To bring the free kick back to where it was given indicates to me that the decision was no foul by Bressan. Curious if there's another explanation because the assumption most have is now that the 2CT wasn't given because he called a different foul first, and that's not really how it works. The second incident was further up the field so I'd think advantage would apply if it's a foul as well.
I think the commentary is both wrong on the laws and right on what happened. It looked pretty clear that Sibiga made the decision to keep 11x11 on the field by calling the first foul and essentially wiping out the second one. His body language with Bressan (and Bressan's body language with Anderson) seemed to strongly imply that. This is also pretty consistent with Sibiga's body of work, which does rely heavier on game management when it can. Sibiga's whistle also can be pretty slow, and it's possible that we missed some sort of advantage signal (or it hadn't come yet), but there was no whistle in the 1+ seconds between tackles. Put differently, what's more likely here - Sibiga and Anderson somehow missed that egregious, reckless (at least) tackle, or Sibiga chose to use management over sendoff?
The problem is that Bressan's foul was pretty brutal...he went through Lodiero's back and took out both of his legs. It's a clear yellow, and an argument could be made for a straight red. Referees shouldn't be "trying to keep it 11v11"....they should be calling it by the book...and that was a clear yellow card. Allowing tackles like that to go unpunished is how players end up getting hurt.
Unfortunately, when we continue to see situations like this at all levels of professional soccer, it's hard to not believe that some type of direction is coming from the top to do everything possible to keep all 22 players on the field.
I don’t think we need to believe anything. I think it’s a well known fact. Any time I’ve been to a clinic with someone from US Soccer that is a BIG point of emphasis. They’d rather end a game with 22 players where the referee had to take more BS than is even close to reasonable, than get rid of a problem player early on any day.
Slightly off topic and I don't know if this has been previously discussed anywhere in the forum, but do we know where the Canadian officials have been based since the MLS season resumed seeing as they can't go back and forth between weekends?
I seem to recall Gantar mentioning something about being in a certain athlete classification which allowed him to travel back and forth between Canada and his matches in the US... But I can't find the details now.
Of course, you aren't keeping 22 on the pitch when a key player gets injured by a bad tackle. Imagine if Bressan's tackle had resulted in a serious injury to Lodiero that ended Seattle's title hopes?
I made the same point a few days ago when discussing Chilowicz’s handling of dissent. Like it or not, a large segment of refereeing believes that keeping 22 players on the field or “game management” is more important than the correctness of the referee’s decisions. In Bressan’s case, Dallas deserves to be down to 10 men. We are left with a situation where they are instead allowed to play the final 15 minutes of a playoff quarterfinal with one extra player than they should have. In my opinion, it is completely unfair for a referee to allow this undeserved advantage (or, more precisely, lack of a disadvantage) merely for the sake of making the game more attractive. Unfortunately, there’s a pretty good chance that PRO supports the decision. And we wonder why Chilowicz was so lenient about punishing the dissent...
12/03/20 – Western Conference Sporting Kansas City vs Minnesota United Children’s Mercy Park (8:30PM ET) REF: Drew Fischer AR1: Kathryn Nesbitt AR2: Peter Manikowski 4TH: Victor Rivas VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Eric Weisbrod
Sporting Kansas City vs Minnesota United Almost two hours post game and no comments here. Was it just a good game or did everyone go to bed. I vote the former. Cheers, Mi3ke
I only got to see the second half after it became 3-0. I think Fischer did an excellent job handling the overall situation. Four second half cards in a 3-0 halftime game that all go to the winning team? That is a rarity. Whether that is because Minnesota was that much more aggressive or not is largely irrelevant. Fischer wasn't afraid to caution players who were almost certainly going through to the next round and he kept the losing team's frustration from boiling over into any mandatory misconduct. 3-0 can be non-eventful, sure. But it also can be very eventful when a team realizes its season is over and they aren't happy about the way the match is going. I think the non-eventful nature of the second half is a big credit to Fischer.
I was also surprised by the lack of cheap fouls. The game could have been a lot worse towards the end. Cheers, Mi3ke
The DisCo have handed down some fines and an additional suspension to Orlando: Both club and coach have been fined for violating the mass confrontation policy. Junior Urso and Daryl Dike have been fined for instigating a mass confrontation. Mauricio Pereyra has been suspended for one additional game (for a total of 2) for serious foul play. Nothing for Nani, but I'm wondering if that's because the caution he received already comes with a fine. I haven't seen the rule book in some years, but yellows for dissent (and a few other things) did at one point carry an automatic fine. I'd need someone to confirm if that is still the case. This is from the previous round, but the DisCo has also acted to suspend Jonathan Osorio (TOR) for 1 match for violent conduct after PRO admitted a referee and/or video review error, which for our discussion would mean that PRO considers the lack of a red card to be a clear and obvious error by the referee for which the VAR should have recommended an on-field review. EDIT: Here's a link to the full article https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020...o-pereyra-jonathan-ososrio-handed-suspensions
If a player is cautioned by the referee during a mass confrontation incident, the DISCO typically cannot take further action against that player.
Got it. Outside of something egregious, it's been handled on the field. The caution may not come with a fine, but it carries its own weight.
Nani has become a creature of the league's own making now. They absolutely could have still fined him for the second mass confrontation (he was cautioned for the first), but after letting him do all he has done this year, to fine him in the last game for MC would have been too ironic I guess. Nani has one more year on his contract with MLS. Their failure to manage him (initially from the referee's perspective, then when the Rs stepped in only to be overturned by the league) of course has led to his behavior now. Next year will be very interesting with him. Maybe he tones down in the offseason, or maybe he comes back a little slower in his feet but faster with his lips. He'll be 35 next year. It could be very interesting.
Orlando assignments will be interesting to watch. Aside from the usual national broadcast matches, they will be the ones to keep an eye on. As we move into WC selection territory, I wonder how often you’ll see Marrufo or Elfath on Orlando matches. Because it’s a risk with not much reward. As I say that, I realize the late WC in 2022 probably means referee selection is delayed until summer of 2022. So I guess we have to recalibrate a bit. Playoffs next year and early 2022 season is what would matter, if anything, from domestic perspective.
Orlando assignments have been... interesting for years now. There’s a certain FIFA referee who hasn’t had one of their games in any position since 2017...
He actually did a 4th on an Orlando away game back in October, but of course this has been a wacky season with many assignments made out of geographical convenience, and Atlanta is a short trip. But that's the only once since 2017 like you said.