Seattle Sounders vs Toronto FC CenturyLink Field (3PM ET) REF: Allen Chapman AR1: Brian Dunn AR2: Corey Rockwell 4TH: Rubiel Vazquez VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Cameron Blanchard RAR: Brian Poeschel
Is there a way to rep @coreyrock's rep? Guessing you can't answer, but just in case, is there any different preparation or pre-match training for the Final? Any additional procedural or ceremonial steps for the crew?
Would love to share for sure! But keeping a low profile before kick so I can focus on the game. Once the game is done, I am happy to share the pre game prep and training.
Meh. As you said on another thread, we focus on VAR at the expense of referee analysis. How was it not a yellow on-field? That should be the bigger focus. I see arguments for red, but it’s never being given for that in a cup final (and probably not in the regular season, to be honest). No way VAR would intervene. But it has to be yellow.
Finals are weird. There's the obvious criticism that Chapman's bar for what constitutes reckless play was too high, but he also successfully allowed the spectacle to speak for itself.
In the stadium, the call felt very consistent: like both matches in the last round, it seemed very clear what was and wasn't going to be a foul to the players and the spectators very quickly. Toronto did complain more often than Seattle, but were also the bigger and more physical team: everything felt right and the stadium rarely expressed shared displeasure. Also, I don't know if you could see this on TV, but one of the Toronto players went after our very own @coreyrock when he didn't raise his flag for a potential offside call, and Chapman immediately sprinted over and got in that player's face. Awesome and visible support of the AR, which was good, because otherwise I was going to have to jump down a few dozen rows and yell at him myself. (The call looked right from my line too, which was only a couple of yards to the side - but of course I thought he was right.) (Great job, @coreyrock. Always awesome to see you work.)
Not a surprise to me at all. I had a chance to talk with @coreyrock at the Terry Vaughn Referee Academy earlier this year. Corey (along with Mark Geiger, who was also there) is a top-shelf guy. He brought a bunch of previous-version Adidas shirts and was handing them out to youth refs, and he was kind enough to trust me that I was getting one for my 11-year-old son who didn't attend. Corey and Mark both signed the shirt, which hangs in his room now.
Thanks for the reminder! I have to get caught up with work (the real job.. haha) but hope to post something during the Thanksgiving break.
Sorry.. I had my whole reply typed last Friday, thought I hit "Post" but must have gotten disconnected or something! My apologies and I will retype and send tonight after work.
Well sorry for the delay on this. I would say I am busy with soccer, but that is not true. This December month is my first month in 60 months where I have not had an out of town soccer trip. And I've only had two games since the MLS Cup (2 NCAA games). First time not traveling since December, 2014. Back to The Cup.. what an experience. My first decision after getting assigned about 10 days before the cup was whether or not to bring my family. The positive would be they would get to share the MLS Experience and attend the MLS Final. But there were too many negatives which mostly revolved around the added stress of making sure they were taken care of in transportation, tickets, meals, hotel arrangements, etc. Therefore, I decided to go solo, like almost all my other MLS games. We arrived on Friday before our game Sunday. Usually, we stay at hotels near the airport but this hotel was right in downtown Seattle and was right near the MLS Cup HQ. Arriving early Friday gave us a nice chance to have a nice relaxing dinner together with both the MLS Cup referees, the families, and the PRO refs who lived in Seattle. It was a fantastic 4-course, 2 hour meal where we talked little about soccer, mostly about everything else outside the field of play, and the delicious food. It was an amazing place in Seattle called "Aerlume" that I highly recommend. On Saturday, we slept in and went to the stadium for a pre-game logistics meeting with MLS and the coaches. After that, we changed and had a light workout on the field for about 30 minutes, then had Panera in the locker room after our workout. That was also our only chance to shop for souvenirs, so we went to the stadium shop to get our scarves, pins, etc. We also turned in our jersey so we could get the "MLS Cup" stamp with the date on our uniform in time for Sunday. Saturday night was an early night since we had to be at the stadium so early on Saturday. The PSRA treated us to a nice pizza dinner walking distance from our hotel, another great place called "Serious Pie". Sunday, I did my game-day routine: Woke up and had my GameDay coca-cola and light breakfast. We had a gathering with PRO for breakfast with the final words of advice from Howard. Given the early kick-off, I pretty much finished breakfast and there was little time to rest. We all rode in a large van together: The 7 refs on the crew + PRO staff. The ride to the stadium took about 7 minutes as we had a police escort to take us the whole way. Once we got to the stadium, it was all game mode and focus on the job they brought us in for. We did has one funny locker room moment before the game: AR1 was provided with some adult diapers in case he had another "emergency" like he did at the all-star game (for the record, he respectfully declined and did not wear them in the final Then the game happened, and I'll let you all decide how we did, but we walked off very proud knowing that when people talk about the 2019 MLS Cup, the referees will not be the topic. That was our goal and we accomplished that. Howard gave me my MLS Cup medal on the field and made a joke about how long it took me to get this game, and we had a good laugh and smile. Many of you saw the photo of me walking off the field of play, and I just recorded a podcast of the story behind the photo.. I still get emotional just thinking about that 90+ yard slow walk off the field with medals in hand and the adrenaline wearing down. But that is when it first hit me that, "We did it." Sunday night, PRO provided an amazing dinner in the hotel. Howard and Mark and Greg were all so gracious with their words and assessment of the year and the game. We celebrated with each other on Sunday until the bar shut down. Then, I was out on the first flight Monday morning and at my full time job by 11 AM on Monday. Sorry that was so long and apologies I don't have pictures to accompany it. Some of the photos are with other and from PRO, so I don't want to post anything without their permission. PRO did give me permission to do a couple of interviews with some journalists in school, so hopefully those will be posted soon to provide even more insight. The bad news about MLS Cup: My good friends and colleagues can no longer make the joke, "Oh Corey, where was your MLS Cup? Oh that's right, you haven't had one yet." I'm sure they'll find other things to joke about
Corey, thanks for sharing, and Aerlume and Serious Pie were both fine choices: I appreciate your food-first storytelling. FYI, one of the interviews Corey did is now live in Podcast form - https://anchor.fm/keepthegamebeautiful/episodes/012---Corey-Rockwell-e9dv4q.