The refereeing job done by Marrufo in last night's Metros/Columbus game went beyond anything I've ever seen, not simply because of at least two clear penalties not called, but because his absolute blindness to what took place on the field literally threatened the health of every player on both teams. The McCardme horsecollaring of Tim Howard--just a foul. The McCardme career-threatening tackle on Wolyniec--just a yellow. The vicious repayment elbow by Wolyniec that sent McCardme off bleeding from the mouth (if there had been more time in the match, we might've seen even more between these two). Will MLS get involved in this? After all, no foul was called. How can Wolyniec not get at least a three game suspension? The ridiculous yellow card on McBride for barely bumping Ziadie. The refusal of Marrufo to give Jolley a yellow 30 seconds later for nailing McBride from behind twice as hard (you see McBride looking up at the ref, knowing the man is an idiot). Cunningham was fouled time and again, and the whistle was swallowed or a bogus advantage called where there was none. Marrufo's showing last night was a clear and present danger to the sport and the league. When the players' health is at stake from bad calls and non-calls, then we've gone beyond favoritism or incompetence and reached a point of criminal negligence, competitively speaking. MLS cannot become "the hard man's league" or nobody but the Chad McCarthys and John Wolyniecs of the world will want to play in it. This man Marrufo must get the boot--the league can't have too many more of these games.
I agree. Combine his performance with Salazar's sleepwalk in San Jose, and yesterday was a pretty bad day for MLS officiating.
He ref belongs in the WWF along with McCarty. The really serious thing is not protecting the players. Only cautioning the tackle on Wolyniec, which was a duplicate of Kovalenko's leg breaking tackle on on O'Brien, was ridiculous. Wolyniec deserves to be suspended for his retaliation, and even though I condemn it, I could see why he did it.
Maybe it's just me, but you hurt your argument when you call somebody "McCardMe." It sounds much, much whinier. In a related story, Man has derogatory nickname for every neighboring town. Later, COZ
he was horrible. the non-calls, the "advantage" calls, and the countless times cunningham's jersey seemed to be in a knot in one of the metrostar's defenders hand as he tried to run by them...the ending sequence with howard, mccarty, and then wolyneiac was rediculous and should have been taken care of by the official not by the players themselves... plain and simple he jeopardized the health and well-being of the players on the field. it was bad for the league and now i cannot blame a player like howard, mcbride or countless others who may want to leave the league so they don't get killed while playing a game that the ref is suppose to control. and to top it off the san jose/chicago game was no better, that center official was just about as bad with missing calls and i still cannot believe the line-judge missed the offsides call in that game...the player was offsides by at least 5 feet. how can you miss that when that is your damn job?
You're also forgetting another penalty call to the Metros (handball in the box), a penalty call to the Crew for Cunningham getting taken down in the area, and Magee getting held back like a snarling Doberman when he broke past his man in the box, as well as a missed yellow card on a Crew player (Hejduk?) for a horrible tackle on Guevara in the first half, followed seconds later by a bogus yellow on Lisi when Martino dove over a tackle that apparently didn't touch him. It was pretty dreadful for both sides, Crew and Metros.
I didn't mean to favor either side (team) here--both were ripped off by non-called penalties. Believe me, if I could think of a degrading name for Wolyniec, too, I would. What I'm trying to say is that Marrufo did more than just ref poorly, his lack of action and poor calls directly ALLOWED the game to get out of hand. No, he didn't horsecollar Tim Howard himself or elbow McCarthy, but he absolutely caused the conditions under which the violence onfield kept escalating by letting it go on and on unchecked. I've seen this happen in plenty of local league matches and high school stuff--but this sort of dangerously irresponsible reffing at the MLS level is totally unacceptable and doesn't do justice to the league or its players. If you ask me, Marrufo should be suspended along with the others.
not only does it not do justice to the league or its players, i think it turns fans off. most fans want to see "the beautiful game", or some variant of it, not rollerball soccer, complete with blood, broken noses and the walkign wounded. or anyway, i don't like to see it, at least more than once a blue moon. and McCardMe is a good name. the guy makes every other hack in the league look like a princess.
Is there any thread on BS which keeps track of the biggest goons in MLS. Certainly McCardMe and Kovalenko are on the list.
I agree. That game was a dangerous disaster. The lack of early cards set a brutal tone on both sides. Very ugly match to watch. Between that and the SJ/CHI game, the refereeing was abominable on Saturday.