10/15/22 New York Red Bulls vs FC Cincinnati Red Bull Arena (12PM ET) REF: Alex Chilowicz AR1: Frank Anderson AR2: Kyle Atkins 4TH: Pierre-Luc Lauziere VAR: Allen Chapman AVAR: TJ Zablocki LA Galaxy vs Nashville Dignity Health Sports Park (3PM ET) REF: Armando Villarreal AR1: Kathryn Nesbitt AR2: Chris Elliott 4TH: Ismir Pekmic VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Mike Kampmeinert 10/16/22 Austin FC vs Real Salt Lake Q2 Stadium (3PM ET) on ABC REF: Victor Rivas *First Playoff Game AR1: Cory Richardson AR2: Jeffrey Greeson 4TH: Fotis Bazakos VAR: Chris Penso AVAR: Eric Weisbrod CF Montréal vs Orlando City Stade Saputo (8PM ET) on ESPN REF: Ismail Elfath AR1: Corey Parker AR2: Cameron Blanchard 4TH: Lukasz Szpala VAR: Timothy Ford AVAR: Joshua Patlak 10/17/22 New York City FC vs Inter Miami Citi Field Stadium (7PM ET) on FS1 REF: Rubiel Vazquez *First Playoff Game AR1: Logan Brown AR2: Chantal Boudreau 4TH: Ramy Touchan VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Tom Supple FC Dallas vs Minnesota United Toyota Stadium (9:30PM ET) on FS1 REF: Ted Unkel AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Ryan Graves 4TH: Rosendo Mendoza VAR: Drew Fischer AVAR: Jeff Muschik
My presumption/impression is it's Penso/Chapman/Dickerson/Fischer(?) for QFs but that's truly just a guess as no assignments have been made. Totally possible that someone gets repeated from the first round and/or one of the above names gets saved for a SF.
Two referees get their first playoff whistles this round: Victor Rivas (4 prior fourth official assignments) Rubiel Vazquez (7 fourths, including MLS Cup 2019) Officials working their first ever playoff games in any capacity: Chantal Boudreau (AR) Ryan Graves (AR) Jeffrey Greeson (AR) Pierre-Luc Lauzière (4TH) Ismir Pekmic (4TH) Lukasz Szpala (4TH) TJ Zablocki (AVAR)
Good use of VAR to disallow Cincinnati goal; PK was a foul but my goodness that’s not a smart challenge for NYRB - hate to see that happen but I don’t see how that can’t be called.
Good send off by Rivas for that ridiculous challenge on the keeper. I think there are some current playoff referees that would have tried to manage that.
Huge penalty for handball to tie it for austin in added time. Looked like a clear handball and yellow card, nice work by Rivas on two huge decisions this second half.
Apart from the early handball that needed OFR to watch, Rivas and his crew have nailed a lot of decisions today. The second yellow, another handball penalty, an austin goal disallowed for handball, and now another one for offside. Big day, lots of KMIs.
Well done by Rivas and crew on this one still amazed Felipe hasn’t been booked yet - some persistent dissent from offside calls and lots of screaming for handball whenever the ball hits an RSL defender. It seemed to be getting to RSL players - I’m not a great lip reader but one seemed to say keep it up and I’ll flatten you (or something similar)
I was out doing other things today, so just got back and went straight to the 2CT on my recording. It’s the right call, but Rivas has some titanium ones to make that call on his first playoff whistle. Big time call.
Interesting decision near the end of the first-half, a possible penalty trip with contact knee to knee, no foul from Elfath and no OFR. For me I like the no-call here. At live speed I thought it was a penalty but then the replay showed that the contact was fairly minimal. I don’t think it gets reviewed either way. I’m reminded a bit of the pretty soft penalty that Elfath gave in the Cascadia Derby a few months ago.
Weird miss, it seemed pretty clearly inside on first viewing to me. Kind of a sour way to end the game for Elfath, but ultimately completely inconsequential. Of note, we are now 4-for-4, every game has had an OFR change a decision. That’s not a great rate, but other than that I think the officiating has been really quite good in all 4 games. And different styles on display as well, Elfath especially has such a unique style to him. It seemed like card was out of the pocket within .25 seconds of the whistle tonight [emoji23]
Agree, although I'm not sure the offside deflection in NY would have been clearly visible from any angle other than directly behind the goal. The end of MTL-ORL was a little weird - I immediately told my wife the PK was the end of the game and was pretty surprised that it was placed outside, but, as you said, inconsequential and I don't know how many people outside this board really noticed.
Well, at this point there would be people in Zurich noticing, too. I agree it was inconsequential for the match. At the most basic level, I'm just glad Ford sent it down and Elfath confirmed the change. The nightmare scenario, obviously, is Ford agreeing it was "inconsequential" and not doing anything and then an immediate counterattack causing the game to end 1-1. We've never seen anything like that in this league, so I'm not even suggesting any VAR in MLS would actually consider doing so (nevermind Ford in particular). But I think we can think of a league where that might happen, so it's worth pointing out that everyone did the professional thing here and got the right result. For me, the bigger question issue here is on Elfath and focus. He's so good in many ways--obviously. But I've said since the first time I saw him that he clearly has some LOTG deficiencies (we've seen a glaring technical mistake about once every season or so--calling simulation without a card, giving a throw-in to the other team for timewasting, etc.). I think he also may have a bit of a focus issue that could hurt him at an inopportune time. It's as if his personality of being above the fray, which works so well on many occasions in management situations, allows him to make some decisions that aren't fully thought through. What I mean is this: does he give that challenge as a penalty if he knew it was inside the area? I know that's the sort of question we ask a U14 referee rhetorically, to ensure they have the courage to do the right thing. But we'd be lying if we didn't admit there wasn't a slightly different standard for most officials when certain challenges happen on either side of that penalty area line. If he knew this was a penalty the whole time, would he reason that the contact wasn't terrible and the attacker stopped to ensure it occurred? No way any of us can be sure, but I certainly think it's possible. Look how much time he spent at the monitor--I'd bet that wasn't to ensure location of the foul, but to confirm that he actually had a foul once he realized it could only be a penalty. I mean, he didn't give the shirt tug/hold DOGSO a few weeks ago when he was called to the monitor for an OFR so if he could reason that wasn't enough, then I think there's a chance he was trying to get there on this incident, too. In this match, to make it 2-0 with no time left, who cares. But what happens when Elfath gives that foul in a tied World Cup match and the VAR then says "Ish, it's inside, it's a penalty" (note that at the WC, he'd simply be told it was a penalty and wouldn't have an OFR to confirm it himself)? If I recall correctly, Elfath had one very similar to this involving New England in 2019 or 2020--I can't remember the exact details but it involved a soft foul that the VAR said was inside but I don't think penalty ended up being the result. Regardless, my main point here is that the powers that be in FIFA--and, I'm sure, Elfath himself--wouldn't want this as a consequential penalty in a major World Cup match. So I think he and they will be well aware of what happened here and I'm sure he'll do some self-analysis in an effort to make sure nothing like it happens again soon. If this had happened in the WC group stage, I think there's a very good chance (depending upon how other officials perform) that it would hurt his chances of getting a knockout match. The margins are that fine.
That New England incident may have been as far back as late 2017. I think it predates the bad RC in Atlanta, and that was early 2018 I'm pretty sure.
Yeah, it was very early in the VAR era. 2017 just feels too early, though, given we only had a few months that year. I wouldn't be shocked if it were true, though. Do you remember exactly what happened?
That would be it! Can't believe that was 5 years ago...oof. Anyway, it's as I remembered it. I guess the improvement last night is that Elfath didn't find a way to say it was outside the penalty area. But both the original decision and the time spent at the monitor shows that some fundamentals haven't changed much.
This made me think of the penalty given in NYRB-FCC this summer - I can’t remember the week didn’t he have a foul on an attacking player that was a fairly clear foul by the defender? I think most of the discussion here was how that wouldn’t be sent down if there was no call on the field but now I’m wondering if he would have blown the whistle if he recognized that it was a PK?
Anyone else have an issue with MIA keeper wearing almost the same color as NYC team? I’m surprised these were the kits approved by the league.