The Santos vs Club America game that took place last night was one of the most dynamic, and entertaining games in Liga MX this year. Santos was up in the scoreboard all game, and even had a 3-1 lead heading into the final minutes of the game. Club America showed that the team is not only widely talented, but they have a lot of fight in them. They came roaring back to make the game 3-2 in stoppage time. This is when the controversy hit.
To make things simple Club America scored the tying goal in the 9th minute of stoppage time. This after referee Curro Hernandez, the same guy that had the controversial Toluca vs Cruz Azul game, had only added 6 minutes of stoppage time. That wasn’t the only thing that seemed fishy about Curro’s performance last night. He literally refused to give out yellow cards to Club America players. With a ton from the Santos squad getting booked, and even one of the assistant coaches getting sent off. This happened of course after he protested the referee’s time management abilities. Are the refs once again going to directly impact results in the playoffs?
There Are Certain Refs That Just Can’t Keep Getting Assigned To Games
Few refs have been as consistently awful as Fernando “Curro” Hernandez. He had that abysmal game with Toluca, and Cruz Azul where he neglected to make a call on the field, and just allowed VAR to take over and make the call directly. Guess, what happened again over the weekend in another Toluca game that he refereed against Pumas? He’s looking to call off a goal after an offside on the play, but he again does not make a call on the field instead just goes directly to talk to his assistant, and they just buy time in the corner until VAR gives them the call.
What’s happening with “Curro” is just downright awful. A lot of times the issue with refs is when they are clearly favoring one side over the other. Let’s not kid ourselves that happens in all leagues across the world, and it happens often! The thing here is, he’s just neglecting to make calls, and causes a ton of confusion and anger on the field. On games like the one last night with Club America he also shows a clear tendency to favor one of the teams.
The worst thing about all this is that since “Curro” is one of the commission’s favorite refs he’s been involved in 17 games this season. Keep in mind the guy was suspended 2 weeks after the Cruz Azul vs Toluca debacle! That means that literally every other week he’s usually working on 2 games during that week. What happens is that he’ll get one as the head ref, and the other he’ll work in VAR or as the 4th official.
Curro Hernandez Is Not The Only Bad Ref
While Curro Hernandez may win the award for the worst ref in the Apertura 2022 tournament by a mile he’s not been the only ref who’s been bad or seemingly impartial. We saw Tijuana get hosed on a last minute clear handball against Chivas that wasn’t called even when the ref saw the play on the VAR monitor. If you ask Juarez they feel that they got robbed like 3 games in a row, and there was that Chivas vs Toluca game that we also talked about with “questionable” decisions from Mexico’s only ref going to the World Cup Cesar Ramos. The refs are not in great shape going into the playoffs, and after two controversial championships won by Atlas back to back this is probably the worst thing that can happen to Liga MX.
