The assignments for Week 3 of the 2018 Major League Soccer season: 03/17/2018 D.C. United v Houston Dynamo Maryland SoccerPlex (1:30PM ET) REFEREE: DAVID GANTAR AR1: PHIL BRIERE AR2: GIANNI FACCHINI 4TH: SORIN STOICA VAR: GEOFF GAMBLE Philadelphia Union v Columbus Crew Talen Energy Stadium (2PM ET) REFEREE: NIMA SAGHAFI AR1: PETER MANIKOWSKI AR2: PETER BALCIUNAS 4TH: MARCOS DEOLIVEIRA VAR: JORGE GONZALEZ Minnesota United v Chicago Fire TCF Bank Stadium (2PM ET) REFEREE: ALEX CHILOWICZ AR1: JASON WHITE AR2: FELISHA MARISCAL 4TH: BALDOMERO TOLEDO VAR: KEVIN TERRY JR Montreal Impact v Toronto FC Stade Olympique (3PM ET) REFEREE: ROBERT SIBIGA AR1: COREY PARKER AR2: NICK URANGA 4TH: ARMANDO VILLARREAL VAR: SILVIU PETRESCU New York City FC v Orlando City Yankee Stadium (3:30PM ET) REFEREE: JOSE CARLOS RIVERO AR1: BRIAN POESCHEL AR2: BRIAN DUNN 4TH: DANIEL RADFORD VAR: ALAN KELLY Atlanta United v Vancouver Whitecaps Mercedes-Benz Stadium (7:30PM ET) REFEREE: ISMAIL ELFATH AR1: MATTHEW NELSON AR2: ADAM GARNER 4TH: RUBIEL VAZQUEZ VAR: JUAN GUZMAN JR Sporting Kansas City v San Jose Earthquakes Children’s Mercy Park (8:30PM ET) REFEREE: ALLEN CHAPMAN AR1: ADAM WIENCKOWSKI AR2: KEVIN KLINGER 4TH: HILARIO GRAJEDA VAR: EDVIN JURISEVIC Real Salt Lake v New York Red Bulls Rio Tinto Stadium (9PM ET) REFEREE: TED UNKEL AR1: EDUARDO MARISCAL AR2: MICHAEL KAMPMEINERT 4TH: FOTIS BAZAKOS VAR: DREW FISCHER 03/18/2018 FC Dallas v Seattle Sounders Toyota Stadium (5PM ET) REFEREE: CHRISTOPHER PENSO AR1: JEFFREY HOSKING AR2: APOLINAR MARISCAL 4TH: ALEJANDRO MARISCAL VAR: KEVIN STOTT
Match counts for this week's referees and ARs: DC vs HOU: Gantar - 54th [Briere - 92nd, Facchini - 63rd] PHI vs CLB: Saghafi - 18th [Manikowski - 182nd, Balciunas - 146th] MIN vs CHI: Chilowicz - 4th [White - 59th, F. Mariscal - 40th] MTL vs TOR: Sibiga - 49th [Parker - 136th, Uranga - 24th] NYC vs ORL: Rivero - 93rd [Poeschel - 121st, Dunn - 95th] ATL vs VAN: Elfath - 106th [Nelson - 90th, Garner - 139th] SKC vs SJ: Chapman - 111th [Wienckowski - 191st, Klinger - 79th] RSL vs NYR: Unkel - 56th [E. Mariscal - 55th, Kampmeinert - 98th] DAL vs SEA: Penso - 125th [Hosking - 121st, Ap. Mariscal - 45th]
Having a game at the Maryland Soccerplex is a really bad move by DC. The “stadium” has only around 5,000 capacity.
They've played USOC games there regularly. It's a grass field that hosts another professional team, won't cost much to use, and won't have a bunch of football lines or college team logos all over the pitch. What's the alternative? Not having a stadium isn't an ideal situation. But given the options, picking Soccerplex seems fine. The other home match not at the new stadium year will be at Navy, which has its own challenges.
You can also let people sit on the hill behind one of the goals. Anyway, think of the atmosphere that they will have. That place should be packed!
I live about 45 minutes from the Soccerplex, and I’ve been there often. I was talking more about facilities (locker rooms, bathrooms, parking, etc.) Plus, I heard that the Plex was hosting 2 other events at the same time.
Apparently they've only sold somewhere between 3000 and 3500 tickets. MLS was not happy about the officials' locker room situation and wasn't going to allow them to play this match there. But given the lack of other alternatives (and MLS's insistence that the team play a few local games before the stadium is ready) they acquiesced after the club offered to provide some sort of trailer for the officials to use. I expect it will be a bit of a mess given the large youth tournament going on at the same venue at the same time.Given how terrible the team is and how much the front office has tried to alienate all of their fans there will be plenty of space for everyone. Somehow the NWSL team is able to deal with the venue's limitations. And as noted they have played many USOC games there for years. It's a beautiful pitch and certainly very intimate.
I'm curious how the VAR setup is for the game if they struggled to get a decent officials locker room.
Sure, but it's just a few games before they are moving in to a pretty awesome long term SSS. Tis what it is. Can't wait to go up and check it out.
MLS or PRO? Or PSRA, for that matter? Meh. The referee accommodations should not be deemed suitable for NWSL, just like several USL facilities should be unacceptable. There have been problems in NWSL matches and reports have been submitted related to the Soccerplex referee accommodations. Nothing is done and, likely, nothing will ever be done. Levels far below what should be considered professionally sufficient are accepted and continue both because referees want to keep working and the teams in NWSL and USL only have so much money and so many options. It's a tricky situation because most involved want to put the game first. But one shouldn't draw a conclusion that because professional matches are regularly played at a venue, the facilities are up to professional-level standards. The standards that govern USOC are in the USOC Handbook and overseen by USSF. MLS standards are different and much higher.
I'm also curious about VAR. The locker room issue is mostly irrelevant to the question, though. VAR has been trialed at preseason in Arizona and at Generation Adidas--it can be implemented at second-rate or third-rate facilities. But when DCU has played at Soccerplex in the past (or when the Spirit play there) there are limited television cameras. So I just wonder what the technical abilities will be for the match.
These are all good reasons why Soccerplex is a bad idea. But the question still remains... what's the alternative? I guess they could have done Navy twice? I haven't read up on why it was available for one of these matches but not the other. Or, perhaps, DCU chose the smaller capacity Soccerplex for the earlier, more cold weather match?
Maybe I'm a cynic, but I'm guessing they will run it out of a truck with fewer cameras--and there will be no public discussion beyond that they solved the issue with the truck. Since VAR has been seamless and wonderful, no reason to say anything that might cause any questions . . ..
You make a good point about cold weather. I’m actually going to the game at Navy. It will be interesting to see what the attendance will be.
There is another event at Navy this weekend (men's and women's lacrosse games) so the stadium was not available. I don't understand why they couldn't postpone the match until Sunday and play there though. Steve Goff (Wash Post soccer reporter) mentioned that they couldn't move it because of TV, but that seems like a fairly weak excuse given the current TV partner which has a lot of flexibility. With respect to who exactly at MLS (or PRO) objected to the accommodations, I have no idea. I don't suppose it really matters, does it? They raised the issue and the club managed to find a way to do something about it. (Given how amateurish this organization is I wouldn't expect it to be a very good solution though)
It's only on local television, and neither channel is an affiliate. I can't imagine either one is airing anything that couldn't be pre-empted. KUBE is completely independent. NewsChannel 8 is on cable and a sister-station to WJLA-7.
Is there some other event at RFK that day? Or was there no option to play there until the new stadium is open? Seems a bit daft if the former venue will sit empty while they play at a tiny stadium, but then again this is DC so daft is kinda the norm these days
There is an event in the lots, but the team was committed to not return for some sort of pride issue. It was obvious prior to last season that the countdown for RFK matches wouldn't be a good idea. Team offices are still there and that's still where the team practices (although mostly on aux fields).
Paul Rejer may have jumped ship from PRO to YATR, but apparently he's still writing a play of the week article if anyone's interested. I'm morbidly curious, but not enough to actually give him the pageview.