This is not my bag but not seeing a match thread and its game day. https://www.onceametro.com/2018/5/19/17372152/breaking-news-captain-robles-out-against-atlanta Looks like the Red Bulls will be without their starting 'keeper. Considering this match should be hotly contested I'm hoping this will help Atlanta out.
Through the first 25 minutes, yes, hotly contested. No, goaltender change is not helping us out. The kid has made a couple massive stops already
weird game so far. Atlanta's first: NYRB can complain that it should have been whistled dead for a NYRB handball outside of the box. Atlanta's second: Taken away and I still haven't seen contact by Martinez on the defender after multiple replays. Geiger is the VAR ref and I guess he's not done screwing us following the SKC match
I'm impressed by NY's high press. Very tenacious. Very physical. Be interesting to see if they can keep up that pace the entire 90. Deserved penalty by Robinson as he was holding BWP. Seen worse not called but thems the breaks.
RBNY guy here I just wanted to say this was a badly reffed game. Not sure I saw the second goal trip that led to it being called back. The Penalty was a foul but I have also seen it not get called. There was also what looked like a foul leading to the turnover for the second goal. All I can is Swings and roundabouts. I am sure we will be on the receiving end of badly ref game before this season is over. I hope it is not a playoff game like last season vs Toronto.
We have got to figure out the Martinez situation. He’s been extremely poor for a few games now... that and/or it’s absolutely infuriating seeing him challenge for aerial balls...maybe on the break, but we may as well just give the other team the ball if we think that strategy is going to work. Secondly, we need Tito back in the XI. Which, brings up the point that I think Barco could play deeper into the midfield. Next match: ——Tito——Martinez—— Barco—Almiron—Gressel ——Nagbe——Jeff——- —LGP—Parky—Miles—- ————Guzan————-
Disallowed goal - Penso was in a perfect position to see the play and make the right call live. How he saw it differently on replay, who knows. I guess his mentor Geiger had a better view, which I still have not seen. Just unbelievable. The ATL response to the poor call was bad, they played angrily all the way up through the penalty. Penalty - really soft. Robinson forearms BWP a little, but as BWP gets past he seems to jump up a little, leaving his feet on his own. Hard to believe that Penso didn't go to VAR. To me, the pen is more questionable than the goal. After that, ATL seemed to be swimming upstream. The LGP foul should have been a DGSO and red. Lar "red" probably a legit yellow, correctly changed. Can't argue with the Garza red. Yes, he got the ball and unluckily the rebound seemed to drive his studs up into his opponent's high thigh, which merits a red nowadays. So, all in all, I count five key, game-swinging decisions by the referee. He got two very wrong (goal, DGSO), two right (Lar, Garza), and one decision was questionable (pen), but he didn't handle it well by not going to VAR. Unfortunately for the league, this game is not really the exception. These bad decisions are made every week in many games. MLS officiating is just brutally bad right now. VAR, in my opinion, has made it worse. If they don't clean it up it's going to discourage the next generation of Almiron's and Barco's, and Martino's from coming into the league. Tata had some pretty strong words about Geiger after the match, wouldn't surprise me to see a fine or suspension. -- "(NY and KC matches) both games had the same protagonist, and when I say the same, I’m not talking about the referee. I’m talking about the same person. In one game he refereed and in the other he reviewed. And they were decisive in the outcome of the game." -- "I got 10 messages from Argentina asking me who reviews VAR”. -- "And again the worry is for you all because the person reviewing VAR is going to the World Cup. It’s going to speak poorly of you all, not me.”
I agree with the general discourse against the refereeing. However, I'm totally surprised that there isn't an outcry against the entire refereeing staff for letting a player lay on the turf for 20-30 seconds after a clear head/neck injury. Atlanta took the ball back from across midfield and crossed the ball with the NY keeper scrambling back into position. I'm an Atlanta fan, but that was inexcusable. I'd be in favor of all of the officiating crew working this game being suspended. I wouldn't feel too bad with a 10 game suspension. Lawrence could have had a very significant injury. A broken neck or similar career ending injury. Yet, play went on. The assistant should have said something, if not the VAR official. Mr. Geiger, again. I also notice that there hasn't been much outcry against the 1st BWP goal, where play continued after a foul on Almiron. Pass-pass-cross-goal. I was more upset with that than either of the 2 red cards. Yes, it was a beautiful cross and goal, but Penso let play continue. I hope someone got a better look at that than the video showed. Bad camera-work, with no close-up view. I'm beginning to equate Mr. Geiger with Mr. Depilido (sp?) from the 80s NASL. He allowed Georgio Canalia to give him a 2-hand shove in a game against the Cosmos. That's a straight red, anyday. Every controversial call Geiger seems to make occurs in an Atlanta game, and it always goes against Atlanta. That's just my impression from a comfy chair in front of my TV.
My guess would be that if Tito is brought back into the starting lineup, they go back to the 4-5-1 and Gressel moves to the bench. Barring injury, I think Tito stays on the bench with the 3-5-2. My one big complaint about VAR is it's getting to the point I can't celebrate a goal. I have to wait to make sure the kickoff happens before I can be sure that the goal will stand. And by that point the initial exhilaration of scoring the goal is gone. It's just not as much fun to watch.
During the game, and on the marta ride home, lots of people were complaining about the ref's decisions. I thought Penso called a great game, especially considering the number of controversial moments during the game. Still not sure why Goal #2 was disallowed, but that was the fastest video review I've ever witnessed so it had to be something obvious. If the review is that fast, the ref must have been 100% convinced. I just wish they had to explain their decisions publicly. MLS refs seem to be relying heavily upon video review, and making calls that allow them to go to review instead of making the calls that they think are the right call at the moment. In a way that bothers me, that the refs aren't calling the game as they see it, and I hate the VAR delays, but VAR is a tool that allows them to get more input and better angles to make a more educated decision. As for the injury and letting play continue - it was such a freak play and not something that normally leads to a concussion/head injury. Maybe if players stopped flopping around and diving, and only went down when they were actually injured, refs could protect them better. That's on the players, not the officials.
Okay. I've digested the match and watched most of the replay. So, off we go: - The ref did a fair job if you go by the book, but as has been hinted here and by Doug Roberson he called many things that we've also seen not called. I do think he was slack on the arm checks and missed a couple fouls but nothing I would consider extraordinary. My biggest beef was merely not reviewing what turned into their penalty because that seemed light compared to other things not called. But I'm hesitant to say the ref was negligent or erred in a way that cost ATL the match. To wit... - Full credit to NY. They came in a bossed the midfield and pushed the limits of physical play to take Atlanta out of their game, especially after getting the tying goal. Atlanta slumped more due to NY's pressure than the ref. BWP is The Man still, but more importantly they played as a team and did what they wanted, especially on offense. They're the best team Atlanta has faced thus far, I say. - Martinez is an enigma. Had he (or Almiron) finished his early chance the game moves quickly to 2-0 and the tenor is very different. Because he/they didn't he became less and less useful as the game went on. Once Atlanta was forced to chase the game it sure felt like Atlanta would've been better served by using a point-forward (ie: Williams) instead of a speedster. But we all know how well Josef would've responded to such a switch. - I knew going in Atlanta would look to play wide, believing all the pundits. In hindsight that seemed foolish. NY has a big team but they also like to push high and wide on the counter. Thus Atlanta failed to sustain attacks, and when they were up top they yielded fewer quality shots than hoped. If they were to line up again today I'd love to change things by looking to go more through the middle. Having Gressel try to feed Martinez from the air against a tall D didn't work, so play a possession game and let your speedy midfielders do their thing. - Barco got the goal but I didn't like how he was literally all over the field. Nagbe was forced to cover a lot of space and/or players because our attackers flew too many solo missions, particularly the youngster. He's shown brilliant skill, but clearly he needs to refine his team play. - LGP. Our Martinez of the defense. Frankly I'm ready for life beyond him. He's talented and works hard but he's often too brash and is NOT the one I want leading a counter. 2-3 unforced giveaways by my count, the usual fouls surrendered in bad spots, yellow card #google... Will be really anxious to see defense perform without him if everyone else is healthy. Don't wish him I'll but it's clear there's a reason he's in MLS instead of, say, La Liga.
The refs first duty is to protect players. Second is to conduct the match. Leaving a man face down for a considerable time is inexcusable. The ref has the first responsibility, then the 4th official or assistants should have said something. Even the video ref could have said something, although in my estimation, he's the last line. When the ref did come over and stop the play, he took an extra few seconds to wave the NY medical staff onto the field. Fortunately, it wasn't a life or death situation with Lawrence. If it had been, though, the delay between injury and treatment could have turned far uglier. It was an Emergency Medical situation, but wasn't treated with any regard to the player's health.
The refs are supposed to stop play immediately when there's a potential head injury, but you really only see that when two players go up and knock heads going for the ball. My guess is the ref didn't know it was a head injury, and I doubt any of the assistants did either. I doubt anyone at home did either until they saw the slo-mo replay. Players stay down all the time. It's unfortunate, but the only way to catch a play like this would be to stop play every time a player stays down, regardless of reason.