Twenty-four years after playing soccer at tiny Midland School in the Santa Ynez Valley, Frank Anderson made it to the World Cup. He is one of four American professional referees who did what the U.S. men’s team could not do. They qualified to perform on the field in the world’s most-watched sporting event.
Anderson earned three assignments to serve as assistant referee: The group-stage matches between Portugal and Morocco and Germany and South Korea, and the round-of-16 match between England and Colombia. As a sideline referee, his responsibilities included judging the possession of balls that leave the field of play and enforcing the offside rule. Mark Geiger, another American, was the head referee in all three games, having worked the 2014 World Cup.
Anderson and Geiger were in the spotlight during the frantic final minutes of their second game, when South Korea scored twice to oust Germany, the reigning World Cup champion. On the first goal by Kim Young-gwon, Anderson raised the flag to rule offside, which would have nullified the score. The play automatically was reviewed by the newly installed VAR (video assistant referees) system. Their assessment did not dispute Anderson’s view that Kim was in an offside position, but they saw that a German defender had deflected the ball to the Korean; therefore the goal counted.