Too many red cards in MLS?

The EPL has had 48 red cards in 346 games for 0.14 per game. 20 in 62 games is 2.33 times as many per game. La Liga has had a red card rate of 0.29 per game, which is more than double the EPL but still fewer than MLS. The Bundesliga has a red card rate of 0.20 per game.

 

MLS is a hack league and it's going to take a prolonged period of stricter enforcement to start to change that dynamic.

I hope that's the direction we're heading. I'm glad to see fouls in the penalty area actually get called, and dangerous fouls shown red - that's a good start. Next let's get some suspensions going for persistent infringement for all the cheap hacking and shirt grabbing that regularly defines MLS defensive play.

 

I have no problem with it. Think it's needed to change the mindset of both players and coaches who feel they can hack the crap out of attacker as a defensive strategy or use over the top physical play as a means to control tempo, which makes the game uglier.

MLS would and will benefit from a more open style. This is a part of getting there. When I see guys like Jackson out there taking cheap shot and hacking guys down every week, and see how guys like Nagbe/Clint/Morales are defended, I'd actually argue we need more cards.

Red card rate is misleading. When you know more reds will come out, you change your mindset which ultimately leads to fewer reds. If MLS keeps calling a tighter game and penalizing the overly aggressive defenders, players/team will adjust at some point and the red card rate should drop.

 

If the fouls deserve reds, I don't care if it is one per game. If players are putting other players in serious harm, we should not complain when it is punished (granted, not every red is for this, but you get the point).

 

The reds dont bother me. I hope it forces players to tackle better and to play better defense.

I have no problem with more reds.

 

Dominic Kinnear is whining every week, so that's a good sign that things are going in the right direction.

 

They discussed the Chivas red card this weekend on ESPNFC with Peter Walton yesterday. The panel pretty much all agreed that it was a yellow card at best, but Peter said it was a red because (paraphrasing) "That's not the type of challenge we want in MLS"

Seems to me, that is a roundabout admission that there may in fact be a crackdown on the Hack a Shaq defending thats been going on with a lot of teams in the league.

 

Fair enough but those leagues you mentioned are all a few couple games from their seasons being over, while MLS is just in its second month; a quick look at last season put MLS right between La Liga and Bundesliga in red card per game rate.

 

I do find it funny that people fuss about how much shirt-pulling goes on. That's pretty much 100% standard everywhere. So far, no FA has found a way to actually bring a halt to that, as far as I know.

The reckless tackles are what need to go, and those appear to be being addressed currently. Persistent infringement would be next, as it's nowhere near as immediate of a concern, though it would help reign the enforcer players in. And that enforcer player is a time-honored tradition the world around. One of the more famous and spectacular examples currently is good ol Xabi Alonso. Guy is riding a red just about every game, with a couple nasty hits and a handful of tacticals. Anyways.

Bad tackles and poor decisions like that need to be weeded out. Even so, even in a league like the BPL where they boast some of the world's leading referees, hideous tackles and wildly reckless body-flingings still happen with disappointing regularity.

 

My own take on the PKs is that MLS is trying to clean up the fouls in the box to free up offense, and I'm good with that. There were two PKs against Portland and while that seems excessive, I thought they were both deserved. On some level, it's not the ref's job to ignore your fouls in the box.

I have seen a couple that left me scratching my head (the Demerit one a couple of weeks ago, the TFC one last week). But I'd rather have that and cleaner play in the box than the other way around.

 

>mfw all these red cards in mls

 

I completely disagree. There are a lot more PKs being awarded this year, yes, but the vast majority I've seen have been pretty fair. I've been watching quite a number of different leagues lately and I must say that embellished and inexplicable PK calls seem more frequent in other leagues. PKs here seem often more for unwise defending and sticking legs out than in other leagues.

I dunno. I think MLS refs get all sorts of bitchy bad raps when the majority of them are doing a pretty decent job. Fans of every league have officiating decisions to fuss about, all the time. It's frustrating to see your team drop points because of difficult calls, but that's the sport, damnit.

 

I know this is the General section and not the Analysis section, but can you actually give some examples? Saying "it feels like it's getting out of hand. Refs inventing PKs left and right" without actually posting any examples is kind of silly. Based on when you posted this, I'm guessing you were referring to the Portland - Vancouver game, and those PKs were legit. If anything, there was a good claim for a 4th that was turned down. The Chicago - LA one is only a poor call if the foul happened outside the box, and given the angles we have, it's hard to tell exactly where the foul occurred. And then there are the ones people have differing opinions on - @Ghost thinks the Doneil Henry PK last week was a weak call, I thought it was a clear as day penalty. Have there been some weak PKs given so far this season? Of course, but that's going to happen no matter what. But I don't think the number of weak PKs has been egregious. Defenses are just not adjusting to stricter calls.

 

Guys like Minda on Chivas should get a red card every game for multiple yellows. All these red cards are very good news. I want more red cards for double yellow, as I see that almost every game. And I watch virtually every game. Minda is not alone. Looking at you Zack Scott and virtually every defender in Houston.
We need more skilled destroyers like Laba and Charra who destroy without breaking legs and persistent infringement

So by all means pull out the reds and yellows. And I think its going to get even more strict with guys like Kaka and Villa coming in. Maybe if we see enough. 9 v 9 at the end of games coaches and management will realize that MLS 1.0 is officially over and they will create rosters accordingly

 

Okay, it's waste of time discussing this. If you think those are weak, I don't know what to say.

Maybe watch MMA instead of soccer?