04/14/2017 Philadelphia Union v New York City Talen Energy Stadium (7:00pm ET) REF: JOSE CARLOS RIVERO AR1: Peter Manikowski AR2: Kevin Klinger 4TH: Allen Chapman Vancouver Whitecaps v Seattle Sounders BC Place (10:00pm ET) REF: KEVIN STOTT AR1: Jeffrey Hosking AR2: Cameron Blanchard 4TH: Dave Gantar San Jose Earthquakes v FC Dallas Avaya Stadium (11:00pm ET) REF: ARMANDO VILLARREAL AR1: Ian Anderson AR2: Apolinar Mariscal 4TH: Alejandro Mariscal 04/15/2017 Montreal Impact v Atlanta United Stade Saputo (1:00pm ET) REF: ALAN KELLY AR1: Danny Thornberry AR2: Jeffrey Greeson 4TH: Silviu Petrescu Orlando City v LA Galaxy Orlando City Stadium (2:30pm ET) REF: CHRIS PENSO AR1: Jeremy Hanson AR2: Andrew Bigelow 4TH: Rubiel Vazquez Chicago Fire v New England Revolution Toyota Park (5:00pm ET) REF: TED UNKEL AR1: Adam Wienckowski AR2: Eduardo Mariscal 4TH: Fotis Bazakos New York Red Bulls v D.C. United Red Bull Arena (7:30pm ET) REF: SORIN STOICA AR1: Adam Garner AR2: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho 4TH: Alex Chilowicz Columbus Crew v Toronto FC MAPFRE Stadium (8:00pm ET) REF: NIMA SAGHAFI AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Kyle Atkins 4TH: Hilario Grajeda Houston Dynamo v Minnesota United BBVA Compass Stadium (8:30pm ET) REF: ROBERT SIBIGA AR1: Jonathan Johnson AR2: Felisha Mariscal 4TH: Ismail Elfath Colorado Rapids v Real Salt Lake Dick's Sporting Goods Park (9:00pm ET) REF: MARK GEIGER AR1: Kermit Quisenberry AR2: Logan Brown 4TH: Daniel Radford Portland Timbers v Sporting Kansas City Providence Park (10:30pm ET) REF: DREW FISCHER AR1: Frank Anderson AR2: Daniel Belleau 4TH: Ricardo Salazar http://www.proreferees.com/2017-mls-regular-season-assignments---week-7.php
Nima Saghafi with his 2nd middle of the early season. Looks like he will be the next to move to the referee list when someone retires.
This was discussed a little in another thread. No need for a retirement. I'm fairly certain he moves up midseason and I think some expected it at the start of the season. On an unrelated note, I'm going to move the VAR clip into the general VAR thread, because it has almost nothing to do with MLS.
Kinda feel sorry for Geiger here. A rivalry match between 2 lousy teams sounds like a potentially difficult assignment.
Definitely a foul via the hands... but the better question is... were all of the considerations for DOGSO met? Personally, I'm not entirely sure... mostly on the control/likelihood of consideration.
Yeah, but it was a cynical foul. He was the last defender, and was beat, and absent the foul it was probably going to be a goal. The ATL keeper didn't help by being frozen too...had he come off his line would have been a tougher sell. I think the send-off is correct because while the attacker didnt' have the ball, it was just kind of sitting there for him.
Interesting no-call by Sibiga early on in Houston-Minnesota. I think this should have been a penalty and probably red card for DOGSO. What do you think? Video: http://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2017/04/15/pk-shout-christian-ramirez-taken-down-top-box?autoplay=true
Can't find good video just yet, but Frank Anderson with a shocker, calling POR offside on a backpass. Very unusual call from him, he's usually so great.
From the video I can't disagree with wanting a penalty. Mugging wasn't a bad descriptor for once from the announcer
Kelly said post match to pool reporter that he thought there was no play on the ball and it was an upper body contact foul. Unfortunately I don't think Kelly is interpreting the entire law change correctly. "an attempt to play the ball or challenge the opponent for the ball, the offender will be cautioned (yellow card) not sent off (red card)." While there is no attempt at the ball per se, the defender is certainly challenging an opponent for the ball, not committing a cynical non soccer related type foul. Will be interesting to see if they protest based on the law change. I think this is the exact kind of foul the IFAB and pundits wanted to stop seeing reds for. I don't even think it's a foul though. Just two guys battling it out and both end up going down. Defender does end up with his elbow and arm a bit high towards the end but mostly as a result of them just battling like you're supposed to. Kelly goes back pocket almost instantly. Curious if Thornberry had any input.
Wait, what are you quoting from? The Laws themselves say it's a red if it's holding, pushing or pulling. If Kelly said it was an upper body foul (you didn't use quotes there so not sure what his exact language was), then he's probably saying or implying it's a push or a pull. The change to the Laws was interpreted correctly here. I couldn't disagree more with your determination that the IFAB wants yellow here based on the nature of the foul. If you determine there was DOGSO here then the nature of the foul warrants red. For me, I side with @sulfur based on watching replay--at the time of the foul, the ball is in the air and between the players so there's a serious doubt as to what would have happened if there was no foul. That being said, in real-time this looks like an easy red if you call the foul just based on all the other factors and where the ball lands right after the foul is committed. Of course, these last few posts show just how confusing this change is and how subjective it is for referees. And that goes to the point that it was a bad change to make.
That's not just on Anderson but on Drew Fischer. He's got to waive down Anderson on that. I was very unimpressed with Fischer's performance. While I don't feel he missed any MCI, his foul selection was all over the place.
Here's the video of the Gonzalez Pirez send off: http://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/ma...act-vs-atlanta-united-fc/details/video/100481 I still think it's marginal at best, and in the light of the previous week's guidance from PRO, marginal means err on the side of yellow not red. Yes I hear you about push/pull/hold, but in view of the overall spirit of the change as I understand it, it should be clearly a push/pull/hold rather than a challenge for the ball, and after repeated viewing I still think this was the latter, even it if was an "upper body foul."
Some complaints from Rapids fans about the lack of calls last night. I disagree but I resent the tweet ehre in case any refs see something I don't. .@PROreferees missed a couple last night: https://t.co/fiIRFX2btQ & https://t.co/cn25AoAicI & https://t.co/s9uEiPOaKU #RSLvCOL #Rapids96— Burgundy Wave (@Burgundywave) April 16, 2017 Also at least one complaint that the red card/PK in the 84th minute was unwarranted but IMO if that's not a red card/PK then nothing is. 58 seconds into the highlights: http://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/ma...rapids-vs-real-salt-lake/details/video/100662
http://www.theifab.com/laws/additional-explanatory-documents/chapters/download-explanatory-documents Change of Law 12 Document from June 1 2016 The pool reporter said Kelly said it was an upper body foul so I'd assume that was his exact response to the pool reporter. The defender is challenging the opponent for the ball just as the IFAB document reads, not being cynical (holding, pulling, pushing). Just two guys battling it out. If you think it's a foul that's fine as the attacker does gain better position about the same time he goes down, but the key is they are both playing soccer. The change was made for fouls like these. Key word being unless. How can you say the defender is not attempting to play the ball when the ball is literally right on him at the time the challenge is committed?
But, can you play that ball with your hands as a defender? In this case, the defender is trying to barge through the attacker's upper body to get the ball, and if all of the DOGSO considerations are met, then this falls into the red card side of things. From conversations I've had with national+ instructors here in Canada, the direction seems to be that the feel from "on high" is that players can only challenge for a ball fairly with feet or with head. In this situation, I see neither of those two things happening.
The foul was charging. Charging is not holding, pulling, or pushing. Sounds like some instructors are just making things up rather than just reading the law change for what it is as well as not understanding the spirit of the change. Less reds, more yellows. More simplistically you get a red if you're not playing soccer, a yellow if you are.
The more I watch this clip, the more I have PK + YC. However, I am nowhere near "marginal call at best" like Bubba is. The defender steps on the right achilles of the attacker. That's the first foul. Then, the arm of the defender hits the head/shoulder of the attacker, which is probably/arguably also a foul. The reason this contact is made is because the defender decided to run through the player rather than run around him. The attacker is waiting on the ball to come down over his shoulder and he has every right to slow down a bit to allow physics to play out. When defenders make choices like that - contact that involves a multitude of contact points - they give referees the viable option of calling a PK & determining that it was an upper body foul. In other words, the defender's poor choices made this look like an upper body foul, which would be a RC. I think it's clearly DOGSO. I also think that the MTL player clearly leapt into the air after the foot contact and the arm contact from the defender. That doesn't help the optics of something like this, but it still doesn't absolve the defender of the fact that he committed 1, maybe 2, fouls. A bigger issue - watch when Kelly takes off. Watch his movement and his explosiveness. He's very slow to react and never is up to speed prior to calling the foul. I would argue a positioning choice and a better reaction would have saved him 8-10 yards on a play like that, and would have put him at an angle to be inside & 45 degrees of the foul. Separately, I don't know why we're still debating whether a push/pull/grab is a YC or a RC on a DOGSO play.