school is in. witness brian treat players like children. scold them and make calls that make sure the camera remains on him. good luck. stinky
who reffed the Colorado game, when TnT had to leave the stadium on crutches, he was hacked so many times?
Ya know, it wasn't so long that everyone thought Hall was the worst ref in the history of organized soccer... ...but after the bozos we've seen this year in MLS, and after his showing in K/J, Hall isn't so bad.
when i saw the release on hall's call up to the w.c.....i couldn't believe it. i thought "this, this is the best we have to offer?" (then i found out it was mostly a "senority" thing) however, he had an okay go of it over there. when he came back....i still thought he didn't do a very good mls job, and for the most part, still don't like his games too much. i'd still take him over the "stripe force" of those other three. hmmm.....i'm imagining a military/data oriented/star treky type of commercial now about refs mucking things up due to lack of basic judgement skills and the nonexistence of foresight by the league at the season's inception and lack of ref management during the season....."mission accomplished"
It is TRULY a sad thing when Brian Hall ranks as one of the better referees in MLS. The current real Hall of Shame includes Gus St. Silva, Noel Kenny, and Rich "Red Card" Grady.
I don't think Valenzuela is AS bad as those genetic anomalies I listed though ... If St. Silva is STILL able to ref MLS matches next year after his "performance" this year, I'm going to be pretty pissed.
Andy, St. Silva and Kenny admittedly have had bad years (or, more specifically, a few bad games), but what's your beef with Grady? Yes, he has a reputation for having more red cards than most (I'd actually like to see statistics on it) but is that necessarily a bad thing? There seems to be two completely divergent schools of thought on refereeing from the fans perspective: Either referees can't involve themselves in deciding matches at all, or that they need to stamp out violence and nasty tackles and issue more red cards to do it. After matches, on these boards, you it seems like always either hear some fans talking about how a ref 'ruined' a match with an early red card, or that he 'ruined' a match because he wasn't willing to use the red card when the marquee players were being brutalized throughout the match. It's a lose-lose situation, and some fans on here even have the audacity to complain about both types of refereeing. I agree that refs shouldn't alter the outcome of matches with poor calls, but if Grady is consistent--and if you've truly watched him a lot then you know that he is--then what's the problem with him having a lower threshold for violence and serious foul play than other refs? Matches that Grady officiates, in my opinion, usually tend to have some of the most enjoyable, free-flowing attacking soccer in them. So long as he's not inventing red cards or giving false penalties, and he's consistent in a given match, I don't think you can have too many complaints about Grady. I truly think, especially since the last Pan-Am games, that he's got a reputation he doesn't deserve. And that, overall, he's one of the better referees in the United States.
I believe the two schools of thought on fan referee assessment can be more simply characterized as "That last ref is the worst ref in the world" and "That next ref is the worst ref in the world". Seriously, here's everybody who has refereed an MLS game in the past two years: Anno, Jasen Barnes, Andrew Bazakos, Elias P Corrie, Gerry Grady, Rich Hall, Brian Heron, Richard Johnson, Jesse W Kennedy, Michael Kenny, Noel Kokolski, Peter Marrufo, Jair Prus, Arkadiusz Rutty, Reggie Saheli, Ali Salazar, Ricardo Sill, Roger Simmons, Erich St. Silva, Agusto Stott, Kevin Tamberino, Paul Terry, Kevin Valenzuela, Ricardo Vaughn, Terry W Vega, Sergio Weyland, Tim Yonan, Marcel Now, go ahead and line up to say some of these guys are useless, but I want to know which ones you think are better.
I think that, right now, the best referees are: Stott Hall Grady Kennedy Prus Simmons Vaughn Terry (on current form) Also, as an aside, of the referees you mentioned, the following have been removed from the pool: Barnes Kenny Sill Vega Yonan And, the following have retired: Tamberino Weyland So, despite what some think, there is turnover in the leagues officials when there are poor performances. Luckily, there is no referee union, like in other sports, so officials can be canned based on performance. Just to illustrate what turnover has led to, the following are the group of officials who have more or less 'replaced' those that have been removed: Anno Bazakos Johnson Marrufo Salazar Simmons Vaughn In other words, if you want to objectively determine whether or not MLS is making progress, then compare the last group I just mentioned to the second group I listed. I, personally, see improvement.
Esse Baharmast is now, of course, Director of Advanced and International Referee Development for US Soccer, and thus effectively responsible for the quality of all MLS refereeing.
Why? These awards are nominated and voted on by the players and coaches. Maybe it should tell the fans something about what the players/coaches think of referees. For example, Stott is an excellent referee, and is a highly regarded international referee. It is almost a foregone conclusion that he will be the USA's representative at the 2006 WC, and he is also age eligible for the 2010 WC, as well. Because of that, there's a very good chance he could see two WCs and become the most decorated USA referee ever. To read these boards though, you'd think he's a cancer on the game in most fans' eyes. And if it's not Stott you're speechless about, then who is it? Hall? I think he proved his doubters this year both in MLS and at the World Cup? Terry? The only knock on him has been his fitness, and I think he's taken care of that 'problem'. If these aren't the 3 best referees in MLS, who are in your opinion? I personally think Simmons is (or at least will be) better than Terry, but he's too inexperienced to be considered for the award.