2026 MLS Match Day 4 Referee Discussion

Stevis with his first whistle as noted above. Plus, ATL/PHI will be, at least by my count, Kevin Stott's 200th regular season game as VAR

 

Outside of Tyler, we have a Brazilian crew.

 

Lest I forget, this is also the overall league debut for Mark Verso

 

NCAA Champion for Stanford Men's Soccer during the Jordan Morris era.

 

Now that's neat!

 

Strong R/4 pairing for a relatively weak match in LAG v. SKC.
Elfath with the whistle and Villareal as the 4th.

It seems like if they have a guy like Villarreal available to be a 4th, they'd place him with a newer referee, like Arreguin in RSL, who has the MLS Debut Verso as his 4th.

Now that I think about it Elfath/Verso and Arreguin/Villarreal would be more prudent assignments, right?

 

Gotta feel for Szpala. Eight months out and still in the VAR.

 

5+ minute delay at the start of NYCFC - Colorado due to communication issues with VAR in Dallas

 

2 questions, one based on Inter-Charlotte, the other a total hypothetical

1. Long bouncing ball that gets past a defender. He takes a touch with his foot that is him trying to settle the ball, not pass it. But it’s a poor touch, and the keeper picks it up. Is that a back pass?
2. Potential handball against the blue team. The ball is cleared, it gets passed around for a while. The pink team scores, while the VAR determines it should be a PK for pink. I assume the goal stands, right?

 

Thoughts on the PK near the end of the first half in Houston vs. Portland? I thought it was kinda soft, and I'm a (somewhat lukewarm, only watching MLS again because I bought a new iPhone and got AppleTV free) Timbers fan.

I think there's clear contact and some grabbing, but the attacker goes to ground pretty easily.

 

A pair of penalties for handball awarded via VAR in DC at Chicago. The first against DC's Hopkins seemed clear. The second was a very long review against Chicago that may have been helped by a slight shove by Bartlett into the back of Dean.

There was also a stoppage around the 75th minute due to discriminatory language towards Tai Baribo.

 

Zinckernagel claims Demianchuk declined to go to the monitor after the VAR recommended a review. 30', Zinck was booked for a dive on a penalty shout

 

Ahahahaha, did he really? I didn't see anything on that play that would merit going to the monitor.

 

No

goal (and no PK)

 

Basically zero chance an MLS referee outright refused to go to review. It's more or less rule #1 that any recommendation must be respected. If it's a bad send down, it's a bad send down, but they have to go to the monitor and make the call.

 

Yeah, I was more incredulous at what Zinckernagel claimed than anything else with the post I quoted.

 

I’m sure Sergii declined Z’s request to go have a look. This is his fundamental lack of understanding of what VAR is used for and how it’s initiated. I’m sure he told the referee he needed to go look and the referee responded that he would not unless the trained official in the booth asks him to

 

this is one of those things where what the book says and reality are different. Per the book, it is up to the R whether to accept the recommendation to do a review—only the R can decide to do the review. But it’s kinda like offside—only the R decides to whistle for OS, but . . .

 

The other thing is, there was nothing on that play to even review. The yellow for simulation may be seen as harsh, but there was no foul there by DC.

 

Agreed. I watched the CLT-Inter game in the stadium. While it was a back pass right to the keeper in effect, it was also obvious enough that the defender wasn't deliberately passing it to the keeper, it was a botched attempt to trap the ball and the wording of the law is "deliberately kicked to the goalkeeper by a team-mate", so intent matters.