Adonai Escobedo González
William Andrés Arrieta Barrantes - Micheal Barwegen
(MEX / CRC - CAN)
Iván Arcides Bartón Cisneros
David Jonathan Morán Santos - Zachari Jair Zeegelaar
(SLV / SLV - SUR)
Mario Alberto Escobar Toca
Humberto Noel Panjoj Chitay - Nicholas Linton Anderson
(GUA / GUA - JAM)
Support Referees:
Juan Gabriel Calderón Pérez (CRC)
Video Assistant Referees:
Quetzalli Alvarado Godínez (MEX)
Drew Fischer (CAN)
Armando Villarreal (USA)
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| Iván Arcides Bartón Cisneros during the coin toss of the Jamaica - United States game. Guatemalan performed excellently in that match, aged only twenty-eight. |
Adonai Escobedo González finds himself in this position having realised a year that saw him as the only Mexican to handle a knockout game at CONCACAF Gold Cup 2019 - the direct correlation between that and a ticket to Qatar 2022 admittedly being questionable at best - which nonetheless is quite remarkable considering there were a trio of candidates who were blatantly ahead of him. Indeed, he could stay in the background of the Panama - Trinidad and Tobago game before a more rigorous approach solved the Bermuda - Nicaragua match; sure, there they aren't games that started a war, as his compatriot Fernando Guerrero got, but a vote of confidence from Brian Hall nonetheless to designate him the Quarterfinal game, United States - Curaçao. More significant than being ahead of Guerrero (although one could argue if César Ramos Palazuelos was fit, Escobedo would not have been there) was being preferred to Marco Ortíz - who did not manage to show satisfying performances.
All talks of luck aside, it is pretty conceivable that Escobedo could be the last Mexican standing in the race to the next World Cup: Ramos' performances at the Asian Cup revealed he cannot handle challenging matches, Guerrero was equally disappointing and displayed ridiculous passivity at the U20 World Cup and Ortíz - despite getting a Champions League Semifinal this year - not any better at the Gold Cup. By virtue of being a referee actually on a WC level, if Escobedo can show good performances in Brazil - his strong physical condition should help that - he has quite good chances to handle matches in Qatar. Though I find the conception of his trio a bit odd, I was only used to seeing full Mexican trios. If not, at 32, Escobedo has much time to develop for the (partly) home World Cup four years later.
Maybe this prediction will not age well and indeed is pretty brazen, but at time of writing I am quite convinced of it: Iván Arcides Bartón Cisneros can, with the right constellation, handle a FIFA World Cup Final. I must be honest, I never heard of him before even some months ago (my research says he made his Champions League début this season) and he first aroused my intentions by not being Joel Aguilar Chicas when reading the list of match officials for the CONCACAF Gold Cup. While Aguilar was, on his good days, a pretty safe-pair-of-hands for United States - Mexico games and was unlucky not to get more at World Cup 2014, Bartón is a different case entirely.
I rarely saw such an elegant, naturally-talented referee as Iván Bartón - I was simply astonished to see that he is only twenty-eight years old! Salvadorian realised a very good CONCACAF Gold Cup: after showing two good performances in the group stage, his performance in the United States - Jamaica Semifinal was simply excellent - a pleasure to watch. Clearly, his skills were of much surprise to FIFA too - after having appointed him as a Support Referee for U20 World Cup in the late spring / early summer (de facto preparing him for World Cup 2026) - that they selected him for this U17 World Cup.
One must offer a cautionary tale though - at the end of the United States - Jamaica match, he was intuitively about to sort out a second caution, before remembering that the business-centric complex in large associations informed Massimo Busacca to tell Brian Hall to tell him to keep twenty-two players on the pitch. Such directives, with passing time especially, are very destructive to intrinsic motivation. It would be one of the great refereeing tragedies if they were to destroy perhaps the biggest talent ever to grace region.
If you watched any game during the CONCACAF Gold Cup 2019 it is likely that you watched the showpiece Final between Mexico and the United States. Hence, you would have seen Mario Alberto Escobar Toca handle that game, and also you would have seen no cards sorted out from first whistle to last. From a superficial distance it would seem the perfect dystopian microcosm of modern refereeing - that will likely always belong to the Brazil - Colombia game with Carlos Velasco Carballo, and besides two shocking scenes that stick out in my mind, it was fairly impressive that Escobar could get out of that game without a disaster.
At least, it is universally agreeable that getting that Final constituted a brilliant yield for the Guatemalan who came into the competition - like the other two CONCACAF referees at the U17 World Cup - as an unknown for those of us who can only keep a passing eye on other confederations. It indeed came as a surprise that he got a knockout game (Panama - Jamaica Quarterfinal), and from there the destination of the Final referee hinged on two decisions. Excellent call by Escobar to award a decisive penalty for Jamaica for handling, and John Pitti awarding Costa Rica a penalty for a foul that was outside the penalty area saw the Guatemalan supersede CONCACAF's first choice.
Handling not only any Mexico - United States game, but the Final of a Gold Cup without sorting out cards point very clearly points to his way of refereeing: match-manager. I am in sth of a quandary about that - his ability to pick out when to give warnings was very good, but his soft skills were only solid at best, at least he didn't find it easy to connect with players. If we call Bartón a natural talent, Escobar would be sth of a grinder, someone who managed to maximise their ability with a good amount of self-reflection and pragmatism. I see his compatriot Walter López Castellanos as a better referee (though perhaps not forgiving Eric Boria and Marco Tulio Díaz for their respective mistakes in his matches, the latter one costing him a WC place), and he is still well in the age range (38) for Qatar, but my feeling is that the older Guatemalan missed his chance, and Escobar's style suits well to what Busacca is looking for.
Support Referees:
Juan Gabriel Calderón Pérez is the latest Costa Rican to reach a high-level in CONCACAF since Walter Quesada managed to do that about ten years ago. Ricardo Montero only missed the last Gold Cup injured, and attended Russia himself as a support referee, and is in prime position to attend Qatar. I didn't manage to watch Calderón at the Gold Cup.
Video Assistant Referees:
CONCACAF sports one of the foremost VAR experts outside of Europe in Drew Fischer. Armando Villarreal can count himself unlucky not have attended U20 / U17 World Cups on the pitch, especially as his compatriot (somehow) handled the U20 Final. Quetzalli Alvarado Godínez makes history as the first female VAR in FIFA competition together with Bibiana Steinhaus; all VARs at France 2019 were men.
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