{"id":217312,"date":"2026-07-16T17:30:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:30:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/the-longhorn-on-the-world-cup-stage-the-university-of-texas-at-austin\/"},"modified":"2026-07-16T17:30:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T17:30:02","slug":"the-longhorn-on-the-world-cup-stage-the-university-of-texas-at-austin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/the-longhorn-on-the-world-cup-stage-the-university-of-texas-at-austin\/","title":{"rendered":"The Longhorn on the World Cup Stage &#8211; The University of Texas at Austin"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Ismail Elfath, who is officiating today\u2019s World Cup semifinal, began his journey as a referee while on the Forty Acres 20 years ago.<br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Over the past month there\u2019s been lots of talk of red and yellow cards. But what about some burnt orange? This afternoon, alumnus Ismail Elfath will officiate the high stakes England vs. Argentina World Cup semi-final game.\u00a0<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A Cockrell School of Engineering grad, Elfath was a member of the UT club soccer team while on campus, and began his journey as a referee. After his time on the Forty Acres, he continued playing soccer in local leagues and began officiating recreational and youth leagues around Austin. In 2022, Elfath served as the fourth official in the World Cup Final in Qatar between Argentina and France.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Today will be his fourth match of the 2026 World Cup, after officiating matches in both the group stages and the round of 16. This year is a historic one for U.S. Soccer referees, with eight total serving in this year\u2019s tournament. Elfath\u2019s two assistant referees for the match are also both American.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In an <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ussoccer.com\/stories\/2026\/06\/usmnt\/ismail-elfath-first-referee-crew-world-cup-netherlands-vs-japan\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">interview with U.S. Soccer<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> earlier in the tournament, he spoke on how glad he is to be returning to officiate the World Cup this year.<\/span><br \/><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cIt was a dream come true \u2013 again,\u201d he said. \u201cI already had an amazing experience in Qatar in 2022, but after being 13 months with a double knee surgery, which took me very close to retirement, this second World Cup is so much sweeter.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/Da0yB8pmlaM\/?utm_source=ig_embed&amp;utm_campaign=loading\" style=\" color:#c9c8cd; font-family:Arial,sans-serif; font-size:14px; font-style:normal; font-weight:normal; line-height:17px; text-decoration:none;\" target=\"_blank\">A post shared by The University of Texas at Austin (@utaustintx)<\/a><br \/><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>Media Contact<br \/>         <strong>University Communications<\/strong><br \/>         Email: <a href=\"mailto:UTMedia@utexas.edu\">UTMedia@utexas.edu<\/a><br \/>         Phone: (512) 471-3151       <br \/>Jul 15, 2026<br \/>Jul 14, 2026<br \/>Jul 08, 2026<br \/>\u00a9 The University of Texas at Austin 2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/news.google.com\/rss\/articles\/CBMie0FVX3lxTE1XOTZhcGQ5VDY2Ujk5VFVNdkl3OHd2enhuVkxoTFlxcGtZLW9NWDgxMUV0Mi0zd1VTT1oyVHFCNHFIZFNRVHdVc2pNa19rR01PdFJLbkdhQ0VyT2VXdGpYeGNZWUlHNjhPb3g4ekVtZmV0XzhWMTRpY1BlRQ?oc=5\">source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ismail Elfath, who is officiating today\u2019s World Cup semifinal, began his journey as a referee while on the Forty Acres 20 years ago.Over the past month there\u2019s been lots of talk of red and yellow cards. But what about some burnt orange? This afternoon, alumnus Ismail Elfath will officiate the high stakes England vs. Argentina [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":217313,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-217312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217312","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=217312"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/217312\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/217313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=217312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=217312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=217312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}