The latter has been said time and time again. Will MLS ever get the situation w/ the refs right? Bad calls week after week, season after season. Refs are ruining potentially good MLS games. MLS FO correctly train, fine, suspend or fire bad refs. Stop with this nonsense already.
Houston receives Chelseas style bias? Now, I am not a fan of either Houston or Colorado. But, on FSC we are lucky to get a game a week live, so I take advantage of that. 65th minute. On the edge of the 6 yard box, Roberto Brown came in with the ball after he left a Houston defender, I think it was Mullan, behind. Eddie Robinson comes in with a forearm, that would make NFL linebackers proud, to Browns jaw. Rather than go down to 10 men on Robinson's second yellow, and allow Colorado to draw level on the spot kick, what happens? Nothing. Mastroeni gets a yellow card for dissent. Houston go up to 12 men, because now the man in yellow is working for them. Foul after foul called on Colorado, and only the most blatant fouls ever done called on Houston. In a severly game turning event, Referee Andrew Chapin, dropped the ball. What will MLS do about the foul, since they do watch the replays? Should be interesting to find out.
Re: Mls Refs=sh¡t have you seen some of the European refs?? just as bad!! In the world cup one managed to book a player 3 times!!! What I've seen in the World Cup and in the Dutch competition, the FIFA quickly needs to sort things out before a team or country sues the heck out of them for a ref mistake that could have been prevented if the FIFA would have stepped into the 21st century
Re: Houston receives Chelseas style bias? You've obviously never watched EPL or the Russian League or you would know what was a foul and what wasn't.
Re: Houston receives Chelseas style bias? Houston Dynamo Colorado Rapids Total Shots: 11 8 Shots on Goal: 5 3 Total Saves: 2 2 Fouls: 12 15 Offsides: 4 4 Corner Kicks: 6 4
Re: Houston receives Chelseas style bias? Looks like the crowd has spoken. Your complain has no bases.
Re: Houston receives Chelseas style bias? Huh? Why would Brown get a PK? Robinson clearly beat him to the ball and guess what? It was Brown's lousy touch that gave the ball away. In case you hadn't noticed, he is a pretty big dude and was running full speed ahead at Robinson. How about this. We take the nasty kick in the face that was given to Rico Clark by that big clumsy Casey guy, and we call it even. Deal?
Re: Houston receives Chelseas style bias? I just watched the play in question. That is a yellow card in my book (and I actually do ref). He extends the forearm in an intended manner to go against Brown and catches brown squarely with the rest of his body. Should have been a PK and a 2nd yellow.
Re: Houston receives Chelseas style bias? The tribe has spoken. You are the missing link. Good-bye. You're fired. This isn't News. This isn't Analysis. This will soon be banished to the netherlands that are MLS General. Anywho... I don't think it changed the game. Houston had been dominating from the middle of the first half on. They had already gone up 2-1. Many refs are reluctant to give away a penalty and a 2nd yellow in that situation, especially when in real time the shove seemed to be part of his motion.
Re: Houston receives Chelseas style bias? i agree with the thread starter. Robinson is a talentless hack. AND NO! I WILL NOTZ PROVIDE A LINK!
Ives: Brian Hall controversy on RSL tying goal Well this makes things even more interesting... http://njmg.typepad.com/sbi/2007/05/controversy_sur.html If this is true, than there can be no argument, Brian Hall has to be suspended. A fourth official CAN NOT waive a player back into play unless the referee on the field says so. If Salazar had not waived him back in, and Brian Hall let him onto the pitch, that can be no suitable defence for Hall.
Re: Houston receives Chelseas style bias? i wouldn't give a penalty in that situation. i might find a way to give a yellow to Robinson later, but Robinson came in and made a nice tackle after Brown's loose touch. The business afterwards was unnecessary, but not worth a pk.
Re: Mls Refs=I do not like them They have to be consistent not bias .... the colorado / houston game terrible. The ref gave no warnings to colorado players just pure yellow.,,, time and time again he called nothing on fouls by houston or would even waste time to tell them that it was a second warning. Robinson had one yellow already when he hit Brown in the jaw on Brown's way to the goal. Brown goes down really hard. Can you believe that robinson did not get another yellow at all but pablo the captain did for dissent. Something has to change. If they look at film for player suspension then they should for these refs.
Re: Houston receives Chelseas style bias? Frankly, Colorado is the dirtiest team in MLS. So something didn't go there way for a change..big deal.
Robinson is a hack and should have been yellow carded for the forearm shiver on Brown, PK, and the score probably tied at 2. That being said, the Rapids played like sh!t in the second half and didn't deserve any points out of the game, so I can't feel like we were screwed by the ref that much. And monster, that stat is fairly meaningless if you think the ref was biased. Obviously if you think Houston was committing fouls and not being called for them, Colorado would have more fouls than Houston. Just for the record I think he was a poor ref, but not a biased one.
BTW, looking at the stats it appears that Dallas is the dirtiest team in the elague, but Colorado is second.
No ref is perfect and some calls will be missed or misjudged, but this week alone has seen at least 3 calls that are undefendable. Shalrie's red card Salazar's PK in the 90th Hall the 4th official letting a player back in without the refs permission I could even say the Terry Vaughn PK call on Riley was dubious, but at least it looked like it "could" have been a penalty at speed. MLS made a step in the right direction to hire full time league refs, but they need to really monitor their performances and not be afraid to fire those that are consistantly in the midst of contraversy and poor reviews. I have to think there are some soccer refs in this country that would like to be full time league officials and have the ability and nerve to do so.
I don't think people will ever be satisfied with refereeing, unless humans all of a sudden become perfect and capable of satisfying everyone. Just get over it, it's a fact of sports life.
Its a tough job, and i will give the benefit of the doubt in situations of the norm whee close calls are given or calls that happen at speed which could or clould not make an official believe a call is justified. But seriously some of these calls (just this week) have been indefensible even for a referee.
I never meant to sound like I thought the Rapids should win. But it's impossible to deny the way the flow of the game would have changed had that call been made. I honestly could care less who won the game, but that wasn't that much less a serious foul than Thatcher on Mendes<sp?> earlier this year in the EPL. Just Robinson was lucky and caught the jaw not the temple.
One thing that would help the refs is to give them head sets where they could talk to each other. I know that the center ref doesn't want to give up his power, but how many times have you seen a center ref come over and talk to a linesman or 4th official to hear what they saw. It seems that used to be more common, but you rarely see it anymore. Head sets would also allow the 4th offiacial to let the center ref know a player was ready to come back in, and get permission to have them get on the field. We are not talking about clumsy ear phones anymore, but something that wouldn't distract from the game, and should help improve the officiating.
As I've always told my kids teams who complain about the Ref - "At every level of the game, players ALWAYS make more mistakes than the Refs" - I get as emotionally irate as any other fan about Refs mistakes and bad calls or non-calls and over-reactions - But only in one case have I ever thought that a Ref should not be on the field (and that for only medical reasons) As a player (and a coach and a fan), I look for a Ref to be calm but no-nonsense and call a relatively tight game at first - Let the players know you are seeing every contact and have a firm line drawn about fouls - Players get the message soon and stop late tackles or retaliatory contact - Also, talking to the players (or the two players in an altercation) does wonders calm emotions down and let players know you're seeing and judging everything - THEN, as the game goes on, you can allow more contact as long as its on the ball, and not late or pulling or grabbing Non-Calls on Fouls in the Box - While I applaud the new tendency to call Yellow Cards on players who take dives in the box, NOT EVERY FALL TO THE GROUND IS A YELLOW CARD!! - Nearly every time I've seen an MLS Ref not call a PK, its a Yellow Card on the offensive player - Somehow European and SA Refs have it right - If there's significant contact in the box, and the player goes down, just because a PK isn't awarded doesn't mean its a dive or fake by the Forward - I've seen contact in the box, but only from a shoulder charge, and the Forward goes down - In MLS its a Yellow, in Euro/SA its the hand motion to get back up - I've seen contact in the box and the Forward goes down, but the ball was too far ahead - In MLS its a Yellow, in Euro/SA its a Goal Kick Improvements - Headsets are pretty common in Europe - Its must help in fouls on the far side of the field or away from the Refs vision - And especially off the ball or away from the ball - No reason they shouldn't be standard in MLS Reviews of Games - I hope this is standard - If its not, it ought to be - Even the best Refs blow some calls and can improve the next game - Hopefully there can be a way to de-personalize the Reviews with a the goal towards objectively improving performance instead of negative criticism