General Assignments Discussion

A French referee is an interesting choice there.

 

But in all seriousness, that means Letexier was likely slotted last or near last sequentially for the UEFA referees and wasn’t likely to have an MD1 affair. Otherwise there are other options, most of all Taylor.

 

I don’t think there’s a ton of examples of francophone referees with francophone teams. It’s obviously not a big deal. But it can be easily avoided in a way that Spanish really can’t.

 

And Mexico v Korea Rep. could be Taylor. I’d expect a bigger European name. So either him or whomever doesn’t get England v Croatia between Marciniak and Turpin.

I wonder who gets Kovacs?

 

I'll stick with Turpin now that Marciniak is assigned, but I can certainly see that.

 

Austria : Jordan - BEIDA (MTN)
Argentina : Algeria - MARCINIAK (ARG)
Iraq : Norway - ATCHO (GAB)
France : Senegal - FAGHANI (AUS)

Marciniak just continuing the Argentina streak, I guess.

Faghani lands in the predictable spot.

I'm having real trouble trying to discern the CAF perceived rankings based off match assignment. With third place mattering, it's really hard to tell, but Iraq-Norway feels like the more consequential game to me, personally, than Austria-Jordan. I think the second assignment for each CAF referee will be one of the more interesting things to watch.

 

Technically I said I'd prefer Barton! But I got what I expected.

 

Uzbekistan : Colombia - TAYLOR (ENG)
Ghana : Panama - NYBERG (SWE)
England : Croatia - TURPIN (FRA)
Portugal : DR Congo - AL JASSIM (QAT)

Three of those assignments were close to very predictable (for once I was right over @Mikael_Referee with Group L!)

Al-Jassim, though, man. Everyone has to land somewhere but if that match is close in scoreline, lookout. I think there's a chance for problems there. Given who hasn't worked, kind of surprised to not see Barton there.

 

I was thinking that about Turkey-Paraguay. Too quick of a turnaround for Faghani. And Ramos, if he were a candidate. Would Barton land there?

Looking ahead, USA-Turkey always had the potential to be big. But it won't much for it to be really big now, from a number of perspectives or permutations. I could see one of the Brazilians landing there.

Zwayer, Oliver, Kovacs, Pinheiro and Eskas remain for UEFA referees. The next five "available" UEFA matches are;

Mexico : South Korea
Switzerland : Bosnia-Herzegovina
Canada : Qatar
Brazil : Haiti
United States : Australia

If they are all filled with UEFA referees (and Oliver is available), I would think Oliver on the Mexico match, Kovacs with Brazil, Zwayer on the US, Eskas for Switzerland and Pinheiro for Canada. But it could very easily be a situation where there doesn't have to be a UEFA referee on each of those matches.

And for the Penso question... is Czechia : South Africa possible? If not, she might be waiting until the back half of MD2, which wouldn't be ideal.

 

Also, Elfath cant work the group, anyway.

And I do follow what you mean for the MD3 host games. If neutrality holds, given Ramos/Elfath are out and Faghani surely won't do the US, the options are pretty limited. In fact, Faghani probably fits well on Mexico-Czechia. I think you're looking at CONMEBOL for the two other matches in question.

I've asked about Penso a lot but just realized I haven't contemplated where Fischer lands. In some ways, they are probably competing or in the discussion for similar matches, so will be very interesting to compare their outcomes.

 

Don’t think so. We have plenty of referees that haven’t had one yet. Plenty.

If she doesn’t get Czechia- South Africa, though, she probably is on the backend of MD2, which then does make MD3 assignments a little tougher.

That said, a plan could be to do one match and a R32 if it goes well. No reason that wouldn’t be in discussion.

 

Czechia : South Africa - PENSO (USA)
Mexico : Korea Republic - TEJERA (URU)
Canada : Qatar - GARAY (CHI)
Switzerland : Bosnia-Herzegovina - PINHEIRO (POR)

So Penso slots in on a good match, first half of MD2. Great signal for her and intended use. Czechs are favorites, but it is essentially an elimination match and one of those situations you'll have a lot this tournament where both teams could want to desperately avoid a draw.

No European on the Mexico match might mean Oliver is not yet recovered? Don't want to read too far into it, but he (or another European) would fit there perfectly. I could say something similar about the Canada match but I suppose that one feels less in need of a bigger name.

 

Interesting/disappointing on the Al-Shehri question, I'd say.