04/17/19 Vancouver Whitecaps vs. Los Angeles FC BC Place (10PM ET) REF: Ramy Touchan AR1: Frank Anderson AR2: Jeremy Hanson 4TH: Joe Dickerson VAR: Allen Chapman AVAR: Rene Parra 04/19/19 FC Cincinnati vs. Real Salt Lake Nippert Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Fotis Bazakos AR1: Brian Poeschel AR2: Cory Richardson 4TH: Farhad Dadkho VAR: Chico Grajeda AVAR: Benjamin Hall-Volpenhein Toronto FC vs. Minnesota United BMO Field (8PM ET) REF: Ismail Elfath AR1: Kyle Atkins AR2: Corey Parker 4TH: Ted Unkel VAR: Geoff Gamble AVAR: Robert Schaap LA Galaxy vs. Houston Dynamo Dignity Health Sports Park (11PM ET) REF: Jair Marrufo AR1: Jeffrey Greeson AR2: Chris Elliott 4TH: Guido Gonzales Jr VAR: Alex Chilowicz AVAR: Cameron Blanchard 04/20/19 Chicago Fire vs. Colorado Rapids SeatGeek Stadium (1PM ET) REF: Dave Gantar AR1: Apolinar Mariscal AR2: Chris Wattam 4TH: Tim Ford VAR: Kevin Terry Jr AVAR: Peter Manikowski Philadelphia Union vs. Montreal Impact Talen Energy Stadium (1PM ET) REF: Robert Sibiga AR1: Adam Garner AR2: Felisha Mariscal 4TH: Marcos DeOliveira VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Gjovalin Bori Orlando City vs. Vancouver Whitecaps Orlando City Stadium (3PM ET) REF: Alan Kelly AR1: Adam Wienckowski AR2: Jeremy Kieso 4TH: Yusri Rudolf VAR: Caleb Mendez AVAR: Kevin Klinger Atlanta United vs. FC Dallas Mercedes-Benz Stadium (4PM ET) REF: Armando Villarreal AR1: Jason White AR2: Jose Da Silva 4TH: Alejandro Mariscal VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Jonathan Johnson Columbus Crew vs. Portland Timbers MAPFRE Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Christopher Penso AR1: Kathryn Nesbitt AR2: Kyle Longville 4TH: Lorant Varga VAR: Chico Grajeda AVAR: Peter Balciunas New England Revolution vs. New York Red Bulls Gillette Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Drew Fischer AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Matthew Nelson 4TH: Ramy Touchan VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero AVAR: Claudiu Badea San Jose Earthquakes vs. Sporting Kansas City Avaya Stadium (10PM ET) REF: Rubiel Vazquez AR1: Eduardo Mariscal AR2: TJ Zablocki 4TH: Joe Dickerson VAR: Kevin Stott AVAR: Fabio Tovar 04/21/19 D.C. United vs. New York City FC Audi Field (4PM ET) REF: Allen Chapman AR1: Jeremy Hanson AR2: Nick Uranga 4TH: Marcos DeOliveira VAR: Daniel Radford AVAR: Jeff Muschik Los Angeles FC vs. Seattle Sounders Banc of California Stadium (7PM ET) REF: Baldomero Toledo AR1: Mike Rottersman AR2: Ian Anderson 4TH: Tim Ford VAR: Alex Chilowicz AVAR: Cameron Blanchard Two 4ths of DeOliveria and Toledo gets the big game of the week.
MLS debut for Benjamin Hall-Volpenhein (AVAR in Cincy). If they ever put him on a game with Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho, 280 characters on twitter might not be enough. At least John Spicer-Escalante is retired.
Good decision by Gantar and VAR in the Fire-Rapids game on the Price reversal to a red card. Gantar went yellow on the field, but the scissors action from behind is clear and obvious to me to go with SFP. I'm surprised the AR on that side couldn't give Gantar some additional guidance to give a red on the field.
Three send downs for SFP this weekend. COL's Jack Price at CHI (86'): Gantar upgrades to red PHI's Kai Wagner vs MTL (90'): Sibiga upgrades to red VAN's Lass at ORL (90+3'): Kelly retains yellow And....discuss.
I was at the Union game. Wagner's tackle was across the field from me, so I didn't see it in real time, but it was a pretty obvious RC when they showed the decisive clip on the video board. Everyone around me audibly winced. Definitely could have broken an ankle or leg, and was just stupid on many levels...the Union had a 3-0 lead and were in 2nd half stoppage time! Not sure what the criteria are for adding extra games to the suspension, but this feels like it may deserve it. A shame for us Union fans since Kai Wagner has been such a revelation at left back since joining the club in the off-season.
I thought all three were correct and good use of VAR. Gantar's is probably the most borderline. It should be an obvious red, but it's not always given as such. To the extent MLS is cracking down on scissors challenges, this definitely should be a red. You have the additional factors of the ball more or less being out of play and the time on the clock/clear frustration. While I think this should be red via VAR and glad it was here, I am very skeptical that this standard would hold in, let's say, the playoffs. I also am certain this wouldn't have been red via VAR at the World Cup. So the global erratic nature of VAR intervention still applies. Sibiba's is easy. Unfortunate it wasn't caught in real-time, but VAR ensures that that decision was corrected. And I agree with Kelly. Somewhat surprised that got sent down. While a red card could be defended for that incident if given initially, it's not clearly wrong to show yellow as there are a number of mitigating factors.
Inside Video Review video and the Definitive Angle article keep improving. The week 8 one was fantastic. It includes the review of the Houston PK where the best camera angle decided it would be a good time to zoom into Marrufo's back instead of watching play.
This weeks AR review is also interesting. https://www.proassistantreferees.com/mls-week-in-review/week-8-april-19-21 I thought we had a discussion recently of the odd imbalance that OS was reviewed for goals but not PKs? The discussion of the AR not timely raising a potential OS in the APP before a PK was given (by review) seems to make clear that a PK can also be taken away.