09/20/2017 Atlanta United v LA Galaxy Mercedes-Benz Stadium (7:00PM ET) REF: RICARDO SALAZAR AR1: Joe Fletcher AR2: Jeffrey Greeson 4TH: Jose Carlos Rivero VAR: Christina Unkel Toronto FC v Montreal Impact BMO Field (7:30PM ET) REF: JAIR MARRUFO AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Frank Anderson 4TH: Silviu Petrescu VAR: Fotis Bazakos 09/23/2017 New York City FC v Houston Dynamo Pratt & Whitney Stadium (3:00PM ET) REF: ALLEN CHAPMAN AR1: Jason White AR2: Craig Lowry 4TH: Jorge Gonzalez VAR: Kevin Terry Jr New England Revolution v Toronto FC Gillette Stadium (5:00PM ET) REF: ALAN KELLY AR1: Matthew Nelson AR2: Kyle Longville 4TH: Chris Penso VAR: Guido Gonzales Jr D.C. United v San Jose Earthquakes RFK Stadium (7:00PM ET) REF: MARCOS DEOLIVEIRA AR1: Corey Parker AR2: Eric Weisbrod 4TH: Hilario Grajeda VAR: Matthew Franz Philadelphia Union v Chicago Fire Talen Energy Stadium (7:00PM ET) REF: ROBERT SIBIGA AR1: Adam Wienckowski AR2: Kevin Klinger 4TH: Ted Unkel VAR: Jonathan Weiner Columbus Crew v New York Red Bulls MAPFRE Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: FOTIS BAZAKOS AR1: Brian Poeschel AR2: Peter Balciunas 4TH: Ricardo Salazar VAR: Edvin Jurisevic Minnesota United v FC Dallas TCF Bank Stadium (8:00PM ET) REF: ALEX CHILOWICZ AR1: Mike Rottersman AR2: Jeremy Hanson 4TH: Kevin Stott VAR: Katja Koroleva Real Salt Lake v Seattle Sounders Rio Tinto Stadium (9:30PM ET) REF: SORIN STOICA AR1: Jeff Muschik AR2: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho 4TH: Drew Fischer VAR: Jon Freemon Vancouver Whitecaps v Colorado Rapids BC Place (10:00PM ET) REF: JOSE CARLOS RIVERO AR1: Eric Boria AR2: Felisha Mariscal 4TH: Alejandro Mariscal VAR: Dave Gantar 09/24/2017 Sporting Kansas City v LA Galaxy Children’s Mercy Park (2:00PM ET) REF: MARK GEIGER AR1: Nick Uranga AR2: CJ Morgante 4TH: Armando Villarreal VAR: David Barrie Atlanta United v Montreal Impact Mercedes-Benz Stadium (5:00PM ET) REF: ISMAIL ELFATH AR1: Kermit Quisenberry AR2: Apolinar Mariscal 4TH: Juan Guzman VAR: Jorge Ramirez Portland Timbers v Orlando City Providence Park (8:00PM ET) REF: BALDOMERO TOLEDO AR1: Ian Anderson AR2: Eduardo Mariscal 4TH: Baboucarr Jallow VAR: Drew Fischer
First MLS whistle for Alex Chilowicz this week, and 2 female FIFAs (Katja Koroleva and Christina Unkel) get VAR assignments this week
Chilowicz already had a whistle this year. Ramirez has his first VAR assignment, I believe. Note Dave Barrie (and all "guest" Canadians) now have their names appear. Wonder how that happened.
Wow really nice bit of refereeing. Min 42 Atl vs LA. Atlanta player slides Jermaine Jones in a reckless fashion and Jones, on his way down, kicks out at the Atlanta player. YC for Atlanta, send off for Jones. The play was bang bang and I thought it simply awesome that he picked up the kick out and addressed it properly.
Any thoughts on ATL Vasquez send off? Definitely reckless, but I'm not sure about red. But the next time I work a game at that level will be my first.
I thought Salazar refereed an excellent match overall tonight. But I have no comprehension of what happened with the Atlanta red card. A foul gets called for Vazquez clattering late into an LA defender who had just kicked the ball. Contact is leg on leg. Looks like a pretty standard yellow on first view, but LA defender stays down and LA is asking for more (important to note they are playing 10 v 11 due to earlier red card on Jones). Salazar has yellow out and is calming situation. Calls Vazquez over as he is clearly getting input on comms. Vazquez comes over and then Salazar produces and shows the red card, all while he has the yellow in his hand. Vazquez leaves the pitch but hangs out with Rivero, the 4th. Salazar now makes the VAR signal and goes to the monitor to check the decision with an OFR. Salazar returns to field of play, indicates the red is upheld, and Vazquez departs. Two things. From a process standpoint, for the OFR to be triggered the VAR must suggest the on-field decision was a clear and obvious error. So, unless I'm missing something, the decision process went: 1. Salazar yellow 2. 4th of AR red 3. Salazar red 4. VAR yellow 5. Salazar red (or, technically, "not obviously yellow") That alone is pretty crazy. Second, the decision itself mystifies me. I always thought it was yellow but I could see how a challenge like that would be red if the studs were exposed or there was a ton of late force. Neither of those components seemed to exist and, in fact, Vazquez deliberately and obviously tucked his studs in to ensure he didn't hit his opponent with them. If I had given a red for something like this and got to see this replay, I would think I was lucky to correct my mistake (particularly if my original instinct was yellow!). The only thing I can think here is that Salazar believes the standard for a clear and obvious mistake means there has to be absolutely 0% case for a red card and he felt the force alone was enough to say the call was justifiable. Still doesn't explain how he was okay with yellow originally and the VAR obviously felt the red was wrong. No mater what, it was a mess. Will get less attention because it was a midweek game and the aggrieved team won 4-0. But it was a mess.
I still don't see how this won't turn into hockey with their offside reviews. It started with the idea of fixing the big errors, but now you have reviews that look frame by frame attempting to determine if a skate was off the ice by millimeters or if the puck crossed the blue line 1/30th of a second before the skate did. The definition of clear and obvious is not so clear...nor obvious.
Personally, I'm pretty much ok with the Vazquez red. He had every opportunity to avoid contact, but it sure looked like he wasn't interested in anything but getting a shot in. I see no real attempt to play the ball, either. Maybe I'm barking up the wrong tree, but I'd see an attempt to play the ball in this manner to be reckless at worse, but with the ball out of the equation, this looks violent to me.
You've got it pretty much correct. Salazar went yellow AR2 (Greeson) insisted on red Salazar puts his yellow away and shows the red VAR is still talking to him, and he decides to look for himself, and he stays red. https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017...0-la-galaxy-4-minute-highlights?autoplay=true Insane decision. Not even close to red. Vasquez completely pulls out, no studs exposed and ankle to ankle contact. Easy yellow. Just a young kid who sees little to no playing time and is fighting for minutes so @ManiacalClown you're definitely wrong on that point. Vasquez probably one of nicest kids I've refereed. Shows his class accepting the red (twice!) with no dissent even after Salazar had pulled a yellow. Definitely not looking to get a shot in, just looking to see the field more than 2 minutes at the end of every 4th game. Outside of that, Salazar had a great game. Thought LA had a legitimate PK shout or maybe just outside PA early on. Hard to tell if he applied advantage or just didn't think it was a foul. Allesandrini chased him up the field and gave him an earful for a while.
Honestly, Salazar didn't have a good view of it. AR2 had the best view. I got the impression Salazar was going yellow based on the reaction more than on what he saw. But Gresson could see across. And in 4-0, you don't need to leave your trail leg out like that. I'm not saying ATL wouldn't win an appeal, but I am saying that its reasonable how that played out.
I can see you saying that it's reasonable how it played out if VAR wasn't in play. Like you said, if Salazar's instinct was yellow but he knew he didn't have the best view, he could and would rely on Greeson to tell him it's red based on having the better angle. But with VAR, I fail to see how this is reasonable. It's a dumb challenge, but not all dumb challenges are SFP. Vazquez realized he was late, tucked his leg, and mitigated the contact. The video shows it. We would never say this is SFP in the classroom. And the VAR felt the decision to go red was obviously wrong. So for Salazar to uphold the red, he had to simply feel his hands were tied and that, despite SFP not being the optimal call, it did not actually fall into the "clear and obvious" error threshold. And I just don't get that. Dawns on me now, also, that if this was Greeson, this is now the second high-profile situation within a month where the Greeson-Salazar pair had discussions that led the color of the initial card pulled to being changed. PRO lauded them last time for the DOGSO situation; wonder if there will be a public verdict this time. EDIT: as a corollary to all this, it appears Salazar and Greeson have been together five times since the end of July. Given the crew concept, more or less, is no longer a practice, that's either a huge assigning coincidence or Salazar trusts Greeson so much that he requests him.
Interesting situation on the first caution in Vancouver last night: https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/m...ps-fc-vs-colorado-rapids/details/video/135529 I would argue that once you allow play to advantage and the shot on goal to occur, even if you haven't visually signaled advantage it's not advisable to go back and give the DFK here. The card needs to be given, but this seems like a situation where your hands are tied as advantage has been applied and realized, so you have to wait to the next stoppage. Colorado players obviously agreed. Wonder if anyone sees it differently.
Agreed. As MassRef points out in the post after yours, pre-VAR I don't have a huge problem with how it played out to start. Salazar was stuck with the worst angle possible from 30-35 yards away and 'guessed' using his years of experience to go yellow. He recognizes he has a terrible angle and relies on AR2 who has a perfect angle, albeit from 70-75 yards away. Pre-VAR I'd say Vasquez was unlucky but put himself in the unfortunate position of forcing the referee crew to make a difficult decision. Don't put refs in that position and they have nothing to think about it. The issue is just how Salazar sticks to his guns and keeps the red after review.
I think a Grade 9 straight out of an entry level course, and every referee in the world would argue the same sir!
Mass I agree with you... the advantage was realized and they got 2 bites of the apple and we cannot help that shea cannot shoot..
Here's a weird one... VAR awarded a penalty to NYRB against Columbus last night -- incident in the 69th minute. Veron gets to the endline and cuts it back towards the middle, but his momentum carries him off the field of play. Crew's Mensah slides in, and winds up taking him down with his arms. VAR awards the penalty for a clear takedown. But it looks to me like the contact took place beyond the endline, and off the field. Isn't that technically supposed to be a dropped ball, not a penalty?
Not with the recent changes to the laws of the game. Contact off the field can now be punished with a free kick or a penalty kick as appropriate.
Do you have a link to that? I was looking at a 2016-2017 version. Maybe it's brand new, or maybe I just wasn't looking in the right place.
Not sure when video will be available, but in the LA-KC match, 1st minute, extremely hard studs up tackle by J Dos Santos on Espinoza. Geiger only goes yellow but he's in perfect position. My gut tells me if that foul happens in the 40th min instead of the 1st it is red. Seemed like pretty clear SFP to me. Geiger had his finger to the earpiece for a while but I suppose that means the VAR was checking but didn't think it was a clear error.
ATL vs MTL min 25. Cross made by ATL in far side of PA, hits widely outstretched right hand of defender. CR Elfath, just off vertical from the play, waves it off emphatically. No VAR review. To me, the left corner is a weak spot for the team to see handling (Thierry Henry), as the AR is more than 50 yds away and has people to look through, while the CR is very close but poorly angled. I believe players know this and are more likely to risk handling in this area- in this case, the defender had his arm extended straight out at 90 degrees, and sure enough there’s no call. Seems like refs should be more willing to use VAR in this area if they realize the limitations of the diagonal system of control there.