Last week was fun. Let’s try it again... copied from the PRO website... http://proreferees.com/2020/03/03/2020-mls-assignments-week-2/ The assignments for Week 2 of the 2020 Major League Soccer season: 03/07/20 New England Revolution vs Chicago Fire Gillette Stadium (1:30PM ET) REF: Fotis Bazakos AR1: Peter Balciunas AR2: Brian Poeschel 4TH: Sergii Demianchuk VAR: Alan Kelly AVAR: Claudiu Badea Real Salt Lake vs New York Red Bulls Rio Tinto Stadium (2PM ET) REF: Rosendo Mendoza AR1: Nick Uranga AR2: Peter Manikowski 4TH: Nima Saghafi VAR: Younes Marrakchi AVAR: Jonathan Johnson FC Dallas vs Montreal Impact Toyota Stadium (3PM ET) REF: Victor Rivas AR1: Ian McKay AR2: TJ Zablocki 4TH: Ramy Touchan VAR: Sorin Stoica AVAR: Craig Lowry D.C. United vs Inter Miami Audi Field (3:30PM ET) REF: Rubiel Vazquez AR1: Eduardo Mariscal AR2: Jeremy Kieso 4TH: Matt Franz VAR: Geoff Gamble AVAR: Jeff Muschik Toronto FC vs New York City FC BMO Field (5PM ET) REF: Ted Unkel AR1: Adam Wienckowski AR2: Logan Brown 4TH: Marcos DeOliveira VAR: JC Rivero AVAR: Benjamin Hall-Volpenhein Atlanta United vs FC Cincinnati Mercedes-Benz Stadium (7PM ET) REF: Robert Sibiga AR1: Eric Weisbrod AR2: Gjovalin Bori 4TH: Elvis Osmanovic VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Jozef Batko San Jose Earthquakes vs Minnesota United Earthquakes Stadium (8PM ET) REF: Baldomero Toledo AR1: Adam Garner AR2: Apolinar Mariscal 4TH: Luis Guardia VAR: Kevin Stott AVAR: Fabio Tovar Sporting Kansas City vs Houston Dynamo Children’s Mercy Park (8:30PM ET) REF: Allen Chapman AR1: Brian Dunn AR2: Jason White 4TH: Lukasz Szpala VAR: Chico Grajeda AVAR: Tom Supple Colorado Rapids vs Orlando City Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (9PM ET) REF: Joe Dickerson AR1: Eric Boria AR2: Kevin Klinger 4TH: Alejandro Mariscal VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Cory Richardson LA Galaxy vs Vancouver Whitecaps FC Dignity Health Sports Park (10PM ET) REF: Ismail Elfath AR1: Kyle Atkins AR2: Corey Parker 4TH: Alex Chilowicz VAR: Tim Ford AVAR: Cameron Blanchard Seattle Sounders vs Columbus Crew CenturyLink Field (10PM ET) REF: Jair Marrufo AR1: Frank Anderson AR2: Jeff Hosking 4TH: Guido Gonzales Jr VAR: Ricardo Salazar AVAR: Joshua Patlak 03/08/20 Portland Timbers vs Nashville SC Providence Park (6PM ET) REF: Armando Villarreal AR1: Jose Da Silva AR2: Chris Elliott 4TH: Guido Gonzales Jr VAR: Ricardo Salazar AVAR: Rene Parra Los Angeles FC vs Philadelphia Union Banc of California Stadium (9:30PM ET) REF: Chris Penso AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Jeremy Hanson 4TH: Alex Chilowicz VAR: Tim Ford AVAR: Ian Anderson
I have watched a lot of MLS, and that sure felt like a really, really good opening weekend for the officials. I hope week 2 keeps it going!
Looks like PRO is keeping the trio of Elfath-Atkins-Parker together, at least for now. Not sure if that has any significance.
How common is it for the 4ths and VAR to work 2 consecutive days? Is that just a logistics thing? It makes sense but just wondering.
People are already using this red to try to discredit PRO's response to the Willis yellow last week despite the two game situations being quite different. This was an actual DOGSO, for one.
So that troll I posted here is now tagging me on Twitter on every call this week that somehow proves last week's yellow card in Nashville was wrong. No good deed and all....
VAR orders a retake of a saved penalty for goal keeper encroachment in Seattle. Someone please tell me I'm wrong, but it looks like Marrufo doesn't book the keeper for encroachment. On the box score it says no caution awarded to the keeper.. That's so typical of Marrufo. He just referees by his own rules.
Minute 47 of COL-ORL there was an erroneous offside flag off of a throw in, and unfortunately the referee blew the whistle, costing Orlando an attacking opportunity. He caught the error immediately, but gave the drop ball to Orlando outside the 18 despite the ball having been in play in the penalty area at the inadvertent whistle.
pretty unambiguous on video - I mean, he's definitely off his line... pic.twitter.com/w3Wtv0SiWx— Sounder At Heart (@sounderatheart) March 8, 2020
I haven’t seen the play. It if the ball was outside the PA when he decided to stop play, there is an argument to support that. (Bolstered by spirit of the game and what soccer expects.)
I'm not disputing the validity of the retake. It's correct. I'm wondering if Marrufo gave a caution to the goal keeper which is now MANDATORY in the LOTG.
It was absolutely the right call in the Miami/DC game. I also get why Vazquez missed it, since play was going away from him and he would have had to look through Gressel and Torres to see it. Was quite a stretch that Vazquez was involved in, too - the red, giving DC a penalty a couple minutes after, then giving Wil Trapp a caution for a professional foul right after DC converted the penalty that led to the game winner off the free kick. I'm sure it wasn't easy to do all that with Pizarro barking at him, either.
I didn't mean to imply you were - I just thought it was interesting for folks to see the call. And that's correct - no YC was given.
Just got back from the Timbers-Nashville game and I just want to compliment Villareal. I really like the way he calls games, the way he talks to players, the way he's aware of stuff off the ball. I'm still bummed he's not getting more FIFA assignments. However, he needs to be better at managing time wasting - the Timbers were awful with that tonight.
Really? No caution? Unbelievable!!!! Well for Marrufo it is believable. But just staggering that a World Cup referee would just blatantly ignore the laws of the game. Before anyone piles on me. He didn't "forget" or had a brain fart, etc. He knew and he just refused to give the card.
A couple interesting mistakes, including the handling foul that was wrongly called against Columbus, and the offside goal that was allowed for Kansas City.
Haven't watched this video yet. Did they pick up on the touch by the defender on the SKC goal? Point of debate was whether that was a deliberate play.
The Twitter troll I mistakenly linked in the week 1 thread is now threatening to have @MassachusettsRef and I permabanned from BigSoccer in two hours if I don't answer his questions. So if we disappear today, you know why.
My understanding is that PRO does not believe the video shows conclusive evidence of a touch by the defender. I tend to agree. I think you'll hear later this week that this was a missed review and should have been offside/no-goal.
The challenge at 7:11 of Instant Replay is interesting for two reasons. The obvious one is the discussion of red v. yellow (VAR recommended red, Sibiga went yellow after initially having no foul). The point missed by Wiebe, however, has to do with the restart. The crew stayed with the throw-in, as the ball had gone out of play and then there was an OFR. But the proper restart is a DFK. This mistake still gets made even by officials that are very accustomed to VAR. It feels like a minor thing, but it's got to get cleaned up because it will feed a myth among players that you can't go back to give the DFK (when, obviously, you can and are supposed to do so).