2/29/12 7:00pm (Wednesday) PPL PARK (CHESTER, PA) GHANA MNT vs. CHILE MENS NATL TEAM REF: ELIAS BAZAKOS AR1: ADAM WIENCKOWSKI AR2: PETER MANIKOWSKI 4TH: MARK GEIGER
Sunday, March 18 7:00 PM EDT (Galavision) Los Angeles vs DC United - Baldomero TOLEDO / Fabio TOVAR / Ian ANDERSON / Juan GUZMAN
Ricardo Salazar took up an unorthodox position on Seattle's first goal against Toronto last night. What do you think? [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fh2-sfnRKn8"]Salazar Positioning 18 Mar 2012 Seattle-Toronto - YouTube[/ame]
I think it was just the most efficient way to get close to play at the top of the goal area. Made more sense then stopping and trying to pull back towards the top of the PA.
LA-DC, Keane has the ball near the intersection of DC's goal area and the goal line, Najar slides in, Keane cuts the ball back and makes contact with Najar's trailing arm. Decisive "no foul" signal from Toledo. Yeah, Najar makes himself bigger with that trailing arm, but I'm inclined to view this as a trifling offense, especially since Najar pulls his arm away as soon as he realizes it's in the way of the ball. Thoughts? http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-03-18-la-v-dc/highlights?videoID=179482
I think we've penalties given for far more dubious and less obviously deliberate handling actions in the past few years.
Also fairly certain Donovan should have seen red: http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-03-18-la-v-dc/highlights?videoID=179487
I totally agree, studs first into the back of his ankle. He only gets a caution because of who he is.
I'm not so sure I agree with Mr. Petrescu on this DOGSO. http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-03-17-kc-v-ne/highlights?videoID=179273
I have been casually monitoring the postings on this board for a few months now, and several subjects/posts have caused me to shake my head in disagreement. None, however, have caused me to sign up & post until this one. I may be violating some unwritten forum standards by coming out of the weeds to challenge your comment, so please don't be offended. First off, and most importantly, Dittmar got two close Game Critical offside decisions correct. It doesn't matter who he "knows". I think the actual answer to your question would be "everyone". He knows "the league" - not just the referee assignor as you insinuated. He is one of the guys -- Paul Scott, Steve Taylor, Kevin Stott and a very few other R & ARs I'm forgetting right now -- that have been involved since the beginning of the league. I think 17 years of reliability gives him enough credibility to be assigned to a home opener of an expansion team that drew 60,000 people. I agree with other posters who found it a little odd to not have a Canadian crew, but kudos to the assignors who realized the magnitude (both in the league and the local community) of this game and gave Stott and Dittmar another memory for their scrapbook. Last year for Man U/Barcelona at the WFC we had Salazar/Barkey/Lowry/Kennedy. Dittmar was in Montreal for the exact same reason that 3 ex-FIFAs were on this rematch of the UCL Final (in which we had both ARs leave the flag down on goals that we ALL thought were offside at first glance, only to be proven wrong later.) These guys are reliable and have proven so over time. There are other stadiums that the Wienkowskis, Manikowskis, and even Grajedas and Pensos of this world will open. Taking it a step further, look at the referee teams that have been created. Chico is one of the rising referees, yes? 2 of his ARs were Dittmar and Scott. These names don't get picked out of a hat.
So MLS is going to follow-through on its stated policy of sanctioning red card tackles after the fact if they were incorrectly punished on the field, right? Donovan is going to be fined and suspended, correct? I'm joking. But there couldn't be a more perfect example of why this policy is going to become a slippery slope. This tackle won't get a ton of notice because it's week 1, it's Donovan and there wasn't a horrific injury. But that very same tackle could have easily snapped the opponent's ankle. So when this happens again, later in the season, and a player gets a multi-match ban... who's going to remember to point back to this incident and remind everyone that Donovan got off with a yellow card? Also--and more importantly in my eyes--what on earth is Donovan doing making a challenge like that? As a USMNT fan, this scares the crap out of me. In a WCQ or at the WC, he's seeing instant red from any referee--no questions asked. The fact that he can make a challenge like this, seemingly for no reason and with no provocation, is a really, really bad sign.
A tackle like that in SA or EUR would certainly have the recipient embellishing the hell out of it. Just wondering if King's lack of 'response" to that tackle made a difference in the color of the card ??
To be fair, and I probably should have said this earlier... I actually don't think Toledo went yellow because it was Donovan--at least not as a conscious decision. If anyone is willing to show red to any player, regardless of whom it is, it's Toledo. My gut/guess is that he just didn't see it perfectly, realized it was a hard foul with no ball, and went yellow. He was very decisive and immediate, so I don't think the lack of embellishment had anything to do with it either. He just didn't see it perfectly, which happens.
Perhaps I should be embarrassed to say that I think YC is correct??? To be bookish, I think the "S" in siapoa is missing. Without the legal-ease, I think he catches him, but without a great deal of force. I'm willing to be told I'm an idiot, but if this is a red, it's a very different red from the tackles we discussed a while back (Kompany...). LD barely takes one step before his lunge. He doesn't have his full weight behind it. His trail foot is literally on the ground. He comes across the opponent, not through him. (The place where I start to doubt myself is that the ankle does get trapped. Especially in slow-mo, that looks really bad.) I'm really surprised to see such unanimity about this one.
That challenge by Donovan wasn't the reddest of red card challenges, but it sure wasn't good. Easily could have snapped King's ankle. Donovan targeted the ankle; that wasn't a legitimate way to win the ball there. I'd lean toward red but can see where Toledo didn't have the best view from that angle. Shame on King for not rolling around and making a meal of it
Exactly and then we will have Taylor Twellman or whatever ex US international commenting on that match and making an ass out of themselves. See Marcel Balboa's embarrassing commentary on the infamous US vs. Italy match in Germany '06. How Balboa thought that Pablo Mastroeni tackle on Pirlo was not a red card is one of the great mysteries to me? It's a red card tackle by Donovan but the thing is the caution worked it seemed. The match didn't disintegrate. I know there is no such thing as an orange card, but you can go yellow on that. Personally, I would have wanted a red because it's Landon Donovan and he is just an asshole.