With all the discussion about the poor officiating by MLS refs in key games (I guess that means DCU's games, whats the word on Refs for DCU's games against Chelsea and in the Copa Sudamericana home game (and for that matter the away game in South America)?
I think USSF will supply ref's for the game on US soil. But as for the game in South America, I'd guess that the South American team's president's brother will be the ref, a dedicated supporter will be an AR (coincidently watching the DC United back line...both halves), the supporter's brother will be the other AR, and the fourth official will be a guy that nods his head a lot.
Use this website for ref assignments. They usually don't update until the day of the game, so you usually find out on BS who the ref is before the website. Valenzuela, Hall, Stott or Terry will probably do the Chel$ki game. The home Copa game will probably be a FIFA ref from COMNEMBOL, but not the country of the team we are playing. Thx, Jay!
Terry's no longer a FIFA referee (age), so the referee for your game against Chelsea will come from a pool of: Stott, Vaughn, Hall, Valenzuela, Kennedy, Prus, Salazar. With Valenzuela and Kennedy recently getting a couple of the marquee Real Madrid matches, and with Prus and Salazar being the least experienced FIFAs, I think that should narrow it down to Stott, Hall and Vaughn for you. Of course, you just had Vaughn in a league match, so it could even be down to just Hall or Stott. Then again, with it being a midweek match, and many of these refs having work commitments, I could be totally off and it could be one of the refs that I've eliminated. But it will be one of the 7 US FIFA referees. As for the Copa games, you'll get a South American referee for the match down there, but you might get a CONCACAF referee (one probably familiar from USMNT matches) for the home game.
And the producers and directors of games on Telemundo, Univision et. al. all shed a tear. Every time he reffed a (Mexico National Team) game he got more close-ups than many of the star players. Thx, Jay!
Stott is a teacher, so I'd put my money on him doing it as he'd be available for a mid-week game this time of year.
Actually he's a 7th grade Math teacher in a mostly Hispanic school system in Southern California. Reference: Soccer America article, April 4, 2005.
I bet he's not phased at all by any of the kids talking back to him. I wonder does he (instinctually) reach for his pocket when kids get out of line Math teacher, no wonder he always (seems to) favors the team that's behind, he likes even, round, equal numbers
If Pendergrast ref's this one, Rob and Tommy will have to have leg irons attached to several seats. We'll need an EMT stationed near by too.