U.S. To Face Familiar Referee
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Blocked in this photo by Thomas Dooley, Urs Meier will referee a U.S. match for the second World Cup in a row. |
(Saturday, May 25, 2002) - The officiating crews for the first 36 matches of the 2002 Korea/Japan World Cup were released and the U.S. National Team will be encountering a familiar face on June 10 when the it takes on host South Korea.
Swiss referee Urs Meier will officiate the second Group D matches for the Americans after having also officiated the team's second match in the 1998 World Cup vs. Iran. In that match, which Meier cites as his best memory in his years of refereeing international soccer (since 1994), there were no penalties or red cards and just three yellow cards (one to David Regis).
In the first match against Portugal, the U.S. will meet Ecuadorian referee Byron Moreno, a 32-year-old official who has been calling games at the international level since 1997. Moreno has never been a referee for a U.S. match on the senior level but DaMarcus Beasley and Landon Donovan will remember him from the semifinal of the 1999 Under-17 World Championships in New Zealand against Australia. The U.S. fell to penalty kicks in that game, falling just short of the final in a tournament that put the U.S. youth on the international map.
In an interesting twist, while an Ecuadorian will referee the U.S., American official Brian Hall will be the man-in-the-middle for Ecuador's first match of the World Cup: against Italy. Hall will also be the fourth official for the much anticipated "Group of Death" clash between Argentina and England.
What follow are the referee designations for the first two U.S. matches:
June 5 - USA vs. Portugal
Referee: Byron Moreno (Ecuador)
Assistant Referee: Awni Hassouneh (Jordan)
Assistant Referee: Bomer Fierro (Ecuador)
June 10 - USA vs. South Korea
Referee: Urs Meier (Switzerland)
Assistant Referee: Ali Tomusange (Uganda)
Assistant Referee: Egon Bereuter (Austria)
USA Group D schedule:
June 5 - USA vs. Portugal (4:55 a.m. ET on ESPN2)
June 10 - USA vs. South Korea (2:25 a.m. ET on ESPN2)
June 14 - Poland vs. USA (7:25 a.m. ET on ESPN)
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