Where do they get these referees?

I’m watching the USA-Brazil match from the Confederations Cup tournament over in France at the moment, about 10 minutes left in the game, and I want to know where the heck FIFA gets the referees for this tournament. The guy working this match is just sad. He gave our defender Carlos Bocanegro a yellow just now for a perfectly legal slide–both feet went straight into a ball and he didn’t turn his soles up at the Brazilian (Kleberson?) on the other side of it. Five minutes ago he gave Ernie Stewart a yellow for diving when Stewart clearly fell after jumping over the legs of a challenging Brazilian defender. Meanwhile at the end of the first half he walked right past an obvious penalty kick when Landon Donovan (what a great player!) was interefered with in the box.

Not that our players are blameless for the current score, 1-0 in favor of the Yellow and Blue, because the defense has been too loose and the passes not nearly good enough. And other than Donovan and to a lesser degree DaMarcus Beasely, none of the Americans has made an offensive mark. Clint Mathis, expecially, has not contributed nearly enough.

Adriano’s goal, in the 22nd minute, was a combination of what I mentioned. First, he intercepted a weak pass back to goalie Tim Howard, and then Howard had to come way off the line to stop Adriano’s initial shot due to lack of support and was way out of position to stop the rebound. Though I question whether Howard played the initial shot correctly, so that there shouldn’t have been a rebound.

Final: Brazil 1, USA 0. So Brazil makes up for their loss to Cameroon in the first game since Turkey also lost to the African side today. The Americans slip to 0-2 and with their only match left against that same Cameroon team, cannot advance even with a win. After making the Final 8 at last Summer’s World Cup, we get nada, niente, from this tourney; only the top two in each group go on so even if we get a win (for a total of three points) against Cameroon, they’ll still have six points as will the winner of Turkey-Brazil or four points for each in event of a draw.

Admittedly we didn’t bring our top team to give some players a rest after the end of the European club seasons and coach Bruce Arena expects a stronger side for the upcoming CONCACAAF Gold Cup. ESPN also has a good article by Marc Connolly that explains what our coaching staff is looking for from different players during the series.