Nothing on Zlatan's hands to face incident? It wasn't a bone melting ear flick, but it certainly looked like the intent was to slap the defender in the head, no other reason for his hands to be there. It was called a foul so Unkel saw it and deemed it a foul, but didn't show a YC or RC, so my only guess is Unkel was unaware of the hands to head = red rule?
Striking the head/neck of an opponent is a compulsory red card for violent conduct if and only if it is deliberate, using greater than negligible force, and done while not challenging for the ball. Basically, what the Law is saying is that the threshold for excessive force is any force at all, but only in this particular scenario. Otherwise, it's in the opinion of the referee. I don't think it's unreasonable or unexpected to say that Ibrahimovic was trying to get to the ball when he committed the foul. Yellow was the worst he's ever going to see there, although I'm not sure if a foul was even called. I know there was no card since he was booked for that sneaky trip on Chara later. Similarly, I think Darren Mattocks popped someone in the face while taking the ball this weekend. It wasn't a red card foul, and I would sincerely doubt he'll be suspended for it like a certain journalist was hypothesizing.
yeah he was trying to get the ball while grabbing a defender by the head and pushing him to the ground. Saying he was going for the ball when he fouled a guy by using his hands on the head is like the "but I got ball" argument when plowing through a player. It surely doesn't look "incidental" or a natural position to me, the foul was called but no card shown. He had at least two other YC worthy fouls before kicking out at Chara to receive his first yellow. EDIT: I tried to find video but for some strange reason MLS didn't include that play in the highlights, nor did they talk about it at all on Instant Replay. Weird /s
Right, because there's a huge conspiracy by MLS on Instant Replay to protect referees and to never ever suggest a star player should have been sent off. Really weird. I mean, could that still photo be a yellow card? Sure. But it could also be almost nothing (and unless he's deliberate swung down on him or pulled his hair, it almost certainly isn't a straight red). Having not seen the match or incidents referred to, I can't really offer a solid opinion. But I would note it seems like you already have a very strong one and don't appear to want to entertain an opposing viewpoint.
They're getting better at this every week. I can't overstate how impressed I am with this weekly round up. Both from the referee and transparency point of view. http://proreferees.com/2019/04/05/the-definitive-angle-mls-week-5/
Was the Van/Sea PK was clearly erroneous, or was that just re-refereeing? I'm also not so convinced that the Orl/DC was "not a foul," though I agree it was not clearly erroneous not to call a foul and should not hve been sent down for an OFR. (And I fully confess I may be biased on this as a former GK who refs at a very different level.)