Two Saskatonians are celebrating after becoming the first male referees from Saskatchewan to officiate a game at the highest level in the continent.
On March 2, Richard Kent and Vitalii Oliinichenko were sent to Vancouver to work the Vancouver Whitecaps FC and Charlotte FC game at B.C. Place for the opening weekend of the Major League Soccer (MLS) season.
Describing the experience is still a little surreal for the duo.
"I got the call and then couldn't sleep all night. I was so excited and nervous, right, because it's a huge step up in terms of what I've done before," Kent said.
"Until the moment I had a flight booked, I still didn't believe that it was going to happen," Oliinichenko said.
For their professional officiating debut, Oliinichenko was assigned assistant referee duties, calling infractions and offsides on the sideline while Kent was the fourth referee, in charge of substitutions and acting as a liaison between coaching staff and the referee crew.
"The fourth official is the guy that gets yelled at by the coaches," Kent said with a chuckle.
After spending a majority of their careers working in Saskatchewan, shipping off to Vancouver to work in front of nearly 30,000 fans — the largest home-opening crowd in Whitecaps history — was certainly a unique experience.
"You walk through the tunnel and then there's like a ton of fans hanging around the tunnel yelling at you, telling you how much they hate you," Kent said.
"You're just there to do your job, you're there to be professional and it's definitely nerve wracking, but it's really exciting at the same time."
After arriving in Canada as an immigrant from Ukraine in 2009, Oliinichenko never imagined becoming a referee, let alone working at the highest level of competition in North America.
But an ACL injury had him rethinking his involvement in soccer. With a growing young family, Oliinichenko pivoted to refereeing in 2013. Eleven years later, there he was — working at the sideline in Vancouver.
"I watch professional games and I always ask in my head, 'Can I do things which I do regularly in my games on that level?'" Oliinichenko said.
"Now it's so exciting to have the answer. It's something really, really unbelievable for me still."
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The game gave the inexperienced duo some challenges, with a difficult play and a video decision.
Video assisted referee (VAR), is a relatively new technology in worldwide soccer and the MLS is the only league in the continent to use it.
While Oliinichenko was not directly involved in the VAR ruling, he played a crucial role in the Whitecaps FC tying goal before the game finished 1-1.
Oliinichenko ruled a Whitecaps FC player who scored the goal was onside, even though two players near the ball were offside, but ultimately didn't factor into the play.
Had one of the two offside players affected the play, the goal would have been called back.
Oliinichenko was chosen to work another game between Toronto FC and Atlanta United on March 23, where keeping his flag down drew the ire of opposing players who were hoping for an offside call.
"Defenders right away start asking me about offside, but no," he said.
Kent and Oliinichenko followed in the footsteps of Chantal Boudreau, who first officiated an MLS game in 2020.
The opportunity arose because the MLS and its referees union were involved in an ongoing dispute at the start of the season. In search of replacement refs, the league came calling to Saskatchewan.
Now that the dispute is over, Oliinichenko and Kent may not get another opportunity to officiate in the MLS this season, but having an opportunity to work in high stress situations and work alongside some of the game's very best is a lifelong memory they will cherish.
"To shake the hand of (Lorenzo) Insigne, one of the best players in MLS, and see how (Federico) Bernardeschi runs his game," Oliinichenko said.
"If two months ago someone would be telling me that I will be involved in those kinds of games, I wouldn't believe in that. So that was an excellent experience."
Full of pride and ready to accomplish much more in their careers, Oliinichenko and Kent are happy to pass on their wisdom to a whole new generation.
"I really hope that it will open some doors for our younger referees who are waiting for their opportunities. At the end of the day, we bring that experience back to Saskatchewan and are ready to share it with our younger colleagues," Oliinichenko said.
