The first time I saw a match refereed by the Colombian Andrés Rojas, was in Boca Jrs vs Atlético in 2021. And it was a mess! He lost control and displeased both teams (and CONMEBOL suspended him at that time for 6 months).

Remember here: https://professorrafaelporcari.com/2021/07/13/como-perder-a-autoridade-de-um-jogo-de-futebol-no-boca-jrs-x-atletico-mineiro/

In 2023, he returned to refereeing more relevant matches, such as Fortaleza vs Corinthians, where, in addition to the technical difficulty of interpreting plays, he showed a disciplinary deficiency. A disaster in his card criteria! See here: https://wp.me/p4RTuC-Qdg

Last year, in LDU vs Fluminense, another poor refereeing performance. And I questioned: he isn’t “FIFA first-line,” he’s already 41 years old, why the insistence on his appointments? Here, more errors: https://professorrafaelporcari.com/2024/02/23/o-lance-reclamado-em-ldu-1×0-fluminense-foi-penalti-em-cano/

This year, he finally refereed Argentina vs Brazil, in the Qualifiers, in that controversial match involving “Raphinha and the talk about Racism.” See here: https://pergunteaoarbitro.wordpress.com/2025/03/25/andres-rojas-o-arbitro-de-argentina-vs-brasil-e-raphinha/

Yesterday, at the Maracanã, there were two significant errors:

• At 45m: Pivoni gives a light touch to Samuel Lino, who loses his balance and falls. Outside the box, it’s a foul with no card. Inside, it’s a penalty. And there was no call! Understand: touches on opponents, holds, or pushes, don’t need to be weak or strong; the analysis that should be made is: did it unbalance the opponent?
• At 81m: Plata is fouled by Rodríguez (a reckless play, he missed the timing of the ball and kicked the opponent), but Rojas makes a mistake, reverses the foul and understands it as “a challenge with the sole of the boot by the Flamengo player” (a reckless action, Yellow Card). Since the Ecuadorian had already been cautioned earlier, he was sent off (the VAR protocol cannot be triggered for a Second Yellow Card, only for a Direct Red Card). But, I believe, it could be used in the category of “gross error” and my suggestion is for FIFA to increment it in plays involving questionable sending-offs (but that’s another discussion about interpreting the spirit of the law).

There were two serious harms to the Brazilian team, which complains with reason. After all, they could have been up 3-0 in the first half and only conceded the goal after being down to 10 players.