Kris invited me to the press conference with the referees, so I went along hoping to chat with my friends. It was supposed to be difficult as I’m not a member of the FIFA approved media/press. Kris has a good sense of direction which helped us find the high school as it was not clearly mapped on the GPS. I made it through the first gate as Kris’s assistant. Then, I was stopped at the next check point, so I spend time waiting in the car. Tried again later and was lucky to find my friend Armando Benito Archundia who was not participating in the mixer with the press. As in the last couple of World Cups, the referees review the critical decisions and discuss reasons for both making the right ones and the unfortunate ones. Then, they share options to consider in player management as well as 100 percent misconduct where the yellow or red card must be shown. Armando and the rest of the officials seemed very relaxed and a lot of it has to do with how the FIFA World Cup Referee Committee takes a mentoring approach to dealing with referees issues… a much different and nicer approach than 20-30 years ago. This is another great thing about World Cup – my friend Kris helped me connect with my friend Armando.
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