That it was missed in real time by the crew is pretty inexplicable. If Unkel was shielded, the AR still should have had that, unless they are so old-school they are rolling with the "no flags in the 18" mantra, or they are so new-school they said, "heck, if we missed it, let the VAR sort it out." But that was a bad miss either way. Yikes.
Wondo's very first MLS red card and he wasn't even playing :\ I'm pretty sure Wondo was yelling about the forearm to the back of Salinas, toward the end of the game, that didn't get called. Probably just frustrated by the inconsistent calls all day.
I don't know what exactly what he was angry about in that particular moment, but I do know that what he said absolutely had to be a red card.
Less than 24 hours later, Robert Sibiga ties the record with 1 foul called against Minnesota. Bizarre.
18 fouls and one card by Kelly last night. Seems a little lower than his usual. (23.5 fouls and 3.5 yellows per game)
This is the referee's decision - given the angle of the players, anything from the lead AR on this wouldn't be more than a gut feeling/guess from 30 yards away
Well, he kicked him in the chest. That's the kind of thing you just can't miss. If the ref was shielded, he should tell his AR that ("Hey, I couldn't see through"), or his AR should say something agreed upon in pregame like, "Holy Smokes! He just got kicked in the fricken chest!" Also, no way the AR is 30 yards away. My main point tho is: I wonder if the AR is disinclined to help out on something obvious like that because of VAR. So this call ends up making VAR look good, but in reality if there was no VAR the AR might have manned up and called it. I can think of a few times ARs have called PKs in MLS and in EPL on collisions about that distance away. Anyway, there is just no way that should have been missed is all I'm saying.
They shouldn't be. They are supposed to get the call right on the field. So missing something that they should have been able to help the ref with should be a negative in their game evaluation. (Of course, that doesn't take away the human element that it feels better to miss and be told you missed than to jump in and be told you shouldn't have.)
What you said about the AR can also apply to the CR. I don't think this is consciously happening--at least not to a widespread extent. But I think we'd be naive in the extreme if we didn't think this is subconsciously happening to some officials when they have doubt in the more high-pressure situations (like a game-tying 90th minute PK). The only counter-argument is that, in MLS, PRO referees and VARs seem just as inclined to reverse penalty decisions as they are to interject with them. So you could easily see a referee or AR with the opposite attitude of what you describe--namely, "that sure looks like a penalty and VAR will save me if I've got this wrong, so penalty it is." But then we go back to the concept that we've talked a lot about in the past, which is that referees fear making errors of commission much more than errors of omission.
Looks like I was right... and Penso/Team screwed this one up (yes, that doesn't mean Wondo can act like that): After this play I let my emotions get the best of me and I’m very remorseful for that... A P.S.A for everyone you can’t yell “you’re Fing cheating us” from the 2nd row of the bench. It’s not a yellow for dissent but a straight red. #lovethisteam #unity https://t.co/0ZdfKz8g9Q— Chris Wondolowski (@ChrisWondo) September 24, 2019
Hang on, how did they screw up? Because a little scuffle wasn't punished like you wanted it to when you saw it through your homer lenses?
Certainly I'm a homer, but I'm guessing you haven't seen the game to see way the rest of it was called. It was a very out of the norm no-call for this game. Penso set the expectation very early.
What are we supposed to be mad about, the shoulder/elbow push to the back? I think that's the most common 50/50 call/no call out there.
I hate the penalty reversal for San Jose tonight. Hate it with the fire of a thousand suns. Also, was there deliberate handling on SKC's goal tonight? Was it clearly and obviously wrong to allow the goal?