Sorin Stoica: Haris Medunjanin "stated he was not kicked after the play" on which Acosta was sent off. pic.twitter.com/yCHEw7tQtC— Jonathan Tannenwald (@thegoalkeeper) June 25, 2017 I said to the guy behind me at the game that I thought Haris might have said something to the ref since the way he had both him and Acosta together before he rescinded the card. Respect to Haris for this.
A meh game that was saved by Dre. Also, Fafa is quickly becoming the most exciting player this team has had in a while.
My first time at the stadium in ages and I enjoyed it. The place was pretty buzzing I thought. River End was energetic, even if the far edges have thinned out. There were even new chants that seemed to get established (we've got picault). The concessions I went to were more professional than I remember. Game was just what we've come to expect. Struggling to create, defensive lapses covered by Blake. Impressed with Elliott's composure, Picault's speed and footwork. Wijnaldum was better than I expected. Gaddis is too tentative. Ilsinho adds nothing. Maybe the strangest officiating I've seen since that open cup game when they used amateurs or whatever. Phantom pk, then the red card confusion. It's not the players job to help the officials. Haris should have shut up. Take whatever advantage is given you.
This.is.HILARIOUS! https://www.brotherlygame.com/2017/...is-the-best-red-card-rescinded-luciano-acosta 878801936966762502 is not a valid tweet id
If the man that you thought was fouled comes up to you and tells you it wasn't a foul, wtf do you want the ref to do?
One more Fair Play trophy to add to the collection... we can swim in those things Scrooge McDuck style now... life is good, who needs real trophies?
You are not going to be happy in a month when VAR is introduced in August and calls change more often. Also, what kind of ref takes back a red card? A good one. He was given additional information that made him realize that his initial decision was incorrect so before play restarted he corrected his call. This happens all the time with other calls and a red card is no different. I just don't get people sometimes I guess. We blast a ref when he makes a bad call and now we blast a ref that realized he made a bad call and corrected it.
I'm not laughing simply because of one incident. Union had another clear PK not given because: Sapong I guess. This guy was all over the lot with his calls all night.
Think you are talking about the one in the first half. When I saw it live I was ok with it because it looked like it was shoulder to shoulder to me. After seeing a few replays I can see it being called a penalty but I'm still ok with it not. The whole shoulder to shoulder challenge is something I still have a bit of an issue with only because my interpretation of it is what I was taught growing up playing soccer. The actual laws of the game are vague as to what is legal and what isn't. They define charging as a "physical challenge against an opponent, usually using the shoulder and upper arm (which is kept close to the body)". In the foul section they say "a player may shield the ball by taking a position between an opponent and the ball if the ball is within playing distance and the opponent is not held off with the arms or body. If the ball is within playing distance, the player may be fairly charged by an opponent". However charging is one of the offenses punishable by a direct kick in the section that says "if a player commits any of the following offences against an opponent in a manner considered by the referee to be careless, reckless or using excessive force." Going by that definition it is hard for me to say that the Opare challenge on Sapong should have been a penalty. To your point about calls being all over the place, you are probably right. One of the biggest issues with refs in general (not just MLS refs) is consistency. I still feel that MLS refs are more consistent than most in CONCACAF (hell, in CCL play you can breathe on an opponent and get carded in one half and an attack with a hatchet wouldn't be called in the other half).
Whenever I hear complaints about MLS referees, I think about this. The league is a little over 20 years old and fans judge the level of the referees against England, Italy, and Germany, even though they agree it it is unrealistic to compare the level of the players against these leagues. When MLS referees are compared to what I see from most the footballing world (Africa, Asia, the Aelmericas, and the smaller European nations), the standard in MPS is excellent. Remember the African referee in the 2010 World Cup?
Being a referee is a tough job. Clearly, you will never make everyone happy. Also, they make difficult calls all the time and nobody notices. They probably do a great job 95% of the time and we only notice that 5% where we see something different than they do. We also get to see endless replays, they have to make decisions in real time. We know and they know that they will get calls wrong. Referees are not just on the field to call fouls. They are there to make sure the game is played fairly and the players do not get hurt because of egregious play. To do this, a referee needs to earn the respect of the players. It is my opinion that when the referee makes the decision to pull out the red card, that is final. The referee needs to be sure that he has seen a red card offense. I will not be surprised to see players surrounding this referee the next time he draws a red card and claiming he missed the call. We will see. There was an interesting contrast at a confederations cup match this weekend. They are using a video assistant referee, In this case the center referee thought he had seen a red card offense but did not draw the card until he had seen the replay. That made more sense to me. Obviously the referee on Saturday did not have that option.