Yeah that's great thinking for a start-up league, however, MLL is in its' 20th season..........the first season was in 2001. MLS is in its' 25th season currently. MLL also has to compete with the new PLL now as well. They've lost a lot of their marquee players to the startup competitor. Outside of a few pockets and the state of Maryland, LAX isn't all that popular. I've been hearing since I was in high school that Lacrosse is "the fastest growing sport," players will be making millions in the near future, etc. This was back in the early '90's. I grew up in the LAX hotbed of Central New York State. Since that time the men's game has barely grown at the Division 1 level. The Women's game has grown by leaps and bounds. Sure, at the High School level the game has grown considerably. This is usually in states where football is king (Texas, Florida, California), and Lacrosse gives players a physical game to play in the Spring to stay in shape for football. Outside of CNY and Maryland the game is still largely viewed as a sport for white prep school kids in the Northeast. Add in the high costs, and concussion concerns....
These teams look like they are already sucking wind. Slow speed of play and decision making is all but replaced by long ball.
So... what exactly happened to Tomas Martinez for Houston? He seems to have declined a lot over the last two seasons... even though he's 25 and hasn't lost much if any time to injuries.
Evidently, there is a penalty for handling after VAR. Ref nearly forgot to signal. Houston makes it 1-2.
Straight red... yes it was a hand to the face, but that's a tough call because the Portland player was holding up his sprint to shield and draw a foul.
MLS timeline showing it as 2nd yellow, thus no VAR review, as there would have been for a straight red.
Would have been a pretty interesting video review had the referee gone straight red. Straight red is clearly wrong. Some might call yellow harsh, but it's definitely not wrong. So it's highly likely a review would have resulted in a cancelled red card followed by red for a second caution instead. And that would all be proper procedure.