No team but two refs for US

MOSCOW (AP):

Jair Murrufo remembers the first time he picked up a whistle and called a football match.

"My father kept saying, 'Hey, you want to be a referee?' And I'm 19 years old, and I'm like, 'No, why would I want to do that?'" he recalled.

That was an under-8 contest filled with kids trying to learn the sport. Now the 41-year-old from El Paso, Texas, will be on the field for football's pinnacle: the World Cup.

While the United States are missing from football's showcase for the first time since 1986, it is the only nation with two referees working the tournament.

Mark Geiger is the second American to referee at two World Cups. The 43-year-old from Beachwood, New Jersey, worked two matches during the group stage in Brazil four years ago, and then became the first American to officiate a knockout stage match: France's 2-0 win over Nigeria.

Quality pool

"It is an indication of the quality of the pool that we have here," said Howard Webb, the English referee who worked the 2010 World Cup final and now heads the Professional Referee Organisation, which supervises match officials in the US and Canada.

Marrufo's father, Antonio, was a referee in Mexico's top division who was under consideration for the 1998 World Cup but wasn't picked.

"Now he's so excited for me and just living his dream through me," Jair Murrufo said in New York before heading to Russia. "I want to fly him out there, but we'll see."

Geiger started when he was 13, in the Jersey Coast Youth Soccer League. His motivation?

"Money," he said with a smile. "It was the easiest, most enjoyable job that a teenager that young could have, going out and doing five, six games on a Saturday and then same thing on a Sunday."