10/14/20 Montreal Impact vs New England Revolution Red Bull Arena (7:30PM ET) REF: Joe Dickerson AR1: Claudiu Badea AR2: Ian McKay 4TH: Sergii Demianchuk VAR: Chris Penso FC Cincinnati vs Columbus Crew Nippert Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Rubiel Vazquez AR1: Peter Balciunas AR2: Cory Richardson 4TH: Lukasz Szpala VAR: Chico Grajeda Orlando City vs New York City FC Exploria Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Silviu Petrescu AR1: Gjovalin Bori AR2: Brooke Mayo 4TH: Natalie Simon VAR: Daniel Radford AVAR: Kyle Longville Toronto FC vs New York Red Bulls Rentschler Field at Pratt & Whitney Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Guido Gonzales Jr AR1: Kyle Atkins AR2: Brian Dunn 4TH: Adam Kilpatrick VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero AVAR: Tom Supple D.C. United vs Philadelphia Union Audi Field (8PM ET) REF: Marcos DeOliveira AR1: Corey Parker AR2: CJ Morgante 4TH: Luis Arroyo VAR: Alan Kelly AVAR: Adam Wienckowski
D.C. United vs Philadelphia Union Audi Field (8PM ET) REF: Marcos DeOliveira AR1: Corey Parker AR2: CJ Morgante 4TH: Luis Arroyo VAR: Alan Kelly AVAR: Adam Wienckowski Houston Dynamo vs Nashville BBVA Stadium (8PM ET) REF: Nima Saghafi AR1: Nick Uranga AR2: Matthew Nelson 4TH: Dave Gantar VAR: Rosendo Mendoza Inter Miami vs Atlanta United Inter Miami CF Stadium (8PM ET) REF: Ismail Elfath AR1: Brian Poeschel AR2: Jose Da Silva 4TH: Elvis Osmanovic VAR: Younes Marrakchi AVAR: Jozef Batko FC Dallas vs Sporting Kansas City Toyota Stadium (8:30PM ET) REF: Armando Villarreal AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Chris Elliott 4TH: Michael Radchuk VAR: Malik Badawi AVAR: Jonathan Johnson Real Salt Lake vs Portland Timbers Rio Tinto Stadium (9:30PM ET) REF: Robert Sibiga AR1: Adam Garner AR2: Jeffrey Greeson 4TH: Allen Chapman VAR: Alejandro Mariscal AVAR: Fabio Tovar Vancouver Whitecaps vs Los Angeles FC Providence Park (10PM ET) REF: Tori Penso AR1: Jeremy Hanson AR2: Cameron Blanchard 4TH: Tim Ford VAR: Drew Fischer AVAR: Kathryn Nesbitt LA Galaxy vs San Jose Earthquakes Dignity Health Sports Park (10:30PM ET) REF: Alex Chilowicz AR1: Jason White AR2: Kevin Lock 4TH: Ramy Touchan VAR: Ricardo Salazar
Sporting KC just had an 88’ equalizer waved off for a foul on the keeper. I understand why the call is made but from watching the broadcast, looked like both players were fighting for the ball and the keeper may have even had an arm pulling the player into him.
Looking again, I think the question is whether Kinda charged into Maurer or if Maurer impeded and/or held Kinda. I would probably lean goal.
I think on the field it is really easy to think that is the striker bowling over the keeper and it questionable enough that VAR isn't going to be able to definitively say it's an error.
This looks like a tendency for referees at that level to make the popular call, not necessarily the correct call. This should have been a goal. The attacker makes no sort of play that wouldn’t be legal everywhere in the field. The keeper then grabs him and takes him down.
I would do more than lean. That’s a goal. Agree with the first part. Disagree with the second. The attacker truly has done nothing wrong. This is the type of injustice that VAR was designed for. It’s a failure not to intervene here. It’s clearly wrong to disallow this goal.
Maybe this was mentioned somewhere else and I missed it. But some matches have AVAR's some matches don't... is this purely a logistical issue or is there a reason for this?
Appears to be a logistical issue. Supposedly there are plans to run remote VORs from Atlanta which might help fix this particular problem, but I don't think that's happened yet outside of a couple games.
Plus, Atlanta has a major airport. If you are going to fly referees in for VAR duty, it almost has to be a city with a major airport where the referees can fly into without a lot of trouble. I think of someone like Chapman who lives in Salt Lake City or Villareal who lives in San Antonio. Definitely one of the logistical challenges of having a central VAR location in the US compared to countries like England or Germany where pretty much everywhere in the country is within a somewhat reasonable drive or train ride from the VAR location.
Yes, but if that were the prime motivating factor, Dallas would have been the easy answer as that's where the PRO clinics were held prior to the pandemic. I also was confused when I heard it was Atlanta and not New York or Dallas, but from everything I understand, @GoDawgsGo has the answer nailed on.
But from the contact information website, they have offices in New York/New Jersey so why Atlanta then? The distance from the office in Atlanta to the airport in Atlanta is about 20 miles and the distance from the office in New Jersey to the Newark Airport is about 30 miles so it's practically a wash.
I think this is correct regarding Atlanta vs New York. Plus, a lot of referees are from southern states. Unkel and the Pensos live in Florida. Marrufo, Villareal, and (I believe) Saghafi live in Texas. It also seems like there are easier connections to Atlanta compared to New York. From personal experience when I traveled a fair amount, I could take a direct flight from my home airport (which was very small) to Atlanta, while I had to fly through Chicago, Detroit, or Atlanta to get to New York.
Saghafi is from Oklahoma, not Texas. But yes, Atlanta is slightly more central than New York, and is a major airport hub.
Coming back to post a mea culpa here. I still don't love the on-field decision. But I've watched it enough now--with some friendly outside prompting--to realize that to the question of "is a charge call against the attacker on the goalkeeper clearly wrong?" should not necessarily be answered with "yes." Contact between the attacker and goalkeeper, which is initiated by the attacker, does occur a split second before the goalkeeper wraps him up in a much more blatant manner. If the on-field call had been to ignore that contact and only call the hold (and give DOGSO red against the keeper) then it wouldn't have gotten reversed because the attacker's alleged foul is not clear. But, once that initial contact is called a foul, it's really difficult to say the call is clearly wrong despite overall appearances around the incident (which is what I was focused on). I think, per the protocols, saying "check complete" and having the goal stand is the correct answer. Will be interested to hear what PRO says, if anything.
Appreciate the clarification. I remember that Saghafi was doing a USL Championship game not long after the MLS is Back tournament. The game was either in Austin or Tulsa (I think Tulsa), and several people were commenting on how the pandemic and related travel considerations resulted in a FIFA working a second-division game. For whatever reason, I read it as Saghafi was coming from Texas to work the match.
Also, there isn't really a camera angle (that I've seen) that shows what the R saw. I can see how from the top of the arc (where Villareal was) that it looked like the attacker initiated the contact. The ball was going to the attacker's right, and he was going left. So the attacker's momentum carried him into the GK away from the ball and blocked the GK's ability to move toward the ball. Granted, the GK responded by tackling him. Still, I don't hate the call. I'm with you...I don't love it, but also unless I see like a reverse angle, I'm not ready to say it was a bad call.