08/16/22 Los Angeles FC vs D.C. United Banc of California Stadium (10:30PM ET) REF: Ramy Touchan AR1: Kyle Atkins AR2: Felisha Mariscal 4TH: Allen Chapman VAR: Timothy Ford AVAR: Craig Lowry 08/17/22 Atlanta United vs New York Red Bulls Mercedes-Benz Stadium (7:30PM ET) REF: Ted Unkel AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Ryan Graves 4TH: Silviu Petrescu VAR: Chris Penso AVAR: Nick Uranga Toronto FC vs New England Revolution BMO Field (7:30PM ET) REF: Fotis Bazakos AR1: Gianni Facchini AR2: Tyler Wyrostek 4TH: Drew Fischer VAR: Michael Radchuk AVAR: Tom Supple New York City FC vs Charlotte FC Red Bull Arena (8PM ET) REF: Jon Freemon AR1: Adam Garner AR2: Matthew Nelson 4TH: Pierre-Luc Lauziere VAR: Kevin Terry Jr AVAR: Eric Weisbrod FC Dallas vs Philadelphia Union Toyota Stadium (9PM ET) REF: Nima Saghafi AR1: Jose Da Silva AR2: Kevin Lock 4TH: Rubiel Vazquez VAR: Guido Gonzales Jr AVAR: TJ Zablocki Vancouver Whitecaps vs Colorado Rapids BC Place (10PM ET) REF: Filip Dujic AR1: Micheal Barwegen AR2: Ian Anderson 4TH: Ismail Elfath VAR: Timothy Ford AVAR: Craig Lowry
08/19/22 LA Galaxy vs Seattle Sounders Dignity Health Sports Park (10PM ET) on ESPN REF: Victor Rivas AR1: Jeffrey Greeson AR2: Cameron Blanchard 4TH: Brandon Stevis VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero AVAR: Jeff Muschik 08/20/22 New York Red Bulls vs FC Cincinnati Red Bull Arena (6PM ET) REF: Ismail Elfath AR1: Corey Parker AR2: Kyle Atkins 4TH: Kevin Broadley VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Mike Kampmeinert D.C. United vs Philadelphia Union Audi Field (7:30PM ET) REF: Ted Unkel AR1: Cory Richardson AR2: Ryan Graves 4TH: Jon Freemon VAR: Kevin Terry Jr AVAR: Eric Weisbrod CF Montréal vs New England Revolution Stade Saputo (7:30PM ET) REF: Chris Penso AR1: Corey Rockwell AR2: Stefan Tanaka-Freundt 4TH: Nima Saghafi VAR: Timothy Ford AVAR: Peter Balciunas Inter Miami vs Toronto FC DRV PNK Stadium (8PM ET) REF: Pierre-Luc Lauziere AR1: Brian Poeschel AR2: Gjovalin Bori 4TH: Elvis Osmanovic VAR: Ramy Touchan AVAR: Fabio Tovar Minnesota United vs Austin FC Allianz Field (8PM ET) REF: Allen Chapman AR1: Kathryn Nesbitt AR2: Ian McKay 4TH: Silviu Petrescu VAR: Jair Marrufo AVAR: Robert Schaap Colorado Rapids vs Houston Dynamo Dick’s Sporting Goods Park (9PM ET) REF: Marcos DeOliveira AR1: Jose Da Silva AR2: Felisha Mariscal 4TH: Malik Badawi VAR: Carol Anne Chenard AVAR: Tom Supple Real Salt Lake vs Vancouver Whitecaps Rio Tinto Stadium (10PM ET) REF: Ismir Pekmic AR1: Jason White AR2: Walt Heatherly 4TH: Alex Chilowicz VAR: Jose Carlos Rivero AVAR: Jeff Muschik San Jose Earthquakes vs Los Angeles FC PayPal Park (10PM ET) REF: Michael Radchuk AR1: Jeff Hosking AR2: Mike Rottersman 4TH: Matthew Corrigan VAR: Drew Fischer AVAR: Jonathan Johnson 08/21/22 Columbus Crew vs Atlanta United Lower.com Field (5:30PM ET) on FS1 REF: Joe Dickerson AR1: Lyes Arfa AR2: Gianni Facchini 4TH: Guido Gonzales Jr VAR: Timothy Ford AVAR: Peter Balciunas Chicago Fire vs New York City FC SeatGeek Stadium (6PM ET) REF: Rosendo Mendoza AR1: Logan Brown AR2: Kevin Lock 4TH: Fotis Bazakos VAR: Ramy Touchan AVAR: Fabio Tovar Charlotte FC vs Orlando City Bank of America Stadium (7PM ET) REF: Lukasz Szpala AR1: Brian Dunn AR2: Kevin Klinger 4TH: Kevin Broadley VAR: Drew Fischer AVAR: Jonathan Johnson Sporting Kansas City vs Portland Timbers Children’s Mercy Park (7:30PM ET) on FS1 REF: Armando Villarreal AR1: Micheal Barwegen AR2: Matthew Nelson 4TH: Ricardo Fierro VAR: Carol Anne Chenard AVAR: Tom Supple Nashville vs FC Dallas GEODIS Park (8:30PM ET) REF: Kevin Stott AR1: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho AR2: Adam Garner 4TH: Elvis Osmanovic VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Mike Kampmeinert
I feel like this is very consistently called and yet every time it happens, the response on TV and online is unhinged.
Yes. It’s now an expected call in MLS and most other competitions. Though I doubt it’s given in England and I can’t wait to see if it will decide a WC knockout match. It’s the right call but it’s also turning a nothing incident with no penalty appeal into a result-changing decision. So I get why people react. But this is what VAR does. It’s now a feature rather than a bug.
I guess I have to agree. But this just doesn’t seem like the kind of call that VAR was pitched for. But t some level if you want to have video review, you have to live with what it gives you.
Interesting review for Elfath. Two players come together in NYRB attacking penalty area. Both go down. Elfath calls foul coming out. Except the NYRB attacker gets ball first and the Cincinnati defender doesn’t touch ball at all, so is the one arriving late. Because a foul coming out was given, that’s just not credible. So it seems to inherently lower the threshold for what a clear and obvious error is here. If no call had been made at all, I’m not sure a review is initiated (it’s possible but I lean against it). But because a “ghost foul” was called and the alternative is a penalty… VAR hands are sort of tied at that point, right?
This foul is called... on... Andrés? pic.twitter.com/fmrkqsWCAS— Andrew Vazzano (@AVRBNY) August 20, 2022 A short loop of the penalty incident
Without that loop, I don't think I appreciated the level of force of the kick into the foot; it seemed more of just a clumsy coming together after the ball was away. I'm more comfortable with penalty being the correct result but I still have doubts about that being sent down if the initial call isn't a DFK coming out.
I’m in the “clumsy and didn’t affect play” camp on this one. I don’t think a foul coming out is the correct call but I don’t see how this is a clear and obvious error, missed penalty kick. yes, it was forceful but did not appear intentional (I don’t think Elfath thought so either else I am fairly certain he would have cautioned/sent off the defender). Careless, yes, but the ball had been played on, and I don’t think this winds up causing serious risk of injury or affecting the flow of play here. Just not sure why the intervention.
Well, I mean even a clear careless foul is supposed to be reviewed. So you've got a lot of stuff in this paragraph and post that doesn't really enter the equation. Look at the penalty DC conceded at the end of the first half. Nothing more than a missed careless foul. My question here was whether or not it was a clear careless foul. Initially, I didn't think so. Now I have fewer doubts. But either way I think the fact that it was initially a defensive DFK rather than a no-call lowered the bar for intervention. Elfath saying "I saw them come together, it was nothing" is way different than "I saw the attacker trip the defender." You hear the latter as a VAR and it becomes much more difficult to say "check complete," even though technically it's not really supposed to work that way.
Solely because we noted early in the season how many cards were coming... Tonight we have one game complete, two in the final 10 minutes, two approach 60' and one that is in the early stages. In total, about 353 minutes played and as I started writing this post there were only 3 yellow cards (all in Elfath's match). Looks like two more occurred almost simultaneously in Montreal and Miami to make it 5. Still, one yellow card across five full first halves is something. Will be interesting to see if the officiating is changing, teams are adjusting, a combination of both, or if this is just an aberration.
I agree the foul call lowered the bar for intervention here There are three reasons to call a penalty I got from Holly Hollingsworth maybe 25 years ago - - injures or risks injury to an opponent - gains a tactical advantage from the foul - something you just can't ignore Now, I know this is different because of the error but it just seems like this is something that should fall into the "let it go" category. Now, I think I understand why it was sent down but like the call last night, it's defensible but not really a call that needed to be made and VAR just adds another level of subjectivity here. And this is where I've wound up - many of these decisions aren't wrong but they don't seem right to me either. I generally just shrug and move on (the logic of it makes sense) but I just don't like where this has gone. Again, that's not a criticism of the process per se - it seems to be done correctly. Rather it's just getting us into a situation that I don't think anyone intended.
I think it’s hard to argue that the bar isn’t lowered when a foul coming out is so clearly wrong. However, the VAR still does need to think the foul is in fact a foul. Take for example contact on a GK. We see the occurrence all the time where we call the simple foul coming out even though not technically correct. In some of those cases, we might argue the GK is more responsible for the contact but a review wouldn’t come unless the GK action was a clear foul by itself.
I would submit the expectations in the professional game have changed dramatically from the advice you got from him 25 years ago. The existence of VAR in the first place proves that.
Holly is a legend and helped me along the way. However, his advice might have been more suited for the amateur game in this case and not the professional game. We’ve seen a clear foul. You can’t give any consideration to say the contact is trifling and we cannot defend at all no foul. The clubs demand consistency and rely on every point and every goal to advance in the billion (with a B) industry. We cannot ever ignore a clear foul in the penalty area. for what it’s worth. The defender gained a tactical advantage by eliminating an attacker allowing the ball to be cleared.
Hypothetical situation. This is not a complaint about the officiating tonight. But on Houston's game-tying goal one Rapids fan is sure that it started with an illegal throw frim Houston in their defensive third. It wasn't caught on the broadcast so I have no idea. Supposedly it hit out of bounds before rolling into play. If it did, could VAR theoretically go back and disallow the goal for the illegal throw? I know that for the most part it takes a significantly bad throw to call an illegal throw at this level, but its it technically possible?
No. Restarts aren’t reviewable. The only exception to this is if the ball is properly put back in play and then there is an offence related to the restart. So like a double touch is reviewable. Less of an exception and more of a technicality, really. The bottom line is you can’t review the legality of a restart (e.g., ball moving at free kick, location of restart, “foul” throw, etc.).
Remember the GK who literally body slammed a player, and Elfath had a foul going out? "Lessons," as they say, "were not learned."
There's one wrinkle to this in the specific play @JasonMa described - if the ball entered the field of play then left the field of play, that would be an APP boundary line decision that is reviewable for ball out of play before the goal (as opposed to if you're talking about a foot lifted on the throw in or something which is not reviewable)
In this case the suggestion (again, not on video so I can't confirm) was that the throw-in down the line actually hit out of bounds and then rolled/bounced inbounds to the receiving Houston player. The person on Twitter who was going on about this said the AR looked right at it and didn't signal, so I have my doubts that it happened, or if it did, was so trifling that it wasn't worth restarting the play with less than a minute left. (If I had to guess it was just overlapping the line from the AR's POV, but from this fan's POV it appeared out)
I couldn't agree more. I genuinely don't think a review gets initiated if the decision is a no-call. It's sort of credible to just play on there. It's just not credible to have a foul coming out there. It's so blatantly wrong and thus the review gets triggered. I will say the way Elfath just shut down Acosta as he was going to the monitor was great. It's one of the reasons why he is going to Qatar and Marrufo isn't. Showed the right amount of authority without being too aggressive and over-stepping the line.