I'm wondering if it wasn't the no call in itself that set off Messi but the subsequent interaction between him and the referee when the ball was out for a Miami throw-in.
Late changes for MD 14 MTL vs TOR AR2: Oscar Mitchell-Carvalho CLB vs CIN AVAR: Tony Obas Graves and Muschik (the replaced officials) are North and South Carolina, respectively, if I'm not mistaken. Weather affecting travel, maybe.
MIA-ORL 93' I know Messi isn't getting sent off for this but he takes a very clear dive while already on a yellow card. ORL is furious about that and I can get why they are angry.
There's no way Gonzales Jr. can send him off there. First, there is actual contact and an arm out--I mean, there is pushing contact here. Second, once it's not given Messi just gets straight up and heads back upfield. Just based on both historical instruction and the lack of an appeal, it's very hard to say that this is the type of simulation that typically gets carded at this level. It really isn't. It's a perfect situation for "get up, no foul" without a card. Yes, he was trying to win a very soft penalty and went down when the contact wasn't enough to send him down. But sending any player off for that in a game they are losing 3-0 in the dying minutes would demonstrate a complete lack of feel for the game. Sending Messi off at home would just be 100x worse; particularly in a match where the first yellow for him did appear to be soft (seems like it was verbal dissent, but it wasn't demonstrative so had to be the language itself). Other than Orlando wanting the send off there because it would be fun for them and it's a rivalry, there's nothing here. To this point, if he wanted the week off all he had to do was really appeal for the penalty and then dissent when he didn't get it. I actually don't have too much doubt Gonzales Jr. would have pulled the trigger if that was the course of events.
Leo Messi postgame interview, calling for MLS to check its referees: “There’s always something going on with the referees, some isolated plays. I think MLS needs to look a little more closely at the referees.” https://t.co/TRlGSHe2Gd— Safid Deen 💯💯💯💯 (@Safid_Deen) May 19, 2025 first, sure, there can always be improvement in every part of the game. second, zero chance the officiating had anything to do with their defeat. After watching this game I think you could say 0-3 was generous; Miami were outclassed for 90+ minutes third, if this is how things are going to be from now on, please retire. I don't want the last images I have of one of the greatest players to be constantly whinging about innocuous refereeing decisions.
I honestly wonder if players and coaches ever get tired of complaining nonstop about referees in all sports. Not just MLS, not just soccer, literally every sport, except seemingly rugby. It’s so exhausting. Soccer, nonstop. NFL, MLB, NBA, NHL, hell the WNBA. Nonstop, endless, almost every post game, every press conference, some sort of dig at the referees. Every league has to work on their referees, every league has horrible refs, etc etc etc
Has there been Has there been a major international super star in MLS that hasn't made a complaint about the overall state of officiating in MLS? Pre-PRO the complaints had some merits. I mean there were a couple of referees that were laughably poor. But you can't turn on MLS game today and say with a straight face that the officiating top to bottom is significantly worse than what is going on in Europe. In fact, I would argue it's better than England and maybe Spain and I would have never thought I would be saying that 10 years ago. There is no way an MLS crew get the handball so wrong in the FA Cup Final. Just no way. Some might come out with only yellow, but they would at least come up with something instead of no call.
Every league is the same though. Messi is the same guy who said that Mateu Lahoz was “not good enough” to referee the Argentina-Netherlands debacle after it, despite having refereed the UCL final a few seasons before to universal praise. Every major European league gets complained about, so it’s meaningless.
Not defending Messi in the slightest, though I would say there are three interesting situations from this match (aside from the non-simulation call) that are worth looking at--two of which, I think, he is implicitly referring to in his post-match comments. The potential passback by Orlando that then immediately led to their goal is the big one. I don't think there's an expectation that it is given. And the idea that it then leads to a goal on the other end of the field is just dumb luck, so not really relevant. But it is a kick of the ball toward the goalkeeper. Who then picks it up. I believe as referees we take a lot of pains to avoid calling this, and Messi (in this case) knows it. He realizes what happens and chases the ball to force the keeper to pick it up, which is where it becomes a challenge for the referee. I think (or know) I make no-call in real-time, too, but it is an interesting one. The 74' foul against Suarez that leads to a dissent yellow for Messi. I am just not sure how Gonzales Jr. doesn't come up with yellow there. Maybe he is just on the wrong side and is guessing? I think giving that card settles things a little and it avoids the caution to Messi. On the other end of the spectrum, Suarez's yellow at 73' is worth a look. He gets it, I imagine, for "aggressive attitude" by going back to the Orlando defender who is on the ground to get in his face after Suarez is called for the foul. But the foul is deliberate and off-the-ball. Despite what the commentators said, Suarez just lines up the defender. Good catch by the officiating team but I'm surprised yellow didn't come out for the foul itself. 73-75', in total, shows just how difficult Suarez is to officiate.
Also worth noting that this is probably close to the first time ever in Messi’s career (or Suarez, Alba, or Busquets) where they’ve gone on a stretch of picking up just 4 points in 7 games. They literally don’t know what this feels like, so its not a surprise that Messi is acting in a way that we don’t usually see him act in the past.
I read a stat on Saturday night that this was the first time Messi has played in a 3-goal home loss?!?!
Because we're all referees, it bothers us more. None of my friends who I consider intelligent tell me it bothers them that the star NBA players are griping about every single call and laughing in referees faces. To me, it's a turnoff. NBA ratings are significantly down from previous years but it's more from every shot being a three-pointer and a video game instead of the guys constantly griping in interviews. It's refreshing to watch a NY Giants post-game show and watch a full-hour with interviews and analysts dissecting plays instead of bitching about a no-call. For a sport that is difficult to officiate because it has so many moving parts on a 7 second play, they've come a long way. The guys who had egos overseas got worse in MLS. Garber has been ok with it. When we had Henry with the Red Bulls, he had a VERY rough start his first 15 games or so to the point he'd stay on the ground after a no-call and pout on the ground. You couldn't hear it on TV, but he'd be booed by his own fans. Coach Mike Petke had enough with his crap with that and him showing up his teammates when he didn't get pinpoint passes from guys with only a fraction of his talent and they almost went to blows at a practice and had to be separated. Can you imagine anyone standing up to Messi? Let's be honest, outside of Angel DiMaria, who on the recent Argentine teams conducts themselves in any classy manner? The Messi "experiment" obviously brought in dollars but it exposed MLS as being a weaker league than any of us imagined as he's toying with everyone. Players who had "good" careers in much smaller European leagues who were recently dropped by their National Teams are having their way with MLS the past 2 years. I can't see how this is good for the league as a whole and in promoting their product to the American public (and others) who have a plethora of choices on traditional TV and streaming devices.
I remember in an international friendly Alex Chilowicz (when he was still "green") making a similar call in an international exhibition vs the Red Bulls and goalkeeper Luis Robles was ripping into him for the next 2 minutes. Off and on the field, he's a humble guy (now behind the scenes with MLS Next) who I believe only received cautions for time wasting on goal kicks in his career. The expectation at the pro level is it's a play-on. I can't help but think about the numerous moments fellow referees would whistle this when the ATR existed. In one U19 match, a referee whistled this same play which resulted in the lone goal. I always stand up for my partners, but even I have my limitations as I left for my car after the handshakes as the referee actually pulled out his USSF booklet to the losing coach showing that horrific diagram they used to have in the ATR. You can't teach "football understanding".
Exactly. MLS is what it is and it is the most successful league in American soccer history and its grown tremendously. However, the level of average player in the league is miles below the top 5 leagues in Europe. I remember when Nemanja Nikolic came into MLS from 2017-2019 and became one of the top scorers in the league. He was journeyman striker who was born in Serbia, but played most of his club football in Hungary and wasn't good enough to play for the Serbian national team. Here was a journeyman player from the Hungarian league who was one of the best players in the league when he was in MLS. Same thing with Alejandro Pozuelo who won league MVP. He was a journeyman player playing for lower tier Spanish teams and he was at times head and shoulders above any MLS. It was like watching Messi in his prime against La Liga and Champions League teams. It's why the expectations amongst people that the USMNT should make a deep run in the World Cup next year is ludicrous. The American player is still not yet good enough. I don't know what the reason why that is, but we just can't produce enough elite talent.
Your memory is poor then. Nikolic did win the Golden Boot in 2017, but in 2018 and 2019 he was that bang average lead striker for a MLS team (15 and 12 goals, respectively). Alejandro Pozuelo won MLS MVP in 2020. The COVID shortened year that included a 3 month gap in play, a tournament in Orlando, and on-again/off-again games as COVID impacted teams. I wouldn't take that as any particular sign of things. And yes, Messi has made the rest of the league look bad, but he was making European leagues look bad until the moment he came to Miami. There's a reason many consider him the GOAT.
We don't have to compare them to the top 5 leagues in Europe. Let's compare them to the smaller leagues that never get a sniff of air time here for obvious reasons. Without Dejan Jovjelić, the LA Galaxy don't win the MLS Cup last year. He started out playing for Red Star Belgrade. Now he's with Sporting Kansas City and he's still playing lights out. Despite that, he still can't get on the Serbian National Team since he's not as good as the guys they already have (he's only 25 so it's possible down the road). In the same game we're discussing in this thread with Messi pouting in a 3-0 loss (is he serious?), Orlando's Marco Pašalic scored his 6th of the sesaon and scored on a 30 yard blast last night in the US Open Cup match. I was at Sunday's Rijeka/Hajduk match (Marco transferred from Rijeka this year) and he would NEVER be that wide open for a shot in an HNL match. For next month's World Cup qualifiers, Croatia placed him on ther "Stand-by" list, meaning I have a better chance of playing due to multiple injuries than he does. So, we have two guys who score every other game in the US who didn't even dominate in their own small nations. What does that say about the competition in the 30 team MLS and our ability to produce homegrown players on a National Team that might not win a game on their own home soil next year in the WC? Garber said in a recent interview he wants to soon compete against the Top 5. That isn't happening.
I'm not talking about Messi dominating. He should dominate just like Henry and Ibrahimovic did even when they were well past their prime. They are some of the greatest to ever play the game. Even Michael Jordan put up 50 every now and then when he was with the Wizards. I'm talking about journeyman lower tier European players who can't get a cap or any playing time for their national teams being elite players in MLS and looking at times head and shoulders above everyone else. Nikolic wasn't, but Pozuelo at times was. Remember Sebastian Giovinco? He on the other hand, was at times so much better than everyone else and it wasn't even close and he was at mid-table Serie A player who wasn't quite good enough to be a regular at Juventus. I think you absolutely can take it as a sign of the state of the quality of MLS and the state of the US player talent pool. Look at Matt Turner. He was an elite MLS goalkeeper. He gets a transfer a to Arsenal and the Premier League. He's obviously not good enough to be the #1 at a club like Arsenal. He's not a Champions League level goal keeper. There is no shame that. But it's pretty obvious now that he's probably not good enough to be a Premier League level goalkeeper. Same thing with Zach Steffen. He was a great MLS goalkeeper. Made the move to Man City, but wasn't really good enough to be even the #2. That's okay. He goes to the Championship and wasn't really good enough to be a Championship level goalkeeper and now he's back in MLS as one of the better goalkeepers in the league.