2022 MLS Week 32 Referee Discussion

Yeah, I think this one will be interesting but I feel like PRO will side with Penso.

There were two aspects to this. It all hinges on the fact that Penso called an arm grab that turned the attacker around. First, any arm contact that he saw actually occurred outside the penalty area. So, at minimum, this was getting reviewed to change it to a DFK. Second, the contact was much softer than Penso must have thought (and what I thought in real-time, to be frank). Honestly, an argument could be made that the attacker simulated because his reaction to the contact was completely out of whack. He knew he didn't control the ball and wanted to create a scenario that looked like a penalty. In the end, nothing was really there and any contact was trifling. No foul was the right call. A yellow for simulation was probably too much, but I wouldn't say it was impossible here.

I wouldn't say the attacker was "trying to dodge him." He kicked where he thought the ball was/would be and kicked the defender instead. Now, with that said, I think it happened so fast that it was a 50/50 decision and agree that this isn't a clear foul in my book. At least not with the video evidence available. So I do think this is one where PRO will disagree with the outcome. I actually think when you put this up against the Chris Penso one above (the rejected OFR), PRO has an impossible task defending both outcomes. If this one with Tori Penso is enough to annul a goal, surely the one in Salt Lake was enough for a penalty. But I think PRO will go the other way around (not a penalty in Salt Lake, not enough for a goal taken off with Charlotte).

He really had zero chance of catching the handball, though. He's looking through two bodies before we are even talk about the player who handled and that player is square to the touch line and using his goal-side arm to handle. Stott quite literally couldn't see any of that.

The other one is more interesting. The foul that would have been a penalty was almost so late that you just don't expect it and can't be sure what you saw, perhaps. I think Stott will be more upset in missing the APP foul.

 

It's also worth comparing this penalty to Zimmerman's last week, which PRO just said was wrongly given. What are the differences?

 

Very quiet week on the thread, I guess. Surprised this hasn't come up yet. Likely not something Elfath and crew wanted to deal with as the season winds down for them, but sounds like they handled it appropriately--at least given the description here and the reaction of the coaches. I'd also say that this is the sort of management that Elfath is really good at to begin with, so MLS is probably lucky he was there to work it all out.

https://sports.yahoo.com/taxi-fountas-dc-united-n-word-inter-miami-damion-lowe-014553715.html

 

Two things...

1) The audio would be limited. It's what you can pick up on the official's mics and what you might get via the broadcast. And the quality of what you can pick up on the officials' mics varies. So, limited.

2) Also note how Elfath phrased his answer. "They VAR and AVAR also didn't hear anything AND they did check the incident." So you can read that as "they didn't hear anything in real time" AND "they went back to look at the entire incident to see if they could identify a clear red card." I don't think he's 100% stating that they reviewed specific audio. I'd also note that his first sentence, about "no official" sort of covers the VAR aspect and makes the second sentence redundant, but I can see how it was useful to separate the on-field versus off-site officials. Also, these responses are basically written in crayon while you're sweating in the locker room, so it's not like you should expect perfect grammar and air-tight language.

 

I was wrong.