Ricardo Salazar's performance in the RSL-Chivas USA match is enough to make even a casual fan vomit. The phantom penalty call to decide the game should instantly disqualify him from anything else this season, it was so bad. He sent off ARIAS (what had he done?) when Romo should've been sent off. And did Mathis even do anything physically to get sent off for? Where was the punch? These games are made meaningless because the officiating is so abysmal that any call could happen at any time for no reason. That's what we've come to in this league. This should be topic #1 in the competition committee--because it's gone beyond the number of bad calls of lack of control in other leagues. I've seen French, German and Mexican league the past week and nothing approached this garbage. This is at a whole new level, and Salazar (as he often has been) is at the center of it all. Don't forget he's the one who called the phantom penalty in favor of Galaxy against Colorado a couple months ago. Why bother being a fan when the game is stolen by the refs?
No, he wasn't. It was Maruffo, a different sort of asshat. http://www.mlsnet.com/MLS/news/mls_news.jsp?ymd=20050508&content_id=29188&vkey=news_mls&fext=.jsp Not saying I disagree with you, just pointing out the ******** spreads pretty wide. And I'm such a big loser, I just finished watching that May 8 game on my TiVo this week.
Point both lost...and made. It's more than one ref on more than one occasion and it's starting to intrude on even the casual enjoyment of games where one's team isn't playing.
If the PK play was a foul then it should have been a free kick as the contact started waaaay outside the box.
MLS needs to fine these refs for every blunder of a call they make. In the offseason, they need to put on some elbow grease and just attack this issue. They gotta completely retrain, and just start hammering these referees with examples and videos, they gotta find some way to make officiating more efficient. The thing that really pissed me off is how unclear the cards were. Didn't that piss anyone else off? Every card that was given was followed by Stone saying,"well, we're not sure who that went to...", ive never seen that in soccer before. Something else ive never seen in soccer before is the throw in at the end of the game that came from "the wrong side of the flag" as wynalda put it. Any other referee would have whistled and forced him to take it again. It was the duty of one of the line refs as well to notice it.
Two horrid games within 4 days from this guy (Cbus/Dallas OC). He should never see the field again...
I'm also tired of the argument "it happens in every league". I watch, to my discredit, way too much futbol and I can tell you that it DOESN'T happen nearly as often or as outrageously as it happens in MLS. I mean Salazar was just throwing darts at a wall on his calls today. The cards, the penalty, everything. Top to bottom analysis of the refs in this league is a must and it must happen right now, before the playoffs. This pisses me off more than any other issue, if you can't tell, because I desperately want this league to succeed and grow and this kind of atrocious reffing makes it look second-class.
The point was not lost. I was trying to expand it. Maruffo's "effort" in Chicago tonight is another example.
I have to say everything in MLS has slowly gotten better over time from facilities to level of play, etc. but the one aspect that hasnt at all is officiating. I am so tired of watching games where after every whistle I have to sit there and watch players scream at the ref and he does nothing about it. Also, all the hacking makes some games unwatchable. Use your cards refs. That will end all that garbage.
Not that the ref wasn't bad, but I thought the most unwatchable part of the game was the bouncing ball on the turf. Seriously, MLS should have a rule that until you have a SSS and play on grass, you don't get ESPN2 games. [Bill Walton] It's horrible!!![/Bill Walton]
So we'd watch Columbus, LA, and Goats-Lite week in and week out? I guess we have Dallas now - but does a partially complete SSS count?
Did anyone see a better angle on the penalty foul than the camera got? It wasn't really clear, but I thought I saw the Chivas player put a hand on Brown's shoulder before he went down. I don't think that call decided the match - each team got the shaft once. Mathis did nothing warranting a red card... perhaps a yellow for kicking the ball away, but no more. And there were some neutral miscalls. I didn't see Arias anywhere near the incident in the first half, while Romo definitely should have been sent off. But the bad calls didn't annoy me as much as the fact that no one seemed to know who was being booked until long after the fact. The whole point of yellow and red cards is to make clear to everyone in the stadium that a player is being booked or sent off. Salazar needs to be drilled in the basic mechanics of pulling a card. One expects more of a USSF National referee.
I just looked at the official report. CHV -- Isaac Romo (caution; Reckless Foul) 17 RSL -- Clint Mathis (ejection; Violent Conduct) 18 CHV -- Jesus Ochoa (caution; Pushing, Holding) 19 CHV -- Esteban Arias (ejection; Violent Conduct) 21 OK, this is odd. IIRC, Ochoa committed the initial foul, which was a late, studs-up slide tackle and didn't involve pushing or holding in any form. Looks like Romo got booked for Ochoa's foul, Ochoa was booked for the pushing and shoving that Arias was involved in, and Arias was sent off for what Romo did.
Ironically when the Crew-Dallas open cup match started, I thought we were in good hands. Crew were eliminated by shamefully bad officiating last 2 years. Salazar completed the trifecta with a bogus red on Szetela and a PK on a good clearance. Overall, I would say officiating has improved somewhat since 96-97. Most of the truly abysmal refs have been weeded out. The current refs are better conditioned and usually can keep up with play (though Salazar was gassed in the Wednesday night match and called the PK from 40 yards away). I've heard complaints about him from other fans but in the matches I've seen Abbe Okalajua has been good. Is Brian Hall still officiating in MLS? I don't remember seeing him this year. What happened to Noel Kenney?
And let's not forget the Earnie non-offside call in last year's playoffs. At least 10 yards offisde, and he went on to score the game-winner. I still think that was the most atrocious.
Please do not forget the SJ goal against FCD earlier this season in Dallas. MLS was SO proud of that missed call they made it one of the GOW candidates that week. For whoever asked about Brian Hall, he was the Center in last night's PHP opener, but he let his AR's call too many fouls that were questionable at best. I think he finally got fed up and over-ruled a couple by the end of the match.
Oh bullsh**. The cameras picked it up way, way too late. I've seen plays that look that offside a hundred times, but with the right camera angle, the player was on. Do you really think the AR would miss a guy offside by 10 yards??? Or do you think the rule is when the pass is received, not when it's made?
Yes. This is MLS. Cameras may be inconclusive and that is too bad. I saw it, and as far as I know, every eyewitness account that saw it, said offside. I can understand DC being defensive since the cameras were not conclusive and they benefited. But darn, it was offside by a good 10 yards regardless of which teams were playing. And it happened in a scoreless playoff game, which is a lot more important than a meaningless regular season game.
I'm sorry, but I think the vetching about officiating has gone overboard. You know what? Refs and Umpires and Judges are bad everywhere. Some are better and some are worse. I watch a ton of soccer, only a portion of it MLS games. MLS refs are more or less par for the course. I'm not saying their aren't some horrifically bad refs in MLS, and I'm not suggesting that some games haven't been ruined by poor officiating - they have. But then the players and coaches have to take some of the blame for all the whining, diving, hacking that goes on, too.
I think you make a good point - it's a little like blaming cops for crime... they're not the ones doing it, just paid to prevent/punish those who do. Players/Coaches need to take some responsbility.
All I know is that this weekend I've seen Duisburg vs. Stuttgart, Rennes vs. Nantes, Tecos vs. Veracruz, the Charity Shield match, half of River-Tiro Federal, that's FIVE other leagues, along with most of the MLS matches, and that RSL-Chivas was abysmal, and DC-Chicago pretty bad, and nothing in the others was noticeable at all. Chance? Maybe. But Salazar and Marrufo are repeat offenders in this category and nothing has been done about it. I'm just saying that there have to be repercussions for piss-poor officiating and up to now I'm not seeing any.