06/22/21 Orlando City vs San Jose Earthquakes Exploria Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Chris Penso AR1: Jeremy Kieso AR2: Brooke Mayo 4TH: Marcos DeOliveira VAR: Guido Gonzales Jr AVAR: Kyle Longville 06/23/21 New England Revolution vs New York Red Bulls Gillette Stadium (7PM ET) REF: Robert Sibiga AR1: Jeffrey Swartzel AR2: Art Arustamyan 4TH: Elijio Arreguin VAR: Younes Marrakchi AVAR: Gjovalin Bori New York City FC vs Atlanta United Red Bull Arena (7:30PM ET) REF: Ismail Elfath AR1: Corey Parker AR2: Kyle Atkins 4TH: Victor Rivas VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero AVAR: Brian Dunn Philadelphia Union vs Columbus Crew Subaru Park (7:30PM ET) REF: Joe Dickerson AR1: Nick Uranga AR2: Jose Da Silva 4TH: JJ Bilinski VAR: Alan Kelly AVAR: Claudiu Badea Chicago Fire vs FC Cincinnati Soldier Field (8PM ET) REF: Ismir Pekmic AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Peter Manikowski 4TH: Fotis Bazakos VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Mike Kampmeinert CF Montreal vs D.C. United DRV PNK Stadium (8PM ET) REF: Drew Fischer AR1: Logan Brown AR2: Kathryn Nesbitt 4TH: Rubiel Vazquez VAR: Allen Chapman AVAR: Jozef Batko Minnesota United vs Austin FC Allianz Field (8PM ET) REF: Silviu Petrescu AR1: CJ Morgante AR2: Jeffrey Greeson 4TH: Lukasz Szpala VAR: Kevin Stott AVAR: Jeff Muschik Houston Dynamo vs Portland Timbers BBVA Stadium (8:30PM ET) REF: Armando Villarreal AR1: Micheal Barwegen AR2: Tiffini Turpin 4TH: Elvis Osmanovic VAR: Sorin Stoica AVAR: Chantal Boudreau Nashville vs Toronto FC Nissan Stadium (8:30PM ET) REF: Ramy Touchan AR1: Andrew Bigelow AR2: Ian McKay 4TH: Elton Garcia VAR: Alejandro Mariscal AVAR: Jonathan Johnson Sporting Kansas City vs Colorado Rapids Children’s Mercy Park (8:30PM ET) REF: Dave Gantar AR1: Brian Poeschel AR2: Diego Blas 4TH: Nima Saghafi VAR: Jon Freemon AVAR: Craig Lowry Seattle Sounders vs Real Salt Lake Lumen Field (10PM ET) REF: Ted Unkel AR1: Cameron Blanchard AR2: Mike Rottersman 4TH: Michael Radchuk VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Joshua Patlak Los Angeles FC vs FC Dallas Banc of California Stadium (10:30PM ET) REF: Rosendo Mendoza AR1: Eric Weisbrod AR2: Apolinar Mariscal 4TH: Alex Chilowicz VAR: Tim Ford AVAR: Fabio Tovar Vancouver Whitecaps vs LA Galaxy Rio Tinto Stadium (10:30PM ET) REF: Tori Penso AR1: Ian Anderson AR2: Jeremy Hanson 4TH: Baldomero Toledo VAR: Malik Badawi AVAR: TJ Zablocki Far as I can tell, the weekend will be "week" 10 because MLS just loves to annoy me.
Any thoughts on the two PK's in the Seattle-Salt Lake City match? I thought both were a bit harsh..... The SLC penalty is the result of a miniscule level of contact that to me does not even rise to the level of a foul. And the Seattle penalty is the result of an accidental handball with zero reaction time and the arm not in an obviously unnatural position. I can understand why Unkel called both of them, but I think they both could have just as easily been no-calls.
I know you're a local like me - maybe you were there too - and I know you got pointed at for bias last week, and are trying to be balanced - but boy, those are both stone cold penalties. You can see both at https://www.mlssoccer.com/news/recap-seattle-sounders-2-real-salt-lake-1. The one against Seattle, at about 2:00 - Rubin clearly makes contact and then gets taken out by the GK. Easy call. Good job by Unkel to catch it live. The one against SLC, at about 3:00 - why are his arms up there? There's nothing natural about that. BTW, Unkel called a great, consistent match, clearly in control: the signaling for the PK at 3:00 is really weird and seemed even weirder in the stadium. He blows the whistle slowly, puts an arm up, and only points to the spot a couple seconds later. Was unclear what was going on. (Also, speaking of stone cold, I called the panenka. )
Chicago's game-tying goal against Cincy was wiped out because of a correctly-called offside. Watching Pekmic and Jurisevic work to get this call right is, in my opinion, exactly how VAR should work. Video evidence (without Hawkeye lines) clearly showed an offside. Pekmic took a look at a couple of replays and quickly called for the offside. The whole process maybe took 90 seconds, and the referee himself watched the video. It correctly overruled a clear and obvious offside that wasn't called on the field with very little dispute. Such a better process then just showing how the fancy technology works.
Looked pretty obvious to me on the WGN/ESPN+ broadcast. No dispute from Arlo White and Tony Meola (the Fire broadcast team) either.
Check the defender's trailing foot. Everyone was clearly fooled by the camera angle, but Beric is onside. It's not a case of it being too close, even. If you draw the lines, he's on. Guaranteed.
All I will add is that I think the "natural/un-natural" distinction as created by the IFAB is itself an unnatural effort to attribute intent where none exists. There is no way the RSL defender could have intended to handle the ball by any common sense understanding of the word "intent". He and Ruidiaz were battling for the ball while inches apart, and the defender had zero reaction time before the ball came off of Ruidiaz' chest and hit his arm. Unless the defender is obviously sticking his hand/arm out into a position for the purpose of handling the ball, I think defenders should get the benefit of the doubt as to what is/isn't a "natural" position, because I think rule-makers underestimate the degree to which arms fly all over the place when players are in motion, possibly off-balance and/or battling for the ball. I'm not a referee, as you all know, but I am a long-time soccer fan (30+ years), and I make the posts I do simply to point out how incomprehensible the rules (and many of the decisions that come from them) are to the average soccer fan.
But, the rules changed because (allegedly) fans/stakeholders didn't want ONLY intentional handballs to result in penalties. I'm not unsympathetic to your philosophical argument. But to act like it's the "rulesmakers" operating in a vacuum where they are completely out of touch ignores decades of commentary or complaints where people railed about a handball not being called when the defender gained an advantage or the contact was simply too obvious and blatant. So the rulesmakers made changes. And now intent/deliberate isn't the threshold entry level anymore. The handball law will always be imperfect and what is should be a punishable handball will always be up for debate. But when assessing what is a punishable handball right now, we have to forget the principle that we are only talking about intentional/deliberate handballs, to start.
I definitely got fooled by the camera angle and watching the game on my phone instead of my TV. This seems a lot like the play in the Nations League final where I thought the Mexican attacker was onside by a trailing US foot on the goal that was waved off early in the match.
Wait, so they didn't publicly touch the Chicago v Cincinnati offside? Wow. I know I've said this before, but partial transparency is a problem. It's compartmentalized because different fan bases will be angry at different times, but it will eventually catch up with PRO and MLS. I also find the language around the non-red card in New York curious. "Would be supported" is less strong than I think was conveyed elsewhere.
It's deliberately ambiguous language, and yet if PRO would support a red card *after* review, then they *must* consider the lack of a red card to be a clear and obvious error. There's really no functional difference in just *saying* it, logically speaking.
I will just say this. You're gonna have a lot of upset coaches with the no handball call a la Penso this Fall. 100%