LA @ HOU - Petrescu

Magee is gonna sit one out, no doubt. Also, David Beckham needs to quit like a douchebag. Lately, he has been just been ridiculous with his behavior and antics. I am tired and MLS fans should be tired of this act. It is making MLS look like the NBA and that is the last league in this world you should want to imitate.

 

Quite honestly, Petrescu showed incredible restraint in not sending Magee off. That frustration throw of the ball was towards the path Petrescu was walking and the ball probably came within a foot of striking the referee in the face. Petrescu had to come to a stop and lean back. If you by into the caution and not the send off, you need to really talk to the player about the act. Given that Magee was unhappy about a foul call on what he thought was not foul, the call was very orange in my opinion, leaning to red particularly for match control purposes.

 

I think much of what happened in this game was Petrescu showing restraint. Houston was in control of the flow of the game, had the lead, and it was almost as if Petrescu was trying to not let them blame the referee when they lost. That first caution could have been red, the Gaul caution could have been red, but then even sitting on an orange card, Gaul still didn't get sent off for his final foul. All that leads me to believe Petrescu had the attitude of just let the right team win without making himself the scape goat.

But I think refereeing in the MLS is past the point where "the right team won" is a good excuse.

 

I disagree here.

Magee throws a ball, but he certainly didn't throw it at the official.
The trajectory is all wrong and it isn't even close to hitting him
Magee was trying to throw that ball exactly where he did -- out of bounds.
It is a yellow for delay and nothing more.

Stephens should have been red.
I often think officials go yellow on fouls committed by players when they just enter the game when that same play involving a different player is red.
Is it right? No, but I think it happens.

 

So he threw the ball diagonally across the penalty area instead? Yeah, right.

 

I understand Petrescu thinking "Did he throw that at me? Or did he throw it near me? Or did he just throw it?" and going yellow.

 

I think this is correct. On the field in real time it might not have seemed as obvious as it does in the slo-mo replay

 

Despite your sarcasm, that is exactly what happened.

Look at the video at the :40 mark.
Magee is looking right at the CR saying something.

His head then turns 45° to the left.

That is where he threw the ball.
If he was attempting to hit the official, he would have continued to focus on him.

 

That's intimidation. Not delaying the restart. He could just have easily thrown the ball away from the crowd of players and the official.

 

He doesn't need to be looking straight on with Petrescu. I'm pretty sure he can still see the location and the route the referee is running.

 

Which is true of about 75% of the things people criticize referees for in this forum.

 

You're comfortable with how close the ball comes to the official in saying this? I mean even if it was in the other direction it was the result of being upset at the official. The fact that it's in the direction of the official moves this into the red card territory.

I can remember Rooney throwing the ball in the general direction of the official and being sent off and everyone knowing it was correct. Well except Man Utd fans players and coaches. A red card in this instance wouldn't be second guessed.

 

At least he did *something*, a big improvement over last week's incident.

 

LA is down by a goal though, time is almost out, and delay here is not really a plausible explanation. Frustration, yes. Hacked at their entire season and last place standing, yes. But delaying the restart, not so much.

I think in light of the suspension given last week, he would have been justified going red. But as I said above, I think he was just trying to get through the game w/o giving the Galaxy an excuse to blame him.

 

While it is "close" or "near" or "in the general direction of", I think it takes "at" to be a red.

I agree that it is more frustration and rather than delay.
But delay, dissent and "acts in a manner ...." are all simply cautions.
What would be the basis for the red?

As I explained above, because this was not "at" the official:
I don't see it as VC, which requires "excessive force or brutality" "against a match official".

I also do not see it as an offensive gesture.

If it was "at" him, I agree it could be either.

But I maintain that Magee was throwing the ball out of frustration and not even looking at the CR when he threw it. It wasn't thrown "at" the official and thus not a send off.

 

The camera angle makes it obvious that Magee is intending to throw the ball at Petrescu, IMO. From Petrescu's POV it may seem more like a simple act of dissent. In any case, this action deserves at least a one-game suspension from the DC.

 

I get what you are saying. But I think throwing the ball with that kind of force toward (in the direction of) the official with that kind of force after he just called the foul...that should get you sent. It's not time wasting. It's intimidation and retaliation and frustration expressing itself in a way toward the official to show disdain for his call. A yellow diffuses the situation, but still. Also a red would have looked weak after not sending players for SPF, DOGSO, and 2nd caution. That would have made it look like you can foul others all you want, joust don't mess with the ref. But I'm saying on its own, aas retaliation for the foul, thrown the ball with that force at the ref, toward the ref, near the ref, should be sent off.

 

Didn't see the game, but would be surprised if Beckham didn't get a caution right after Magee, I know he's "David Freakin' Beckham" but he came all the way from the corner to piss n' moan about that call, shouldn't leave empty-handed.

 

http://www.mlssoccer.com/matchcenter/2012-05-26-hou-v-la/stats

He was awful all game and he didn't get one yellow card.

 

I'm having trouble getting quotes to work for some reason (likely a PEBCAK) but whoever said it was more obvious in slo-mo and replay what Magee might've been doing than to Petrescu, I agree - at game speed I'd have a hard time talking myself into anything stronger than a caution.

 

Seems to me this is a classic case of ITOOTR and the DC has no business getting involved. If R -- who was right there -- believed it was thrown at him, red is correct. But it looks to me -- and to the R -- that it was not throw at but away. (I'd actually like to know what it was recorded as -- many have mentioned DR, but I'd bet on dissent as I don't see him as delaying the restart so much (he tossed it more or less towards where the restart would be), but as deliberately visually disrespecting the call that was made -- dissent by action.)

 

Actually, I think it is more likely to get written up as USB for "acts in a manner bah blah blah"
If he rights it up as dissent, it shows that he believes it was directed at him (rather than the play) and leans more orange.

 

Officially listed on the MLS site as dissent.