The assignments for Week 5 of the 2019 Major League Soccer season: 03/29/19 Toronto FC vs New York City FC BMO Field (8PM ET) REF: Christopher Penso AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Chris Wattam 4TH: Ismail Elfath VAR: Kevin Terry Jr AVAR: Robert Schaap 03/30/19 Chicago Fire vs New York Red Bulls SeatGeek Stadium (1PM ET) REF: Alex Chilowicz AR1: Jeff Hosking AR2: Brian Dunn 4TH: Farhad Dadkho VAR: Fotis Bazakos AVAR: Peter Balciunas New England Revolution vs Minnesota United Gillette Stadium (2PM ET) REF: Allen Chapman AR1: Brian Poeschel AR2: Eric Boria 4TH: Guido Gonzales Jr VAR: Alan Kelly AVAR: Thomas Supple Sporting Kansas City vs Montreal Impact Children’s Mercy Park (3PM ET) REF: Nima Saghafi AR1: Matthew Nelson AR2: Jeremy Kieso 4TH: [ TBD ] VAR: Christina Unkel AVAR: Cory Richardson San Jose Earthquakes vs Los Angeles FC Avaya Stadium (3:30PM ET) REF: Dave Gantar AR1: Philippe Briere AR2: Gjovalin Bori 4TH: Alejandro Mariscal VAR: Daniel Radford AVAR: Fabio Tovar FC Cincinnati vs Philadelphia Union Nippert Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Rubiel Vazquez AR1: Logan Brown AR2: Michael Kampmeinert 4TH: Matt Franz VAR: Ricardo Salazar AVAR: Craig Lowry Columbus Crew vs Atlanta United MAPFRE Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Joe Dickerson AR1: Nick Uranga AR2: TJ Zablocki 4TH: Malik Badawi VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Eric Weisbrod Colorado Rapids vs Houston Dynamo Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (9PM ET) REF: Marcos DeOliveira AR1: Jose Da Silva AR2: Eduardo Mariscal 4TH: Tim Ford VAR: Luis Guardia AVAR: Jozef Batko Real Salt Lake vs FC Dallas Rio Tinto Stadium (9PM ET) REF: Baldomero Toledo AR1: Corey Parker AR2: Chris Elliott 4TH: Mark Allatin VAR: Geoff Gamble AVAR: Sean Hurd Vancouver Whitecaps vs Seattle Sounders BC Place (10PM ET) REF: Robert Sibiga AR1: Kyle Atkins AR2: Micheal Barwegen 4TH: Ramy Touchan VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Rene Parra 03/31/19 Orlando City vs D.C. United Orlando City Stadium (6:30PM ET) REF: Armando Villarreal AR1: Jeffrey Greeson AR2: Andrew Bigelow 4TH: Christopher Penso VAR: Chico Grajeda AVAR: Kevin Klinger LA Galaxy vs Portland Timbers Dignity Health Sports Park (9PM ET) REF: Ted Unkel AR1: Frank Anderson AR2: Mike Rottersman 4TH: Alejandro Mariscal VAR: Kevin Stott AVAR: Cameron Blanchard
Yes, though not at the whistle spot immediately; you're technically already seeing trialists this week with Allatin and Dadkho. There will be new ones next week. My understanding is the new CBA allows for a lot more trial spots (though the best term is probably "non-BU members"). As many have been pointing out for a few years, with expansion and impending retirements, that's absolutely necessary.
Aside from the blowouts this weekend, there hasn't been too much to discuss. Couple of good video reviews (offside and penalty) in Toronto. Think there may have been one for offside in KC, too?
How close do you think the game in Columbus was to being halted? The commentators suggested the referee was considering it, but I wasn't paying close enough attention to figure out how they knew that. It was a mess for sure.
I can't think of any other reason for all four of them to come together at that point. Considering the complete lack of stoppage time, I'd say the answer is "pretty close."
I was surprised they kept playing. The refere signaled for full time (I think?). I’m not sure what would have happened all of a sudden that could have changed his mind.
There are some rumblings that the referee may not have been aware of the changed to competition rules that require all matches to reach full time. Perhaps he was trying to get to a certain minute in the match to make it official, discovered he was wrong, and decided to press on to the end? Which raises the question why would anyone out there not be aware of competition guidelines, particularly when the threat of inclement weather was obvious. Hell, they had a long lightning delay so it's not like there wasn't time to figure it all out. Regardless, I'm not sure exactly what happened. Just piecing things together from journalists.
Biggest call yesterday was probably the penalty call in Vancouver that was overturned after video review. Seemed consistent with the standard that PRO has been using this season.
How did Sibiga restart the game? It looks like he's signalling for an IDFK, but obviously it should be a dropped ball near the touchline where the ball was when play stopped.
I have not seen the discussion and I don’t raise this as an excuse, but... Is Dickerson-Uranga-Zablocki-Badawi the crew with the least on-field officiating experience in at least a decade? Your stats have them at 90 total games in their respective positions, with Uranga having over 50% of them. Tack on Dickerson’s fourths and it’s probably just over 100. Uranga is the only one who is close to a “veteran” and he came into the league three years ago. Again, not an excuse. More curiosity than anything.
Here's a report with some specifics. If accurate its not a good look fro the officiating crew (according to the report, not only was he not aware of the changed rules, he had the old rules wrong, saying it takes 70 and not 75 minutes to be an official game). https://www.prosoccerusa.com/mls/co...ersy-between-teams-and-officials-in-columbus/
I guess the VAR was maybe helping them with the decision wink wink. Jorge was VAR. I don't remember any games being final after a certain time. I remember going to DC united games in old RFK when lights went out and we have to restart at the minute it was stopped.
I know a Fire game was terminated due to lightning a few years ago. I can't remember if it was Schweinsteiger's first year or Friedrich's first year in the states where they weren't familiar with how bad the lightning can be. Edit: Found it. April 15th 2012. https://www.chicago-fire.com/post/2012/04/15/rain-halts-match-between-fire-dynamo-early
The ORL-DC game certainly provided a number of interesting plays. The foul that set up Rooney's goal was 100% a foul, it's just one that almost never gets called in MLS. My bet is that if it wasn't Rooney it wouldn't have gotten called in this game either. The contact between the GK and the DC player also appeared to happen after the ball had passed both of them so I think it was correct to let the goal stand. But it's also one of those things that frequently does get called a foul.
Curious on thoughts about the collision that occurs on the left-side of the screen at minute 1:55 of this video. There was a delay before the ball came back in play as the DC player was hurt, so plenty of time to review. Is this not something the VAR should have identified for review? Is this not a PK? https://matchcenter.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2019-03-31-orlando-city-sc-vs-dc-united/recap
I wonder if that Ruan/Rodriguez collision wasn't called because it looks like, in watching the highlight a couple of times, Rodriguez moves towards the ball a little bit and happens to get caught up by a full steam ahead Ruan. But in real time, that's a pretty gnarly collision, and I was definitely wondering while watching the game why VAR didn't send that down.