03/25/23 Portland Timbers vs LA Galaxy Providence Park (4:30PM ET) REF: Chris Penso AR1: Jeremy Kieso AR2: Jeffrey Greeson 4TH: Eric Tattersall VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Jonathan Johnson Charlotte FC vs New York Red Bulls Bank of America Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Marcos DeOliveira AR1: Adam Wienckowski AR2: Matthew Nelson 4TH: Thomas Snyder VAR: Luis Guardia AVAR: Tom Supple Columbus Crew vs Atlanta United Lower.com Field (7:30PM ET) REF: Ramy Touchan AR1: Adam Garner AR2: Nicholas Balcer 4TH: Joshua Encarnacion VAR: Carol Anne Chenard AVAR: Tyler Wyrostek D.C. United vs New England Revolution Audi Field (7:30PM ET) REF: Filip Dujic AR1: Gianni Facchini AR2: Ben Pilgrim 4TH: Alyssa Nichols VAR: Geoff Gamble AVAR: Fabio Tovar Inter Miami vs Chicago Fire DRV PNK Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Tori Penso **First game this season AR1: Andrew Bigelow AR2: Ryan Graves 4TH: Calin Radosav VAR: Kevin Stott AVAR: Rene Parra Philadelphia Union vs Orlando City Subaru Park (7:30PM ET) REF: Allen Chapman AR1: Brian Dunn AR2: Justin Howard 4TH: Luis Diego Arroyo VAR: Alejandro Mariscal AVAR: Mike Kampmeinert Austin FC vs Colorado Rapids Q2 Stadium (8:30PM ET) REF: Ted Unkel AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Ricardo Ocampo 4TH: Jeremy Scheer VAR: Sorin Stoica AVAR: Joshua Patlak Houston Dynamo vs New York City FC Shell Energy Stadium (8:30PM ET) REF: Guido Gonzales Jr AR1: Brooke Mayo AR2: Walt Heatherly 4TH: Danielle Chesky VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero AVAR: Gjovalin Bori Sporting Kansas City vs Seattle Sounders Children’s Mercy Park (8:30PM ET) REF: Alex Chilowicz AR1: Chris Wattam AR2: Meghan Mullen 4TH: Jon Freemon VAR: Kevin Terry Jr AVAR: Peter Balciunas Minnesota United vs Vancouver Whitecaps Allianz Field (8:30PM ET) REF: Rosendo Mendoza AR1: Chris Elliott AR2: Kali Smith 4TH: JC Griggs VAR: David Barrie AVAR: Craig Lowry Nashville vs FC Cincinnati GEODIS Park (8:30PM ET) REF: Ismir Pekmic AR1: Ian McKay AR2: Kevin Lock 4TH: Sergii Boiko VAR: Daniel Radford AVAR: TJ Zablocki Real Salt Lake vs St. Louis CITY America First Field (9:30PM ET) REF: Mark Allatin AR1: Jason White AR2: Diego Blas 4TH: Matt Thompson VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Jonathan Johnson Los Angeles FC vs FC Dallas BMO Stadium (10:30PM ET) REF: Lukasz Szpala AR1: Mike Rottersman AR2: Eduardo Jeff 4TH: Timothy Ford VAR: Jair Marrufo AVAR: Jozef Batko San Jose Earthquakes vs Toronto FC PayPal Park (10:30PM ET) REF: Fotis Bazakos AR1: Brian Poeschel AR2: Stephen McGonagle 4TH: Ian Anderson VAR: Younes Marrakchi AVAR: Eric Weisbrod
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.
Whose head does it hit on off the free kick? If it's a defender, the OSP is irrelevant. I think it hits the attacker but am not sure--the resolution on all the publicly available replays is not great. Even if it does hit the attacker, the OSP question is tough. From the touch line camera, he looks well off, but that is quite skewed. From the overhead camera behind the goal, it looks much much much closer. If there was an attacking touch, this might just be in the zone for MLS where--without good field markings and the right camera angle to ground everyone--you have to let the call on the field stand. I'd either look again or wait for the WiR. Because this is one of the best uses of VAR to spot a clear penalty you'll see all season. The contact is essentially hip-on-thigh and it is significant. Vela was not letting himself go early. And not really a debatable penalty at all. Szpala was on the blind side of the contact so understandable how he misses or thinks it's a dive. AR2 was the only one who had a chance to (and maybe should?) have gotten this live. And, separately, 23' in Charlotte is really bad. It's clear SFP. I think MLS/PRO might even say as much soon. I can't say I'm terribly surprised it was missed, though, and leave it at that.
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.
How did the leg breaker in the 23' not make these highlights. This wasn't even given a caution. Should have been an easy RED for SFP and VAR does nothing. EDIT: Watch here first clip
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.
Not really asking for that. You can be one of four roles at a soccer game: coach, player, referee, spectator. When a coach, player, or spectator is disciplined, it makes news. When a referee is disciplined, it is kept silent. Silence leads to an appearance or not doing anything, conspiracies of collusion, allegations of cheating. Silence hurts the game. The other 3 roles deserve to know what happens to referees. In. this case, the lack of discipling vc/sfp leads to more vc/sfp - it is dangerous. I'm not even asking for punishment. I'm asking for transparency. If all that happened was a review and reteaching, fine but let us know.