05/22/19 New York Red Bulls vs Vancouver Whitecaps Red Bull Arena (8PM ET) REF: Victor Rivas AR1: Frank Anderson AR2: Brian Poeschel 4TH: Ted Unkel VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero AVAR: Logan Brown 05/24/19 Orlando City vs LA Galaxy Orlando City Stadium (7PM ET) REF: Allen Chapman AR1: Jeremy Hanson AR2: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho 4TH: Thomas Snyder VAR: Kevin Terry Jr AVAR: Kevin Klinger Real Salt Lake vs Atlanta United Rio Tinto Stadium (9PM ET) REF: Jair Marrufo AR1: Jose Da Silva AR2: Jeremy Kieso 4TH: Farhad Dadkho VAR: Guido Gonzales Jr AVAR: TJ Zablocki Los Angeles FC vs Montreal Impact Banc of California Stadium (10:30PM ET) REF: Armando Villarreal AR1: Ian Anderson AR2: Jeffrey Greeson 4TH: Elton Garcia VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Cameron Blanchard 05/25/19 Chicago Fire vs New York City SeatGeek Stadium (3:30PM ET) REF: Ramy Touchan AR1: Frank Anderson AR2: Chris Elliott 4TH: Elvis Osmanovic VAR: Jon Freemon AVAR: Peter Manikowski Vancouver Whitecaps vs FC Dallas BC Place (7PM ET) REF: Alex Chilowicz AR1: Mike Rottersman AR2: Chris Wattam 4TH: Pierre-Luc Lauziere VAR: Ricardo Salazar AVAR: Peter Balciunas New England Revolution vs D.C. United Gillette Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Dave Gantar AR1: Eric Boria AR2: Jeff Hosking 4TH: Marcos DeOliveira VAR: Sorin Stoica AVAR: Thomas Supple Philadelphia Union vs Portland Timbers Talen Energy Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Drew Fischer AR1: Claudiu Badea AR2: Adam Wienckowski 4TH: Kevin Broadley VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Eric Weisbrod Colorado Rapids vs Columbus Crew Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (7PM ET) REF: Baldomero Toledo AR1: Matthew Nelson AR2: Eduardo Mariscal 4TH: Guido Gonzales Jr VAR: Robert Sibiga AVAR: Alicia Messer FC Cincinnati vs New York Red Bulls Nippert Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Fotis Bazakos AR1: Nick Uranga AR2: Cory Richardson 4TH: Ted Unkel VAR: Chico Grajeda AVAR: Gjovalin Bori Minnesota United vs Houston Dynamo Allianz Field (8PM ET) REF: Joe Dickerson AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Logan Brown 4TH: Victor Rivas VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero AVAR: Jonathan Johnson 05/26/19 Toronto FC vs San Jose Earthquakes BMO Field (7:30PM ET) REF: Nima Saghafi AR1: Gianni Facchini AR2: Benjamin Hall-Volpenhein 4TH: Marcos DeOliveira VAR: Geoff Gamble AVAR: Craig Lowry Sporting Kansas City vs Seattle Sounders Children’s Mercy Park (5PM ET) REF: Christopher Penso AR1: CJ Morgante AR2: Andrew Bigelow 4TH: Elvis Osmanovic VAR: Jon Freemon AVAR: Kyle Longville
New York Red Bulls II vs North Carolina FC MSU Soccer Park (7PM ET) REF: Silviu Petrescu AR1: Jeffrey Skinker AR2: Tom Felice 4TH: Brian Dipaolo As we might have guessed from his CPL center, Silviu Petrescu seems to have passed fitness. Las Vegas Lights vs Tulsa Roughnecks Cashman Field (10:30PM ET) REF: Kevin Stott AR1: Stephen McGonagle AR2: Eduardo Jeff 4TH: William Randy Hoffman Stott should be able to return to MLS duty after this match from what I've been told.
So, was that a @NewYorkRedBulls goal or was it cleared before the entire ball crossed the entire line? Model says it is the latter - basically that half of the ball cleared the entire line, but saved by about 4"Obviously difficult to be definitive, but my best guess is no goal. pic.twitter.com/EXgvw0m7L8— SoccerPhotogrammetry AKA "A Nice Gentleman" (@OffsideModeling) May 23, 2019 Poeschel with the seemingly correct no goal decision. Close one!
https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/m...-club-vs-montreal-impact/details/video/195144 How is this not a red card for Zimmerman? I don't see any attempt at the ball even though he's close enough. I just see a body check. You could argue it's not clear and obvious to correct but, it's still a red.
As someone who was at the game, the yellow felt right. It wasn't a crazy foul, he threw his leg in there, it was a PK. Pretty much everyone was happy with the call. The more "rules-ish" answer is that there was enough of an attempt at the ball to make the PK an appropriate punishment. Had Armando called the foul for the arm, I suppose it could have been red. But he demonstrated clearly (not on the video) that he was calling the trip, which means since the trip happened in a legitimate challenge for the ball that DOGSO and "triple punishment' don't apply. I personally liked the good old days (3 years ago) of this being red...but I suppose those days are no more.
He may have indicated that it was a trip, but he's wrong. I'm not saying that this should be corrected because it's not to the level of "Clear and Obvious" but I am wondering if he would get dinged on the assessment because it's a body check (illegal charge) not a trip.
Law 12 says it must be a red card if the foul involves pushing, pulling, or holding. However, the instructions are to give the defending player the benefit of the doubt when it comes to borderline calls as to whether it was a reasonable attempt to play the ball. Here, the fact that it's the body contact and not the contact with the arms that the referee is calling (I recorded it as charge/trip because there was contact around the hip) makes the yellow an appropriate outcome. Had Zimmerman managed to get around and win the ball, I doubt that anyone would seriously consider calling a pushing or holding foul.
Watching that video I don’t have any doubt or believe it’s a reasonable attempt at the ball. I think that should be acknowledged in the instruction that although this meets the standard for a red card. It’s in that grey area where if the referee says yellow or red the VAR wouldn’t overrule. But I digress.
You're missing @ManiacalClown's point - it's a red card if it's pushing, pulling, or holding. Even if there isn't an attempt to play the ball, it wasn't one of those three, it was a hip check. Therefore, yellow is appropriate.
OH this brings up something interesting. I just thought it was a charge from behind, which is a red card. But what if it's considered a hip check, is that a trip or a charge? That's even more interesting than I thought.
Watching the tail end of the TFC/SJ match... a couple things I noted: 1) I really don't like Saghafi's style of displaying cards. It's very aggressive, and he gets into players' faces. 2) There was a swing out by SJ10 that was cautioned (good on the referee to view this and keep his eyes watching after the ball left). VAR sent down for a clear and obvious error. Ref didn't agree... but made the VAR sign and just continued with a FK. I have a sneaking suspicion that #2 will be on the list of incidents this coming week.
Any thoughts on this tweet? Hey, @AmroAbdelAziz, are you proud of playing this dirty? We’re proud of @fanendo’s response to your play at @fccincinnati last night. Including your flop with a fake ear injury just before the half. Adi played his heart out in spite of you! He rose above. @MLS needs to see this! pic.twitter.com/7o7GKFixct— S – Tina H (@cmeddie) May 26, 2019
Looks like he apologized in reply to that tweet. Said it was unintentional. It's misconduct, surely. Whether it needs to be more than yellow depends on the context, but it sure doesn't look good.
Can we actually take anything useful away from stats like those though or are they just something fun to look at?
Well the game count is fun to look at for sure. The fouls and cards per game are stats that the teams have. I doubt all of them use those stats, as I know a few coaches have the attitude of "I can't control the refs so who cares." But there are certainly some coaches that do care, and if they have a referee who is high on the foul/card/PK count, it might make them push a star player more to the middle and up, but if they have a very low count, they might push them more to the outside. Although, sometimes I think these stats can become sort of self-fulfilling. As in, "Toledo gives a lot of cards, so put him on this potentially explosive game." Over time that puts him in more positions than say, Drew Fisher, who might be kept on more open games, since he tends to keep his cards in his pocket. Again, over time, those stats just get exaggerated. But on the other hand, obviously there is going to be a difference between a Canadian and a ref from the Mexican leagues of Los Angeles. So, these numbers just confirm that. The other thing I'd add is that this shows tremendous parity among the referees. Ten years ago I doubt that most refs would be that balanced in cards/PKs on home vs. away games, that's for sure. Heck, I think the league even had the attitude of "give more PKs to the home team" ten years ago, where as now that attitude is gone, and things seem very balanced.