03/03/2017 Portland Timbers v Minnesota United Providence Park (9:30pm ET) REF: CHRIS PENSO AR1: Jeremy Hanson AR2: Cameron Blanchard 4TH: Baboucarr Jallow Roster: Click here to see the 2017 PRO officials 03/04/2017 Columbus Crew v Chicago Fire MAPFRE Stadium (2:00pm ET) REF: FOTIS BAZAKOS AR1: Danny Thornberry AR2: Kevin Klinger 4TH: Sorin Stoica LA Galaxy v FC Dallas StubHub Center (4:00pm ET) REF: KEVIN STOTT AR1: Mike Rottersman AR2: Craig Lowry 4TH: Alejandro Mariscal Real Salt Lake v Toronto FC Rio Tinto Stadium (4:30pm ET) REF: ALLEN CHAPMAN AR1: Peter Manikowski AR2: Jeffrey Hosking 4TH: Geoff Gamble Colorado Rapids v New England Revolution Dick's Sporting Goods Park (6:00pm ET) REF: JOSE CARLOS RIVERO AR1: Apolinar Mariscal AR2: Brian Poeschel 4TH: Younes Marrakchi D.C. United v Sporting Kansas City RFK Stadium (7:00pm ET) REF: ROBERT SIBIGA AR1: Jeff Muschik AR2: Eric Weisbrod 4TH: Alex Chilowicz Houston Dynamo v Seattle Sounders BBVA Compass Stadium (8:30pm ET) REF: RICARDO SALAZAR AR1: Ian Anderson AR2: Jeffrey Greeson 4TH: Nima Saghafi San Jose Earthquakes v Montreal Impact Avaya Stadium (10:00pm ET) REF: BALDOMERO TOLEDO AR1: Corey Parker AR2: Gianni Facchini 4TH: Daniel Radford 03/05/2017 Orlando City v New York City Orlando City Stadium (5:00pm ET) REF: JAIR MARRUFO AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Kyle Atkins 4TH: Marcos DeOliveira Atlanta United v New York Red Bulls Bobby Dodd Stadium (7:00pm ET) REF: MARK GEIGER AR1: CJ Morgante AR2: Matthew Nelson 4TH: Ted Unkel Vancouver Whitecaps v Philadelphia Union BC Place (9:30pm ET) REF: ALAN KELLY AR1: Adam Wienckowski AR2: Jason White 4TH: Dave Gantar http://www.proreferees.com/2017-mls-regular-season-assignments---week-1.php
They should have given Stott the New England-Colorado match. It's the 5,000th match in league history and it would have been fitting for someone who has been there since the beginning.
On page 57 of the 2017 MLS Fact Book, the attendance chart shows 4703 regular season and 292 playoff games for a total of 4995. NE vs Colorado is the fifth game to kickoff this weekend. This doesn't count All-Star Games, which some may count but I don't.
If it took you pulling together separate facts and doing a little arithmetic, and MLS hasn't made a big deal of it, I can guarantee PRO had zero idea it was the 5,000th game.
You may have been the first one to realize this, but now that you mentioned it on this forum I bet MLS knows before the game starts.
Penso and Co look a little rusty. Clear PK with apparently a good view in the first 10 mins, no call. Pretty obvious Portland foul not called then MN foul called immediately after leads to goal
I would have to see a replay to be sure, but assuming Ridgewell was in an offside position at the time of the pass I say the case is strong for offside. Have to see a replay again though.
just watched it again and it looked like there was a MN player off the end of the field, so no offside
The "PK" was a good no-call. Yes, it's a wrestling match, but Adi was going down regardless. As for the Blanco no-foul then foul, I agree. Can't understand why that's a non-call. AR right there is a local Portland referee - maybe a bit of home bias? On the first goal, there's a MN player behind the keeper, making the keeper the 2nd-last defender, so good job not flagging. Otherwise, thought they did a good job. Chara deserved his yellow, Penso cautioned for dissent, and the game was well under control.
It was a decent game by the officiating crew, but I don't understand the call that Blanco was involved in leading to the first goal. The contact by Blanco was much more deserving of a foul call than the foul after by the defender in my opinion. Other than that pretty good game from the crew.
Felipe usually fakes a cramp or injury late in the game, so the only thing I'm surprised about is that it took this long for a player to retaliate in some manner. Around the 53rd minute, he wiped someone out on a counter-attack, but the ball went to another Atlanta United player and applied advantage. I thought Geiger would card him on the next stoppage, but never did (I can't imagine he'd forget who it was). He's the only player on the team that usually gets away with those kinds of fouls. A beer was thrown at Geiger around the 90th minute when he was near the 4th official after whistling a foul. It came up a bit short, so I'd have to guess they were also an Atlanta Falcons fan.
Or a Panama fan. As the commentators pointed out, the last time Geiger reffed in Atlanta, it was the Mexico-Panama Gold Cup game.
His conduct in this game was appalling. While it was an "easy" red card, it would have also been easy to prevent. By being slow to respond to Felipe's antics, it set up the stomp. Had Geiger run in/demonstrated he was adding time, hit his whistle, or really done anything to show that he was aware what shenanigans were going on, that could have been avoided. I'm not trying to get the brain dead Atlanta player off the hook--he deserved his red card. But seriously. I hope the league suspends Felipe. If they don't this stuff will keep happening. Also, I hope the next time he pulls that stunt, the referee orders him off the field, and fails to wave him back on for at least as long as he was down. That's fully within his discretion, and would give him a consequence for his actions that might serve as a deterrent.
Two Galaxy players will be suspended this coming week. http://www.lagalaxy.com/post/2017/0...s-and-defender-dave-romney-suspended-one-game