Tuesday, November 15th will be written in the history of Canadian soccer refereeing as a poignant moment. For it was on this day that Canadian FIFA Referee Mauricio Navarro refereed his final international match: a friendly between World Cup champions Spain and Costa Rica. For the record, the match, played at the Estadio Nacional de Costa Rica, San Jose, Costa Rica, ended in a 2-2 draw with the World Cup champions scoring two late goals from from David Silva and David Villa after being down 2-0 earlier in the game.

Mauricio, a past member of the Vancouver Area Association executive of the BCSRA, has had a storied career including refereeing in numerous World Cup Qualifiers, the 2003 Gold Cup Final in Mexico City, being appointed to the 2007 Gold Cup, 2007 FIFA U-20 World Cup, CONCACAF Club Championship (precurser to the CONCACAF Champions League) 2007 semi-final 2nd leg and 2008 final and the 2008 MLS All-Star game. Locally, Mauricio was also the referee for the 2008 Provincial Men’s A Cup final, LA Galaxy-Vancouver Whitecaps friendly at BC Place (featuring David Beckham) and recently the Manchester City-Vancouver Whitecaps exhibition game at Empire Field.

We congratulate Mauricio on his fine career and wish well him well in the future.