American who refereed Corinthians and Palmeiras games makes a blunder – The World is a Ball

No player defending Corinthians or Palmeiras at that time will remember, not clearly, Jonathan J. Bilinski, known as JJ.

After all, the meeting between them took place a long time ago, in the beginning of 2020, in the USA, in a pre-pandemic coronavirus period.

The two teams from São Paulo were in Orlando, to compete in the Florida Cup, a preparatory tournament for the season. The Corinthians were trained by Tiago Nunes, and the Palmeiras, by Vanderlei Luxemburgo.

Both on January 15, when Corinthians won 2-1 against New York City (Luan goals), and on January 18, when Palmeiras also beat the same opponent by 2-1 (Goals by Lucas Lima and William Bigode ), the referee was Bilinski.

JJ had performances considered normal, with no registered controversies. Some yellow cards shown, none red.

At most, if questioned, the athletes will say they remember a bald referee who had a certain resemblance to the Brazilian Anderson Daronco.

Since then, JJ, a referee associated with the US Soccer Federation (the US soccer federation) since 2010, has not changed his appearance and continued to whistle in the championships in which he was cast.

Incognito, suddenly that changed. Unfortunately for him, fame came not for having refereed an important match and/or for having a performance worthy of praise.

They say that the good football referee is the one who manages to be discreet, who doesn’t show up, who hardly has his name mentioned by the narrator in a match.

Because at Miami FC vs. Pittsburgh Riverhounds, for the USL Championship (the North American second division), at the Florida International University stadium in Miami, JJ made one of the most glaring mistakes I’ve ever seen in football.

He failed to validate a legal goal by the visiting team, 22 minutes into the second half, when the duel was 0-0.

It wasn’t a difficult move.

Miami had a foul in their defense field. One player took her, giving a side pass to a teammate, who knocked the ball back to goalkeeper Connor Sparrow.

The shirt 24 stretched his right leg and, bizarrely, did not reach the ball, which slowly passed him and… own goal.

So here’s the goal that wasn’t, offered without commentary.#UNLEASH #MIAvPIT pic.twitter.com/3BTJbpJ3tv

— x – Pittsburgh Riverhounds SC (@RiverhoundsSC) October 17, 2021

Unbelievably, JJ, who followed the play from a suitable distance, nullified the goal, surprising players, technical committees, fans (there were 1,083 that night).

JJ considered that German János Löbe, who passed the ball to the goalkeeper, did so directly from the free kick, without having received it from a colleague.

In this case, if the ball goes into the goal without touching anyone, a corner must be taken to the other team. JJ did so.

The most incredible thing is that none of his assistants (flags), Justen Lopez and Juan Pablo Casas, disagreed with the preposterous marking. The match had no VAR (video assistant referee).

“[Os árbitros] they said it was the first pass [na batida da falta], but clearly it was not. We saw, Paul Dalglish [técnico do Miami] saw, and even said it was a goal. A legitimate goal,” Pittsburgh coach Bob Lilley declared after the game.

The Organization of Professional Arbitrators (OAP) revised the bid a few days later and, faced with such scandalous evidence, had no choice but to acknowledge the blunder of JJ and the linemen.

As a result of this conclusion, the USL (United Soccer League), controller of the second division: confirmed the goal; decided that the minutes of the game after the goal should be played again; put JJ and the assistants “in the fridge” (suspension for a certain period).

“The judges applied a law that did not coincide with events on the field, and that exceeded the acceptable degree of human error that is inherent in matches. This extraordinarily rare event prompted us to ask clubs to replay the rest of the match, with the score 1-0,” said Jake Edwards, president of the USL.

OAP and USL also carried out an investigation in order to try to find out if there were signs of match-fixing, but nothing was found. In other words, there was no bad faith or arrangement, but “collective blindness” even in arbitration.

Eleven days later, on October 27th, with a new referee, Elvis Osmanovic (who is not bald), and without a public, the game had the final half of the second half “replayed”, and there were no incidents until its conclusion.

Pittsburgh withstood pressure from Miami and secured victory by the minimum advantage, with a goal awarded to them by the USL on the 22nd, or nearly a week after JJ’s unusual mess.