2023 MLS Week 5 Referee Discussion

This week appears to represent a change in assignments for 4ths. Most of the 4ths this week are not PRO-CBA center referees or ARs, and are instead a collection of PRO2 referees (with only a few exceptions).

 

In addition to Boiko, Ricardo Ocampo and Stephen McGonagle will be making their MLS debuts. (It's game #2 for Nick Balcer)

 

Not this crew’s worst decision of the game either. Penso was off his game in a big way today. And, I’m going to choose to believe that Gonzalez’s screen was broken during the PEN review.

 

Looks like the point of emphasis about mobbing referees lasted for about a month.


Yes, that's literally every Seattle outfield player in one frame surrounding the referee. I get that Chilowicz wants to be the players' friend, but he has has to be more flexible than this. No dissent caution out of all this is ridiculous.

The whole scene was poorly managed really. It's an easy, easy YC, both clear SPA and reckless. He took his time to think about it for some reason. If he pulled the card out right away, things could have been prevented.

 

Corey Rockwell making sure to retrieve the game ball at full time, I presume it’s going to AR2 Ricardo Ocampo for his MLS debut.

 

In the 64th minute, Charlotte FC's Derek Jones comes flying in with an elbow at full speed, connecting with NY Red Bulls Cameron Harper's chin, sending him down. The play starts at 2:58:




DeOliveira seems well positioned, but deems it only worthy of a yellow card. Apparently, VAR did not feel it met the Clear and Obvious criteria.

I can see this being a yellow in the Premier League, but shocked this was not a red card here.

 

I’m surprised this is the first time I’m seeing this. Definite red card. There was a lot of discussion from this game about a lower-body challenge in the first half that was more red than not, DeOliveira didn’t even sanction it with a yellow. Christina Unkel was saying that the VAR should have recommended a review on that one; I’m not sure it rose to that level but it can be debated.

But this elbow is much worse than that one. Im with you, it’s really shocking to see this not reviewed.

Also, comparisons can be made to the Dallas red card this week, which was given as yellow on the field but changed to red after video review.

 

Definitely interesting with an almost identical challenge for Dallas where ref also goes yellow but VAR asks for a review and changes to red. Honestly, both should have been red from the beginning with the call on the field. Shocking decisions to go yellow with elbows and forearms to the face with so much force and speed.

 

You *might* be able to convince me that the first one in that CLT/RBNY match didn't reach the C&O threshold, but the Jones challenge with the arm to the head just has to be red.

 

Some other notable moments from a busy game (LAFC vs Dallas) for Szpala and Marrufo, the Dallas equalizer really seems like #25 is clearly offside. Am I missing something? Surprised this wasn’t sent down. Then I’m not confident about the 78th minute penalty won by Vela. The angle from behind the post shows the contact really well, but other angles show that Vela was already letting himself fall before the contact. I think this one is debatable. Ultimately Szpala made his decision quickly after seeing the former on the monitor.

 

I have another question from this video

The shoulder challenge at 2:40 that gets a yellow card, what should I be looking for in upper body challenges that are yellow card worthy?

 

Agreed.

Nobody is protesting if Chilowicz pulls out his card right away.

That said, unless officials are instructed to hand out more yellows for dissent, time-wasting, etc. and stop worrying about keeping everyone on the pitch, nothing is going to change.

 

The thing is, officials have been instructed to clamp down on mobbing dissent this year! And in the first few weeks there were some good examples of this. Hopefully this leniency is just a one-off, a mistake by Chilowicz that will be corrected, and not a sign of things to come.

I think it’s also worth noting that I’ve noticed that even for Delaying the Restart, the emphasis from last year seems to have mostly evaporated. I don’t know if this was specifically emphasized this year, but it’s been noticeably different. Petulant acts of kicking the ball away that were sanctioned all last year really haven’t been touched so far.

 

The problem is that the "instructions" are worthless without the necessary tools....and right now refs have only ONE tool.....i.e. the yellow card, and they're being dissuaded from using that one tool in order to keep matches 11v11.

I don't know what the answer is (sin bins? fines?), but nothing is going to change unless refs are allowed to hand out multiple cards per match for dissent and the league starts to become ok with teams finishing with 9 or 10 men solely because they've had players sent off for dissent.

 

Yikes. Just saw Instant Replay and the whole segment was pretty much pointing out what a bad job De Oliveira and Guardia did.

Given the track record of both, it's not really surprising.

 

Perhaps you're talking about the cleats to the leg in the 23rd minute?

SHOCKER ALERT 🚨! Two missed red cards from @PROreferees, but is anyone surprised by this performance from pro?

Congrats on keeping players safe around the league 👏🏻😵‍💫. Great example you guys are setting for people watching from around the World 🤡💯.@AreaSportsNet | #RBNY pic.twitter.com/R0Hb6ecWB9

— Daniel Rebain 🇺🇲🇵🇱 (@pvtmcbain) March 28, 2023

 

Disciplinary Committee has issued a one-game suspension to Charlotte's Brandt Bronico for the missed red card against RBNY

 

Of course they did. I'm sure their future assignments are affected. PRO isn't gonna come out and publicly suspend/discipline their officials after every single mistake/egregious error. You do that and you won't have any one left.

They have to pick and choose their spots. Considering who the referee and VAR are, I'm sure they'll have plenty of opportunities down the road this season to publicly blast them.

You do it in week 5 and then they make a similar or worst error in week 10 then you have to do it again and if they make another egregious error in week 20, what are you gonna do? Publicly suspend/discipline them a third time in the same season? That basically makes them unassignable the rest of the year which basically means you have to fire them on the spot.