There has been quite some controversy over the standard of refereeing in MLS this season. Some of it merited, some of it fueled more by the natural desire of every football fan to massage away the pain of a bad result. Message boards have been bombarded (including our comments section) and fans have been outraged. Even Sounders FC coach Sigi Schmid has felt compelled to make the occasional comment about referees although we had to drag it from him!

So we talked to an assortment of fans, officials and players, including Taylor Graham (r), and asked them three questions:
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Kevin Stott will Get to Meet
an Old Friend again
When the referee blows his whistle to signify the end of the MLS Cup Final between Real Salt Lake and Los Angeles Galaxy, it will end a remarkable year of top flight football in the Emerald City. We can now reveal that the official who will bring it all to an end is Kevin Stott. Although no-one at MLS would confirm this, very reliable sources would not deny it either. Stott has appeared just once this year at Qwest taking charge of...

Farewell and Thank You, 2009 Crew

The consequences of last night’s elimination of Columbus Crew from MLS 2009 are still being considered. Last night, unfancied Real Salt Lake completed a double over the Ohio side with an unlikely 2-3 second leg win at Crew Stadium. The first fall-out of the Crew’s elimination will be to rekindle the debate, if it ever died, whether sufficient reward and recognition is given...

The 2009 MLS quarter finals are all at the half way stage and there isn’t a single tie that people will be able to unanimously pick the winner. Two of them were drawn, in Seattle and Los Angeles, and in the other two, home sides grabbed the narrowest of victories.

To complicate things a little, there isn’t really a significant home advantage in the Chivas USA/Los Angeles Galaxy fixture as both sides share the same stadium, and obviously neither is going to be suffering any of the downsides...

Liverpool and Inter Need to Reverse Trends

The UEFA Champions League becomes interesting today, and by interesting, we mean the chances of big clubs being eliminated grows to the point where this drudge of a six match stage becomes possible. UEFA changed from a simple knockout format for two reasons. One was to artificially create more games for the top sides to generate...