I don't think that was even close to a penalty. Richards slide in between the CR player and the ball.
I can't find the reverse angle but I am pretty sure he hit the attacker before the ball and impeded the attackers ability to get to the ball. It's a call that VAR would make but in real life it would never get called. However, with the advantage of slow motion and multiple angles this seems to be the type of call that is getting made more frequently
Slow motion tends to emphasize things that maybe should not be emphasized. I think VAR is being used for some really fine points when it actually was only intended to fix gross mistakes--quickly.
Watching live, I thought the CR goal was offside. After watching the broadcast, it was explained that Dest was considered to be keeping the CR guy in front of Steffen onside even though Dest wasn't in the field of play. That seems like a dumb rule but since it's in the rules, it was applied. Richards slid in on the attacker's side further from the center of the goal and played the ball. He didn't slide into the back of the attacker's leg or foot. The attacker stumbled when he kicked Richards leg.
I was standing the whole game in 205 and someone behind me yelled "down in front" about 10 minutes in. When I turned around the guy was wearing a Man U jersey so I just ignored him.
It’s not dumb at all. If defenders could just step off the field at will and change where the offside line is, it would put attackers at a huge disadvantage. It would also make it a hell of a lot more difficult for the ARs to judge offside plays. This wasn’t even a close call, and frankly I’m embarrassed that half our team somehow didn’t seem to know it and protested to no end about it. If a defender is on or past the endline, he’s still considered part of the play, in this case, making Steffen the 2LD.
I've seen it worse. I saw one large divot that needed to be fixed in the penalty area in the south end, but it wasn't awful otherwise.
There were two guys with water tanks on their backs fixing divots after warmups and again at the half. I had never seen that before.
They have been out before during half at Crew games with the backpack sprayers. Guessing water to loosen up the dirt when putting grass back in place.
Yeah, looked like those backpack leaf blowers you see the pro landscaping crews use. I didn’t know what they were at first, never noticed them before.
Those tanks are full of sand/dirt. They have been around since mid August or so. The pitch has improved since the end of July. Still needs work but getting better.
Disagree that it would cause huge problems. Any goals scored are subject to VAR (except in CONCACAF) and as we all know the VAR guy doesn't defer to the AR's judgment. If Dest was considered to be on the line, then so was Mattarita, who presumably was considered passively offside and not affecting play. But if they had been closer to the goal, maybe that changes. If some guy just off the field near the goal getting stretched out for cramps by the trainers is now counted, that makes the keeper 2LD and leads to goal hanging. Berhalter complained about the "offside" goal at the half in his interview. IMO people not on the pitch shouldn't be considered to be affecting play. Refs can more strictly enforce the rule about requiring permission to re-enter if it becomes a problem. I don't see a big difference between defenders stepping up for a trap compared to stepping off for a trap. But if they can't re-enter without permission, it won't happen much. Better than for some MLS games. Therre are noticeable places where sod has been replaced, but no huge divots.
But that's not the rule either. A player who's left the field for injury treatment isn't allowed to be on the field until the referee has given him permission to come back on. Therefore, he's considered to be off the field. That player wouldn't affect offside. You just can't run off the field while play is going on and claim injury status to benefit from a shift in the offside line. Also, don't look at everything through VAR. First, as you already pointed out, not everyone has it. In fact, except for the very top levels around the world, very few people have it. These rules don't just affect the games we watch on TV every week. There are high school games, rec league games, kids' games -- games where the AR is the sole judge, jury and executioner when it comes to offside. If a player runs off the field, the offside line could jump ten or twenty yards, and then there's no way in hell the AR has the ability to judge the play because (s)he's completely out of position. Berhalter's wrong, and so are you. It already doesn't happen much. A player on a full-speed sprint towards the endline had his momentum take him over the line, and a goal was scored in the one-to-two second period of time it took him to get back on the field. That's pretty rare. But are you talking about changing the rule so that anytime a player steps off the field, in any situation, he needs permission to come back on? That's insane.
Well, every rec league I've ever been a part of had two referees. And in the event there was only one, they would basically just admit up front "look guys, I won't be calling offside today."
Who was the CR player who went down with a "cramp" effectively ending an American attack? The ref refused to acknowledge his arm waving as he wanted to come on immediately. It was a solid minute of the player jumping up and down, running to midfield to argue to the fourth -- all the while the ref refused to look at him.
I got a kick out of that moment. It's a fine line to walk between stopping play for an injury and allowing someone to be taken advantage of. At this level, you shouldn't be stopping play in that situation unless it's something serious. I think once the referee realized he'd stopped play for basically a cramp, and possibly ended a scoring chance, he couldn't really do anything else. So he decided to just make him wait as long as he reasonably could before letting him come back on.