica game and Ivan Barton for the Costa Rica game. Let anyone else have Escobar.
Given that the US-Jamaica match is in four days, and the other appointments were announced over a week ago, any reason why no announcement has been made yet?
I honestly have no idea why that's the case. I play the Fantasy assigning game, but I know people like MassRef are a lot more in tune with this stuff than I am. I'm kind of like the fantasy football player who looks at the stats from last Sunday's games and makes his fantasy lineups about 20 minutes before the deadline. (Translated - I probably pull stuff out of my backside a lot more than others on here!! )
Aha....didn't realize the info that is already out there is from leaks rather than official announcements....thanks for the clarification.
Has Radix ever done a USMNT match? I am generally nervous with any CONCACAF referee that isn't a top Liga MX referee or Ivan Barton (Said Martinez may have joined that list after his Gold Cup final performance), but I get REALLY nervous with Caribbean referees.
I checked quickly and Radix has never been a center for a USMNT or club team before. He has been a 4O for several USMNT games.
Radix has been sitting there as the "next big thing" from a small Caribbean island, seemingly ready to break through into the regular rotation. Before him, it was Ward with St. Kitts & Nevis. Before that, it was Skeete in Barbados. Neither really panned out. It's not shocking he gets an Octagonal match and if he's going to get one of any consequence, a home US one against Jamaica is about as safe as you can go, right?
I like Radix. Contrary to Parchement from CFU, I think he is quite a talented referee. However, CONCACAF rejected his performance in the Gold Cup preliminary stage (there was the incredibly clear penalty not given, no intervention, we spoke about it here) and he remained on that one game for the competition.
I know VAR isn't in play, but pretend it is for a moment. If they review that for a potential DOGSO, can they also review to see if the play was offside in the first place? Because it was close enough that I wonder if that was the case.
The only reason that wasn't a red is that the match was less than 30 seconds in. I can't recall a bigger, more obvious miss.