09/13/22 CF Montréal vs Chicago Fire Stade Saputo (7:30PM ET) REF: Ted Unkel AR1: Lyes Arfa AR2: Brian Dunn 4TH: Guido Gonzales Jr VAR: Jorge Gonzalez AVAR: Cory Richardson Inter Miami vs Columbus Crew DRV PNK Stadium (8PM ET) REF: Jon Freemon AR1: Jeff Hosking AR2: Kevin Klinger 4TH: Tori Penso VAR: Drew Fischer AVAR: Eric Weisbrod Minnesota United vs Los Angeles FC Allianz Field (8PM ET) REF: Timothy Ford AR1: Kathryn Nesbitt AR2: Kevin Lock 4TH: Silviu Petrescu VAR: Allen Chapman AVAR: Fabio Tovar Houston Dynamo vs New England Revolution PNC Stadium (8:30PM ET) REF: Ismail Elfath AR1: Corey Parker AR2: Kyle Atkins 4TH: Lukasz Szpala VAR: Edvin Jurisevic AVAR: Nick Uranga Sporting Kansas City vs D.C. United Children’s Mercy Park (8:30PM ET) REF: Rosendo Mendoza AR1: Jason White AR2: Gjovalin Bori 4TH: Michael Radchuk VAR: Jair Marrufo AVAR: Peter Balciunas
Marrufo hasn't had a whistle since Week 21. I had heard he withdrew from a fourth official assignment in late July (Week 22 or 23) with an injury, so that could be the issue.
Well, here’s that late season 2CT for DR that isn’t given… This is what Heath is referring to. This was a “point of emphasis” with the league & refs this off-season which is what I support wholeheartedly. This is by definition a yellow card. Adrian sounds like he’s whining but he’s 💯 on the mark. @LAFC dodged one here #LAFC #MNUFC #MLS https://t.co/nRiNiym7qu pic.twitter.com/YjxrmRoAU8— Taylor Twellman (@TaylorTwellman) September 14, 2022 You spend an entire season carding that and then, suddenly, it’s not one in a big September match.
I get that it was a point of emphasis, but I also hear about how professional matches always want to "keep the game with 11 men". I wonder if that goes through the minds of refs in a situation like this, being afraid of getting reprimanded by PRO/MLS for doing the right thing because it was a "soft" second yellow send-off. Wish one of these refs would just become the ultra hard-ass who completely clamps down on dissent, FRD, and DR yellow card offenses and then we can hear him get chewed out for making the game all about him, having a thin skin, welcome to the ump show.
I think Elfath has had a slew of relatively “soft” second yellows this season (I remember counting at least three), so make of that whatever you will
The second PK in Montreal tonight reminds me an awful lot of the one not called and not reviewed in Seattle vs Portland (I think that’s the game?) a few weeks ago. I think from the fact that this was reviewed, perhaps we can conclude that PRO internally wanted a review in Seattle, too.
That’s about an obvious/undebatable an inconsistency in a single season that I can remember. It doesn’t reflect well on PRO at all.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think there has only been one 2CT in MLS for DR this season (the one in Seattle) and PRO basically said, "yeah...about that POE...you still have to use common sense sometimes..." That 2CT wasn't even on a big match. It was a Seattle vs. Colorado mid June/mid July non national TV match. I can't blame Ford for not giving one there. It's why these POEs for dissent and delay are always useless unless you referee in Ligue 1. Either the referees enforce the POE and then the players/league hates them and then the referees back down or they don't get enforced in the first place. Whatever happened to the POE about contact with the goal keepers. Have we seen a red card for a player making contact with a prone goal keeper since Unkel gave that one in LA?
Aside from a particular Galaxy twitter account bringing it up every time someone so much as breathes on a goalkeeper, I can't think of a truly analogous foul to the Cabral red since it happened, at least in terms of what the league is supposedly wanting to deal with, which is avoidable contact specifically to the head. There may have been something that escaped my attention, of course. I can't watch everything anymore. That said, I don't think it's unreasonable to say that PRO not supporting the Rowe 2CT plants the seeds of doubt when it comes to making this decision.
Wasn't there a goalkeeper contact misconduct issue right after the Unkel red card was still fresh? Maybe a yellow card for something similar but not to the head. Or am I completely making that up? So a few things off this point, rather than multi-quoting from above. Yes, I think there has been only one 2CT that ended on a DR card this year, but I'd also say that's not particularly unusual. Once you're on a card, DR is the sort of thing you can avoid pretty easily. It's sort of like getting sent off for removing your shirt. Sure, it happens. But it happens rarely because players rarely do it... other players can take the delay caution for them. With that said, I know for a fact that Marrufo got dinged for NOT giving a 2CT DR card over the summer. So we have three test cases that I'm aware of. One where Marrufo didn't give it and got admonished, another where Mendoza did give it and got mixed signals from PRO (though internally I think it was definitively interpreted as "you didn't have to do this"), and then this one with Ford. Do I understand why Ford didn't give the red card here, based on what happened after Mendoza's? Absolutely. But I still think he should have given it. And I think PRO will say (internally, I suspect) that he should have given it. And that will only add to the confusion--both externally and internally. On the Mendoza one, the fact that a replacement ball was nearby and the ball wasn't thrown that far anyway seems to be what PRO (e.g., Howard Webb) hung its hat on when it said common sense could have been used. Though even that pronouncement was couched in the idea that maybe the referee was compelled to do it because of the point of emphasis; I think I pointed out at the time that Webb was essentially saying he thought the point of emphasis was too draconian because of incidents like this, but that he understood why his referee followed it. Of course, that equivocation opens the door to doubt last night. Now, I think (and again, believe PRO will think) that the incidents are too dissimilar. Last night, the whistle goes, everyone hears the whistle, and he just blasts the ball away. I really can't think of a mitigating factor relative to the point of emphasis. So it should be a DR yellow and a 2CT. And I think Ford will have heard that from Geiger and others this morning. So we're left with a missed 2CT that had almost no fanfare (I believe in Houston), a 2CT given that was disliked by PRO even though it held strictly to the PoE, and now a missed 2CT that PRO--unless I'm crazy--will have wanted given. It's not a good situation because if/when the next one gets given and its viewed as "soft" publicly, how will PRO react? This is, more than anything, a combined problem of strict points of emphasis and a governing body that still is responsive to clubs and--to some extent--public pressure.
I agree with all this, with one more variable. It is not just a league and PRO that is "responsive to clubs and public pressure" but referees as well. For some, and here I think of T. Penso, Stott, Chapman, Unkle, Elfath, (and maybe Rivas/Dickerson) they are going to give that card no matter what PRO said or didn't say. I think those guys would sense a game disrepute thing and recognize it in the moment. In fact, T. Penso had a 2CT in DC/Austin earlier this year that wasn't DR, but was a shirt removed followed by a game disrepute foul that she certainly could have gotten away with not giving...but I think those refs just know what they are going to do and do it. Then you have another few refs (probably Marrufo, DeOliveira) and those guys are probably not going to give that card as a 2CT. I'd be surprised if they'd give it as a first caution. And again, my point is that is not grounded so much on PRO's instruction as it is in that they aren't going to give that card. Get a new ball and put it in play, and move on with life. But in the middle is probably a dozen or so referees that see that kind of play and actually process how to apply a POE, as well as think "what about what happened 5 games ago, but then there was a memo that said X, but then Webb didn't back X," and so on. And it is that middle group that--I argue--is more prone to causing confusion then the refs who are sort of beyond being told by PRO how to handle a DR.