Sure, those are both potential mitigating factors. I noted the slightly bent leg myself. But neither supports a YC in and of itself when taken in tandem with that point and mode of contact. The force wasn't as high as it could have been, but the contact is straight to the knee. You can see it buckle a little. This may not be force that would be considered excessive in general, but it's still enough to endanger the safety of the opponent due to the way the challenge is made, bent leg or not. The IFAB has written Law 12 to make it clear that serious foul play need not involve what we truly think of as "excessive force or brutality" should it nonetheless endanger the safety of the opponent. Personally I think this is a perfect example of that concept. Kreilach goes into the challenge high, and he takes a risk that he's going to make contact at or above the opponent's shin. He ends up getting him in the knee, the structure of which is highly susceptible to damage from this sort of trauma. It's gotta be a pretty light or glancing blow for him to get away with a yellow IMO. But this is happening in a match well above my experience level, of course. Just personal opinion.
Since I happen to be looking at it right now, I would like to add that the current leader among active on-field officials is Elvis Osmanovic with 60.
The MLS disciplinary committee found LAFC in violation of the mass confrontation policy in the City game, and it was the 2nd time this season, so the club and coach were fined, as well as Chiellini, Acosta and Sanchez.— Tom Timmermann (@tomtimm) September 22, 2023
Kinda burying the lede there, huh? The big news of the day is NYCFC's Ledezma getting caught spitting at Orlando's Angulo. Info I saw said 2 games, but the league announced just a single game ban. The incident was not seen by on-field or video match officials.
This is the same league that slashed 3 whole games from Kaku's recommended suspension after he forced an SKC fan to have reconstructive facial surgery. We're not dealing with serious people here.
Reminds me a funny story -- at a DC United home game, we saw Christian Gomez get sent off. At first, no one knew why, and the crowd went ballistic. In the pressbox, we saw the replay. It showed a significant spray from Gomez's mouth toward an opponent. These were the days before everyone could just whip out a phone and find out what happened, so the crowd continued to voice its displeasure. I wished we could yell out to everyone what we saw on the replay.
To be a fly on the wall in those meetings… What can possibly be said during an appeal that would get them to reduce a spitting suspension to just one game??
Probably more plausible than some of the mental gymnastics that we've seen in these decisions (and I'm only half-joking about that).