Nashville vs Atlanta United Nissan Stadium (8:30PM ET) REF: Armando Villarreal AR1: Benjamin Hall-Volpenhein AR2: Brooke Mayo 4TH: Ted Unkel VAR: Kevin Terry Jr AVAR: Nick Uranga FC Dallas vs Houston Dynamo Toyota Stadium (8:30PM ET) REF: Joe Dickerson AR1: Jeffrey Greeson AR2: Kevin Lock 4TH: Tori Penso VAR: Daniel Radford AVAR: Adam Garner Real Salt Lake vs Colorado Rapids Rio Tinto Stadium (9:30PM ET) REF: Ramy Touchan AR1: Frank Anderson AR2: Cameron Blanchard 4TH: Rosendo Mendoza VAR: Younes Marrakchi AVAR: TJ Zablocki
Went to VAR in Orlando. Came away with a penalty and a second yellow. But wait! Another conversation with the VAR, and the penalty and second yellow/red are waved off for and offside in the build-up. Fair enough with the offside, although clearly the procedure was botched, but anyone else think the foul was reckless? If so, by Law it should have stood.
After watching that, I just wonder what the AVAR is there for, if not that. I have no idea about the internal mechanics of the VAR room, but why have an AVAR if he/she is not looking at the offside while the VAR is sorting out the PK? Is there a technology problem, where they can't do two things at once? With this, and the full seven minutes for the PK earlier this week, "Is VAR causing more problems than its worth?" is a reasonable question. At some point, maybe around minute five of a missed PK encroachment, or the review of a missed offside before the missed PK/misconduct, you really do wonder. After that long of a delay, the restart is exactly what it would have been had the VAR stayed out of it, only there would have been five more minutes of soccer. But obviously that's just the reality now of all sports. The NFL went through that last year with the pass interference challenge (which they have now ditched for precisely that reason). Sometimes, fixing a missed call is just not worth the confusion and the delay, but I guess I'm probably old school in that regard.
Total mess. The APP needs to be “cleaned up” before recommending any review, as you know. That’s on the VAR entirely. There’s going to be some interesting instructional reminders in the upcoming week. And, no, never reckless in that situation at this level/league. That’s a DOGSO-yellow card. Once you annul the penalty, it has to come off the board. No one expects that card to stand. And Elfath doesn’t want it to. Elfath has to be pissed at how all this went down.
Some clarification. The AVAR does not have control of the monitor. The VAR decides what to look at and in which order. The AVAR can see the same screen on his/her own monitor but their main responsibility is to watch live play while a check is happening to alert of other possible incidents. They of course weigh in on OS as the expert. It is up to the VAR to clean the APP but with 1000% certainty the AVAR is not looking at this whole the VAR is checking the foul.
09/13/20 Sporting Kansas City vs Minnesota United Children’s Mercy Park (8:30PM ET) REF: Kevin Stott AR1: Kyle Atkins AR2: Brian Poeschel 4TH: Malik Badawi VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Fabio Tovar Vancouver Whitecaps vs Montreal Impact BC Place (9:30PM ET) REF: Pierre-Luc Lauziere AR1: Chris Wattam AR2: Lyes Arfa 4TH: Silviu Petrescu VAR: Drew Fischer AVAR: Rene Parra Los Angeles FC vs Portland Timbers Banc of California Stadium (11PM ET) REF: Jair Marrufo AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Jason White 4TH: Victor Rivas VAR: Alejandro Mariscal AVAR: Andrew Bigelow San Jose Earthquakes vs LA Galaxy Earthquakes Stadium (11PM ET) REF: Tim Ford AR1: Jeremy Kieso AR2: Chris Elliott 4TH: Alex Chilowicz VAR: Ricardo Salazar AVAR: Mike Kampmeinert
Debut for Arfa. 2nd whistle for Lauzière, who had a meaningless Decision Day match between Orlando and Chicago last year (featuring an incident, I believe with Nani, that was not handled well).
DisCo will be busy today, between that game and RSL/COL. When absolutely everyone on Twitter is yelling for a red for Maciel, he probably should have gotten that in real time, but of course that's why we have a VAR... Who wants to argue for a VC red for Cavallini versus 2CT? And from a management standpoint, what could have been done to get him off the field and avoid the second confrontation with Binks?
Hmm. . . from a game management perspective, with VAR, is there an advantage to giving the 2CT instead of a straight red, as the 2CT is not reviewable by VAR? (And no, I'm not saying that is a good thing....)
I think that would work in the opposite direction more often. It definitely would have here. The 2CT was for an attacker dragging the leg and clipping the head of the goalkeeper. The only doubt around this situation was whether or not the head was actually clipped (the first replay dispelled all doubt, but you got the sense that the referee maybe wasn't 100% sure at first based on his response). So, if you give the 2CT and then replays show there was no contact... you're screwed. Going VC would have given the referee the chance to annul the card if he saw it wrong. The underlying point here is that the ability to review and annul "mistakes" is ingrained in MLS culture now. The players expect it. So the premise that a 2CT would "prevent the review" is faulty for two reasons. First, the players want stuff reviewed if they think it might be wrong. Second, I bet a good chunk of them think 2CTs are reviewable anyway, so that nuance--even if potentially helpful in some rare situations--would be lost.
Would also point out that while you could never have a review to downgrade a second yellow to nothing, you can have that second yellow reviewed to upgrade to a straight red if necessary. I don't think the lack of a straight red is likely to be seen as a clear error in this case, but it is possible (and has happened in MLS).
You really think that much will come out of RSL/COL? I expect a couple of team fines for mass confrontation and that's about it.
*looks into crystal ball* Martínez will be considered for an extra game for the red card, although I can't predict if he'll actually get one. There is precedent when it comes to those off the ball strikes to the head, but the video isn't great. I expect team warnings (or fines if they have already been warned this season), and if there are any individual fines, I'd look to Luiz for RSL and Abubakar for COL. I didn't see anything worthy of a suspension. For VAN/MTL, you've got a mass confrontation involving a player who has already been sent off so you know Cavallini is getting at *least* an additional fine for failing to leave the field in an orderly manner. Binks may be fined for hands to the neck if the yellow he got for the incident doesn't already come with one. Maciel will almost certainly get an additional 1–2 games for SFP.
News is coming out. Cavallini (VAN) fined for hands to the neck/face and for failing to leave the field in an orderly manner. No additional suspension. Maciel (MTL) given an additional game suspension for a total of 2. Here is the release: https://www.mlssoccer.com/post/2020...impacts-emanuel-maciel-additional-match-lucas Very surprised there's nothing in here about the RSL/COL mass confrontation, even if it had just been to declare warnings for both teams.