Week 7 kicked off last night with a boring-ass Tuesday game. Tonight's scheduled game has been postponed due to a snowpocalypse so I'll remove that one from the assignments. 04/09/19 D.C. United vs Montreal Impact Audi Field (8PM ET) REF: Christopher Penso AR1: Philippe Briere AR2: Claudiu Badea 4TH: Guido Gonzales Jr VAR: Silviu Petrescu AVAR: Jeff Muschik 04/12/19 Chicago Fire vs Vancouver Whitecaps SeatGeek Stadium (8:30PM ET) REF: Jair Marrufo AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Jose Da Silva 4TH: Ismir Pekmic VAR: Daniel Radford AVAR: Jonathan Johnson 04/13/19 Montreal Impact vs Columbus Crew Saputo Stadium (1PM ET) REF: Armando Villarreal AR1: Jason White AR2: Gianni Facchini 4TH: Fotis Bazakos VAR: Christina Unkel AVAR: Robert Schaap Houston Dynamo vs San Jose Earthquakes BBVA Compass Stadium (3PM ET) REF: Baldomero Toledo AR1: Adam Garner AR2: Ian McKay 4TH: Alejandro Mariscal VAR: Caleb Mendez AVAR: Alicia Messer Seattle Sounders vs Toronto FC CenturyLink Field (4PM ET) REF: Allen Chapman AR1: Jeremy Hanson AR2: Apolinar Mariscal 4TH: Michael Radchuk VAR: Kevin Stott AVAR: Rene Parra Minnesota United vs New York City FC Allianz Field (5PM ET) REF: Alan Kelly AR1: Michael Kampmeinert AR2: Felisha Mariscal 4TH: Rubiel Vazquez VAR: Silviu Petrescu AVAR: Peter Balciunas New England Revolution vs Atlanta United Gillette Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Alex Chilowicz AR1: Kyle Atkins AR2: Jeremy Kieso 4TH: Matt Franz VAR: Geoff Gamble AVAR: Eric Weisbrod FC Dallas vs Portland Timbers Toyota Stadium (8PM ET) REF: Marcos DeOliveira AR1: Jeffrey Greeson AR2: Eduardo Mariscal 4TH: Victor Rivas VAR: Chico Grajeda AVAR: Kevin Terry Real Salt Lake vs Orlando City Rio Tinto Stadium (9PM ET) REF: Christopher Penso AR1: Nick Uranga AR2: Frank Anderson 4TH: Ismir Pekmic VAR: Ricardo Salazar AVAR: Jozef Batko Colorado Rapids vs D.C. United Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (9PM ET) REF: Ted Unkel AR1: Mike Rottersman AR2: Chris Elliott 4TH: Ramy Touchan VAR: Sorin Stoica AVAR: Jeff Muschik LA Galaxy vs Philadelphia Union Dignity Health Sports Park (10:30PM ET) REF: Dave Gantar AR1: Adam Wienckowski AR2: TJ Zablocki 4TH: Joe Dickerson VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Fabio Tovar Los Angeles FC vs FC Cincinnati Banc of California Stadium (10:30PM ET) REF: Drew Fischer AR1: Chris Wattam AR2: Micheal Barwegen 4TH: Tim Ford VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Cameron Blanchard 04/14/19 Sporting Kansas City vs New York Red Bulls Children’s Mercy Park (7PM ET) REF: Robert Sibiga AR1: Ian Anderson AR2: Andrew Bigelow 4TH: Alejandro Mariscal VAR: Kevin Terry Jr AVAR: Peter Manikowski
Notes: 1st MLS assignments for Michael Radchuk and Alicia Messer. Alan Kelly and Fotis Bazakos have returned to on-field status.
Alan Kelly had a USL Championship match on Wednesday night between Memphis and Atlanta. His game management was superb, I might add.
MIN:NYC Could somebody please explain the offside call at 16:40? Attacker clearly PIOP Defender slips. - no flag. Defender gets up, attacker who was PIOP challenges - no flag Defender clears - still no flag. Hits opponent and bounces to attacker who was PIOP but is now well onside. Seems to me that it is far too late to call the original offside and the attacker certainly isn’t off now. Can someone please view this or tell me best way to get a video from my phone to here?
From the description, I would *guess* that the call was for the challenge of the defender and that the flag was delayed because of an imminent scoring opportunity. (Sounds like a play that is likely to make it into the AR week in review.)
To me it looks like the AR wasn't sure if the player was close enough to have challenged the defender. He was probably talking with the referee and they finally decided that he was close enough so the flag went up. In the end I think they made the right call even though it looked a little weird.
I'm interested in hearing the mental gymnastics needed to explain the non-PK calls at the end of the Portland--Dallas game.
At full speed I can somewhat understand how the referee could rule the ball hit the FCD player’s ribs. With VAR and an OFR, I cannot fathom how he still thought that. VAR correctly recommended a review. The call should have been a penalty kick.
I watched it again. It's a clear and obvious PK IMO. Grajada did his job here. Also, when VAR gave Dallas their first goal of the game by overturning an incorrect offside decision, the referee simply pointed towards the center circle. Forgetting the basic mechanic of the whistle/VAR signal plus the handling decision could result in DeOliveira having a bit of a break from MLS centers.
I agree. To me, correct result overall, but the AR bungled it. He should have flagged it the moment the defender went down. But the new touch from the offensive player reset offside. The attacker certainly was not PIOP when the ball was last touched by a teammate.
The AR was Felecia Mariscal. It looked to me like she did think a bit before deciding if the PIOP was "involved". No idea if she was talking to Kelly during that sequence.
None that I know of, but he went after spectators, and that's really, really bad. Like exposed the league and himself to potential legal ramifications bad.
exactly. There have been some altercations with fans, but nothing like this. My guess is that he will express the proper amount of remorse. He teammates went to the person struck after the match to check on him and he seemed to be OK. It will be very interesting to see what happens. I'll guess 6 games.
I'm guessing six, but I'd like to see 8-10 games (a quarter to a third of the season). That just cannot happen. Like @ManiacalClown said, that's a potential liability issue for the league and the Red Bulls. It's also a potential criminal charge against Kaku.
As a Rapids fan I’d say if Mullan got 10 this is at least 15 but I think we all know the Mullan punishment is going to be the exception to the rule forever. He’ll get 5-6, should get 10 (Rico Clark got 6, right?).
In Kaku's defense, his action led to the ref correcting his incorrect throw in direction that led to Kaku kicking the ball.
The immediate comparison that comes to mind is Cantona's kung-fu kick at a spectator. There are some obvious differences. For one, Cantona was already sent off for a different offence. Another is that he directed the kick at a particular fan (which I don't think Kaku did with his ball blast, right?). However, though I don't seriously offer this as a mitigating factor, one could argue that the fact that Cantona's victim ran 11 rows to shout abuse directly at him is a difference from what we saw last night. Working in the other direction, though, is that Kaku's act was indiscriminate and had the potential to cause much more damage. Cantona attacked a single fan with a kick (and probably hurt himself more than he did the fan); Kaku blasted a ball, with pace, toward an unsuspecting crowd (presumably including young kids)... a ball to the head in that situation could be a lot worse than a kick to the chest. Cantona faced and was convicted of criminal charges (2 week jail term reduced to 120 hours of community service). Manchester United, at the request of/in consultation with the FA, suspended him from all competitions for the rest of the season (this act occurred in late January). The FA increased the suspension to a total of 8 months (so ending late September of the same calendar year). France stripped him of his captaincy, FIFA confirmed the FA's ban applied worldwide, and he never played for his national team again. A lot is going to depend upon what the CBA with the players' union says. As we know, MLS is notoriously light on player punishment generally. You can't make an apples to apples comparison with Cantona anyway (besides the differences, Cantona had a lot of priors), but I think in an ideal world, Kaku is suspended by MLS for 3 months-minimum. I'm not sure if there is a mechanism for USSF to jump in here (unlike with referee assaults, I don't know if "spectator assault" is something it can claim jurisdiction over) but if there is, it should. In an ideal world, Kaku shouldn't be playing in any competitions for several months. Let's hope MLS and USSF are able to get that right. Would be interested to see if FIFA takes an interest, like it did with Cantona.
The other thing I'm curious about is how public PRO is about this game. Will it be covered in the Definitive Angle (or whatever that thing is called)? Or will they silently demote DeOliveira and not publicly address the errors that almost surely cost Portland point(s).
Given this and the Colorado-Houston game, I don't think you're going to see De Oliviera in the middle for awhile. This assignment was already made before Colorado-Houston happened and he didn't get pulled, but this felt like a last chance for a little bit and everything I've read, seen and heard doesn't make it sound like he passed. So I don't think you'll see De Oliveira in the middle for a bit. But that will have as much to do--if not more so--with his Colorado-Houston match than this one. Whether PRO takes the opportunity to be public and throw him under the bus... that's anyone's guess.