10/06/19 Atlanta United vs New England Revolution Mercedes-Benz Stadium (4PM ET) REF: Ismail Elfath AR1: Corey Parker AR2: Chris Wattam 4TH: Mark Allatin VAR: Sorin Stoica AVAR: Peter Manikowski D.C. United vs FC Cincinnati Audi Field (4PM ET) REF: Dave Gantar AR1: Jason White AR2: CJ Morgante 4TH: Ismir Pekmic VAR: Rosendo Mendoza AVAR: Craig Lowry FC Dallas vs Sporting Kansas City Toyota Stadium (4PM ET) REF: Alan Kelly AR1: Eric Weisbrod AR2: Brian Dunn 4TH: Baldomero Toledo VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero AVAR: Kevin Terry Houston Dynamo vs LA Galaxy BBVA Stadium (4PM ET) REF: Allen Chapman AR1: Jeremy Hanson AR2: Nick Uranga 4TH: Elton Garcia VAR: Ricardo Salazar AVAR: Jonathan Johnson Los Angeles FC vs Colorado Rapids Banc of California Stadium (4PM ET) REF: Robert Sibiga AR1: Eduardo Mariscal AR2: Kevin Klinger 4TH: Michael Radchuk VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Fabio Tovar Montreal Impact vs New York Red Bulls Saputo Stadium (4PM ET) REF: Nima Saghafi AR1: Adam Wienckowski AR2: Jeremy Kieso 4TH: Marcos DeOliveira VAR: Chico Grajeda AVAR: Thomas Supple Orlando City vs Chicago Fire Exploria Stadium (4PM ET) REF: Pierre-Luc Lauziere AR1: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho AR2: Jose Da Silva 4TH: Christopher Penso VAR: Kevin Terry Jr AVAR: Jozef Batko Philadelphia Union vs New York City FC Talen Energy Stadium (4PM ET) REF: Drew Fischer AR1: Jeff Hosking AR2: Gjovalin Bori 4TH: Fotis Bazakos VAR: Geoff Gamble AVAR: Cory Richardson Portland Timbers vs San Jose Earthquakes Providence Park (4PM ET) REF: Rubiel Vazquez AR1: Logan Brown AR2: Brian Poeschel 4TH: Luis Guardia VAR: Tim Ford AVAR: Cameron Blanchard Seattle Sounders vs Minnesota United CenturyLink Field (4PM ET) REF: Kevin Stott AR1: Mike Rottersman AR2: Eric Boria 4TH: Farhad Dadkho VAR: Alex Chilowicz AVAR: Joshua Patlak Toronto FC vs Columbus Crew BMO Field (4PM ET) REF: Armando Villarreal AR1: Jeffrey Greeson AR2: Ian McKay 4TH: David Barrie VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Robert Schaap Vancouver Whitecaps vs Real Salt Lake BC Place (4PM ET) REF: Ted Unkel AR1: Kyle Atkins AR2: Corey Rockwell 4TH: Ramy Touchan VAR: Joe Dickerson AVAR: Rene Parra Congratulations are in order as Pierre-Luc Lauziere gets whistle #1, and Robert Sibiga gets whistle #100. Sibiga is the quickest to ever get to 100 regular season MLS whistles, with 1576 days from his first to his 100th on Sunday.
Is Stott showing any signs of slowing? I assume he's doing straight EPO and Testosterone boosters by now.
POR vs SJ is a big assignment for Vazquez—given where the teams are in the standings, it is about as close to a playoff game as you get without actually being a playoff game. Plus the game will be nationally televised and it will be well attended.
I would not have predicted at the beginning of the season that Lauziere would be the first (and last) debut whistle this year (I believe- correct me if there were others).
And before going full time, that would include another 10,000 college, high school, USSF, and unaffiliated matches. A workhorse is an understatement! Glad these guys are full time now and don't have to whore themselves out like they used to just to make ends meet.
10k games? If you start at 13 and average a game every day year round, you reach 10000 games about age 40.
A question from an outsider looking in - is Rubiel Vazquez a young talent (ie. future top FIFA)? I expected a FIFA/Toledo/Kelly/Chapman format of referee for that game to be honest.
He’s going on the 2020 list with Saghafi. Brown and Uranga on as ARs. Whether he’s good enough or not to rise in the FIFA ranks, I truly don’t know. The usage of and focus on VAR has made it a lot more difficult to figure out who is actually officiating and managing matches well. But PRO likes him. This is a surprising appointment but not shocking.
That non-call in Portland at 27’—yeesh. That’s as clear of a foul and pretty close to an easy red card as you can get. But, historically, we don’t punish fouls after shots. So now that we have VAR, does tradition give way to the facts? I guess not here.
I wonder if the double red (one VAR related) in DC is the first time one team went down two men at roughly the same time.
The sheer number of missed KMIs, all benefiting SJ at the expense of POR, is astounding. I wonder if he was so concerned with advantaging the home team that he way over-corrected? But yowza that was rough. Question - what's a failed assessment mean for a referee like Vazquez mean? We've seen a couple referees flunk out of PRO, but I'm not sure how many failed assessments it takes. I honestly hope Vazquez gets another opportunity and learns from this, but what does this mean for him?
I would have liked to see both reds given, but I don't think the first one rises to the level of a clear and obvious error because there's no stud contact. It's still far too high and late, though. The one in second half added time I think needed to be reviewed. Lunging scissor from behind while facing the immediate end of your season? Just has to be red. EDIT: I forgot the first one was in the penalty area so there's your in road for a review. It's a clear foul.
A FIFA badge. Maybe he’s less likely to get a playoff match, but it’s not like PRO viewed this as a gamble. One bad match doesn’t change anything.
Honestly, it felt like a fear to make a big decision coupled with a VAR standard that was WAY higher than the week-to-week standard we saw this season. Whether or not that perceived fear had anything to do with the fact that VAR is viewed as a fail-safe is anyone’s guess. But it really felt like Vazquez was avoiding making big calls because he knew he had Ford there and then Ford didn’t intervene because it didn’t want to be the story once Vazquez passed on a decision. Felt like a self-fulfilling prophecy. Or the EPL. The whole match felt wrong—it felt like something from 5-10 years ago in MLS. Luckily it didn’t affect the result. But if either Timbers attacker had been seriously injured we’d have a big problem—and that easily could have happened.
If someone responds the minutes of the crucial decisions from Vázquez's game, I'll cut them into video clips
I think that’s true, but how do you see the Review for the handball. I don’t think that should be a handball, but Ford felt confident enough to recommend a review. Why did Ford not send down any later decisions?
On the handling, I suppose the key was that it came off the player's knee before the arm, but I think next year that's almost certainly a foul so it's going to feel wrong to a lot of folks.
I guess I'm in rh89's camp, in that I don't understand Tim Ford's standard in this match. Of all of the plays that were eligible for review, I think he picked the most suspect one to send down. If that's Ford's standard for clear and obvious, shouldn't the tackle on Paredes in the 26th minute and the tackle on Valentin in the 93rd minute also have qualified? The four most controversial calls are probably: 25:51-26:50 Tackle on Paredes 32:20 -34:25 - Handling on SJ sent down by VAR. 84:19-85:05 - Loria simulation yellow card 92:22-92:45 - Scissor tackle by Rios The times all start with the live play and then include multiple replay angles.
I agree that the handling was almost certainly less clear of an error than either of those tackles. The standard was quite baffling to me as well.
Portland has really been getting on PRO's nerves a lot lately. I'm sure he's not completely biased, but he can't be that bad at his job, can he?