Dear Kid,

We interrupt World Cup Soccer to bring you World Cup Referee Discussions. About which there has been much.

The World Cup experience is more than just the game of soccer. It's an event. And it will fly by faster than you think. It will end and you'll be saying, 'Wow, it's over already?' You have to remember to take it all in and enjoy it. Cobi Jones DearKidLoveMom.comSince other people are talking about refereemanship (new word, do you like it?), I thought I’d join in. Especially because it gave me the opportunity to make up the word refereemanship.

First up, we have the Mexico v Netherlands match this past Sunday. Mexico lost. They’re making it clear it was the ref not the players who lost the game and they want the ref to go home because they have to go home. I’m guessing they don’t want him to leave just so he’s free for a quick drink at the local pub.

Here’s what happened. There was a penalty in the 88th minute. The issue is that Dude took a dive a few times earlier in the match and yelped about it. Apparently enough to get the 88th minute call. The Mexican coach believes the Diving Dude should have been given a yellow from the get-go, or at least at the first dive.

Mexico has had official officiating issues during the World Cup (in their game against Cameroon they had two goals waived off because of off-sides calls which might not have actually been off-sides, and there might have been a handball that wasn’t called in the game against Croatia).

Meanwhile, for the US v Belgium game (later today), there have been questions about Djamel Haimoudi, the Algerian referee who has the gall to be able to speak French. US coach Jurgen Klinsmann didn’t exactly challenge the referee to be impartial, but if one were to spend time reading between the lines one might find an entire novel (or at least a novella).

Meanwhile meanwhile, we have an American referee moving on to the Round of 16. Three cheers (or a few more if you prefer) for US citizen and FIFA referee Mark Geiger. He will was the head referee dude in the France v Nigeria game (along with Canadian Joe Fletcher and American Sean Hurd). They reff’ed brilliantly even if Mark didn’t have the gall to speak French. Or even the Gaul. (Your line: Oh, Mom, you are hilarious.)

Meanwhile meanwhile meanwhile

Now you know.

Love, Mom