Who is Oshane Nation, the referee for Columbus Crew - Monterrey today?

Jamaica’s Oshane Nation will referee Columbus Crew and Monterrey’s CONCACAF Champions Cup semi-final first leg today.

Columbus and Monterrey clash in the last four after knocking out Tigres and Inter Miami, respectively, in the quarter-finals. While the Mexicans are chasing a sixth CONCACAF crown, the Crew are after their first ever title in either the Champions Cup or its predecessor, the CONCACAF Champions League.

The winners of Columbus vs Monterrey will face Club América or Pachuca in the Champions Cup final in June. In the first leg of their semi-final tie, the Liga MX pair drew 1-1 in Mexico City on Tuesday.

Watch a live stream of Columbus vs Monterrey on fuboTV.

Who is Columbus vs Monterrey ref Oshane Nation?

Now in his fifth season as a match referee in the Champions Cup/Champions League, Nation will be making his debut at the semi-final stage. The 33-year-old has previously crossed paths with Columbus and Monterrey once each in CONCACAF’s elite men’s club competition.

He took charge of Rayados’ 3-0 first-leg win over Dominicans Atlético Pantoja in the last 16 in 2021 - a season in which the Mexicans won their most recent CONCACAF title. Meanwhile, Nation’s sole Champions Cup game involving Columbus came earlier this season, when he oversaw the Americans’ 1-1 draw with countrymen Houston Dynamo in the second leg of the last 16.

This may be Nation’s first experience of the Champions Cup last four, but he has run the rule over semi-finals and finals in other CONCACAF competitions.

In the 2021 final of the CONCACAF League - a now-defunct second-tier club competition - he was the whistler for the first leg of Guatemalans Comunicaciones’ 6-3 aggregate victory over Hondurans Motagua. That same year, he was also appointed to Columbus’ 2-1 win over Cruz Azul in the Campeones Cup, a trophy contested by the winners of the MLS and Mexico’s super cup, the Campeón de Campeones.

At international level, Nation was handed the 2021 CONCACAF Nations League semi-final, in which eventual tournament winners the USMNT defeated Honduras 1-0.

In his three appearances in games featuring either Columbus Crew or Monterrey, Nation has shown a not insignificant number of yellow cards - 14 in total - but is yet to send any players off. And this is a trend that extends to his Champions Cup/Champions League career as a whole: in seven games in the competition, the Jamaican has not dished out a single red card.

Columbus Crew vs Monterrey: start time, how to watch

Columbus Crew and Monterrey meet at Lower.com Field today, Wednesday 24 April 2024, with kick-off in Ohio scheduled for 8:15pm ET/5:15pm PT. Viewers in the United States can watch the game on Fox Sports 1 and TUDN USA, and your streaming options include fuboTV, which offers new users a free trial.

Enjoy Columbus vs Monterrey on fuboTV.

Who will Oshane Nation’s assistant referees be for Columbus vs Monterrey? Who is the VAR?

Nation’s assistant referees in Columbus will be compatriot Ojay Duhaney and Trinidad and Tobago’s Caleb Wales. Guatemala’s Julio Luna will be the fourth official. The video assistant referee (VAR) will be Jamaica’s Daneon Parchment, and the assistant VAR will be Benjamin Whitty of the Cayman Islands.