After watching five soccer games tonight (9/14), a feat in itself, and watching Clint Mathis red-carded for gesturing at another player with his foot, Dallas awarded a penalty kick after the ref ignored a violent elbow to Jay Heaps seconds earlier that opened the play for the penalty run, and culminating in the worst call I've ever seen in soccer, the ridiculous non-offside of Ruiz in the LA-SJ upset (I'll call it an upset because SJ was winning), I am finally fed up with the officiating of MLS. I'm a huge soccer fan, a season ticket holder, and I watch every game on the shootout package (as well as all the overseas soccer I can get). I love the MLS and want to support it, but it I tell you, this situation is getting ridiculous. I have no problem with _occasional_ bad call. That's part of the game, the refs are human. But the refereeing in MLS is just sloppy and unprofessional, and it's inconsistent. It makes World Cup officiating look good. What Mathis did _is_ worthy of a red in many leagues: but how come Carlos Ruiz didn't get a red for attacking Jeff Agoos in the LA-SJ game? He ran twenty yards to shove Goose in a situation that he wasn't even involved in and the ref didn't even give him a yellow (if players involved in the play argue it's one thing, but when players not involved get involved, they deserve to be carded). And unless you're blind, you cannot disagree that Ruiz was 10 yards offside when Cien headed the ball to Cobi Jones in the play leading to the game-winning goal. Understand, I don't mind close decisions. In fact, I usually complain that the offensive player isn't given the benefit of the doubt in offside situations. In 50-50 tackles, I usually say, "Let them play." If a decision is close, whatever the ref says is okay with me (even if I disagree with it). But here's the problem: when the decisions of the officials are so far out of whack that 99.99% of the people in the stadium can see the decision is wrong, and this isn't an isolated event but happens every weekend in almost every game, the league has a serious problem. I feel if this isn't addressed, it's going to hurt the league in credibility and attendance. For instance, most of the friends I take to games are non-soccer fans, and even _they_ are befuddled and confused by the inaccurate officiating! I've watched some of them, enthusiastic about soccer one moment, drift into apathetic disinterest after a series of consistently poor calls. *The officials are hurting the game.* Soccer already has the stigma of low scoring, and when a contest is decided by an unfair penalty kick (or an obvious penalty kick not given), it will turn off the American fan. So, if we agree that something needs to be done, what should be done? Do we fire all the refs and get new ones? Is the problem that there isn't enough pro soccer in the U.S. for refs to learn how to ref properly at a high level? My feeling is that if the league doesn't do something to solve this -- and soon -- we, the fans, need to organize a nationwide boycott. We pick one particular Soccer Saturday next season and *nobody* goes to the games that weekend. If every game one weekend had half the normal attendence, that would surely wake up some people in the MLS office and get them to realize we're serious. If the officials are going to decide who wins the games instead of the players, we fans have to take action and make sure things are put back the way they're supposed to be. I don't like to boycott: but maybe if enough of us threaten to do so it will motivate the league into taking significant action to solve the problem. So let's discuss it: what are the solutions, and is a boycott (or threat of a boycott) a good idea to force the league to comply? -- Marc
well, you already said the mathis red was a red... and most people i have talked to said it was a red too... so that isn't a problem... you are a quake fan, so you are biased... besides, did they show a different view that allowed you to see ruiz, the pass to ruiz, and all the defenders to determine where the offsides spot was? the bias also holds for the goose-ruiz run in from what i have seen, most leagues have problems with officiating... the best way to get around it is to have officials call fouls and give cards... and not to hold back on second yellows but if you want to talk good officiating... i thought the fire-crew game was well called today... even the indirect kick in the box... there might have been a missed offsides, but it had no affect as the keeper got the ball
That's the answer to everything, isn't it? I'm a fan of one team so I'm biased? Look, I like and admire good soccer. Sure, I'm a fan of my local team (and fortunately they usually play good soccer), and since I see them the most I suppose the majority of my examples of poor officiating would be SJ-related. But I don't just see poor officiating at SJ games. I see it all over the league. MLS refuses to talk about it, never mentioning any controversy. It's barely mentioned in any of the mlsnet.com columns. Stuff like the Mathis red. I have no problem that that's a red, but the league needs to be consistent. His "retaliation" was so timid as to be non-existent (similar to Beckham's infamous backheel kick in France '98). I've seen dozens of instances of far more violent retaliation (punches, elbows, tripping) that wasn't even yellow carded, let alone given a red. All I'm asking for is consistency. The players depend on it, the fans want it, and the game needs it. -- Marc
San Jose fans have already started a letter writing campaign about tonight's officiating. No joke. Go to thier thread about tonight's match.
I have to agree, that I'm getting tired of the poor officiating in MLS as well. During last nights Revs-Dallas game Suarez got red carded for stopping a goal with his hands (at least I think that was the call). It was definately a penalty, but the intentional part I am a little miffed about. What makes it worse is that I was sitting there defending Brian Hall as (supposedly) the best ref in MLS. That said, I still will never boycot MLS.
I was there so didn't have the benefit of replay but Fish did look offside and Goose walked into the overhead kick. Yeah a foul, maybe a yellow for reckless play, but no way a red.
That would have been a second yellow as he already had one at that point. The play that mad4soccer referred to was the mellee in the box. Albright went late into Cannon, Agoos, who was standin near by went at Albright by pushing. Cannon throw the ball at Albright. Ruiz ran from the about the penalty area and pushed Agoos. Earlier in the game Conrad was gicen a yellow for pushing Jones. All those players should have got yellow not three out of the five. A good example of league wide consistency is yesterday. Soneone got a yellow for a dangerous overheard kick in the Chicago vs Columbus game (I agree well reffed). In the LA vs SJ game no card. It is dangerous play whether contact is made or not! So, what happens next week? Will be a yellow or nothing? How are players supposed to know whats going to happen? How are fans supposed to not get frustrated? Yes!! the Sj fans are pissed, and if it happened to another team I'm sure there fams would be...its the game, but if we want to have a professional league it needs to be reffed professionally aswell...yes calls are missed, refs are human. However, there is difference to gross incompotence in the last minute, of one of the biggest games in front of one of the biggest crowds. This is what can bring down MLS. I also agree that reffeing through out the world can be bad at time, (USA vs Germany etc..) the probelm is that the proportion of games in the MLS that are affected are a lot higher. Its very frustrating , but, in a way its part of the drug that keeps me coming back again and again. -Richard
The officiating all around the world is not quality. The solution is to have professional full time referees. That being said, every time I watch Ruiz I say, "How is that not a card?" at least three times. He is the darling of the league much like Etch three or four years ago.
Civil Disobedience This particular issue is one of my biggest gripes with US broadcasting of soccer. We need to see those side views. If we get more of this kind of concrete evidence, we'll see wether the AR-ing really sucks or not. I think in this regard, MLS is as good as any league For the man in the middle, on cards, there must already be a comittee one can appeal to for bad calls. It should be possible to challenge the decision of the middle guy on caution points and what not, and I think all ejections should be reviewed automatically, and refs sanctioned for poor decisions. These sanctions will then affect assignment for games as a main ref or AR and whether one can work playoff games. I also think MLS might want to consider establishing an exchange program with some other league that has a second division to function as some kind of Ref Academy--I also think we need this for announcers. Our professionals need to get more professional, and it's hard to accomplish that with so few teams. Now as for the suggestion of a boycott, I don't think we want to toy with economic punishment where MLS is involved. I'm more a fan of a Boston Tea Party kind of incident. In every stadium someone should be willing to dress up in ref gear with a big red nose and a colorful wig. These things should be kept in a secret hidden bag--maybe snuck in by several fans separately. If the officiating gets way too sucky, the "Ref Clown" storms the field and makes security chase him around. He can even wave around linesman flags or red and yellow cards. Then people who agree that the reffing sucked can go and pay the clown's bail and pitch in to cover his eventual fine. It's likely that this will be a misdemeanor and should carry very little weight in other matters of life--like firing, divorce or excommunication. It also might get MLS more local news coverage. And it would be funny as hell. Imagine hearing JP Dellacamera say: "Uh oh, it looks like Kenny's gonna get the clown..."
Re: Civil Disobedience You must not have been at the Fire/DC match of... was it 1999(?), reffed by Scotland's Stuart Dougal, or the match against Tampa(I think) later that year refereed by a guy from La Liga with lots of UEFA experience. Both matches were poorly handled. Not quite "Noel Kenny" bad, but they were pretty bad. Actually, I take that back: Dougal did the worst job I've ever seen live at a professional match. Even with "full time" CR's in the EPL (and actually, a good number of them kept at least a link to their day jobs), there are still problems. I mean, I agree with all of you that MLS refs are bad, but the problem stems from their woeful inconsistency from game to game (or for nearly all of them, their inconsistency from minute to minute of the same game). If they were to be more consistent, that might help. But remember, there are no fans, anywhere in the world, convinced that the refs in their league are the best on the planet. In fact, they're likely to think that their refs are the suckiest.
"Exchange program" isn't the right word. I don't think MLS needs to ship over incompetent foreigners to poorly officiate our games. We've got that covered already. What I really mean is that we could send them our guys in the off season so they could hone their skills. But it's probably unworkable. But on to imporant matters--what about the Clown proposal?
With you 100% on that one! Actually, the exchange idea (or whatever we can call it) might work with the EPL, since their refs get together for nearly a week each month to go over match footage and to work on conditioning. Putting some of our guys in that environment might actually be a good idea. Especially if we can trouble the EPL refs to take a few minutes to watch footage of some MLS ref gems from the past few seasons. Or even this past week.
DC vs. Metros was a well officiated game. Mathis red card was absolutely correct (even Zambrano is quoted in the papers as backing the ref on this). Tim Howard left the referee no choice but to send him off when he trips Lassiter on a breakaway outside the box. Mathis looked foolish as he ran off the field saying he did not see Alegria lieing underneath him. Ali Curtis' goal was as tight as an offside decision as you will see and it was correct. Farias first half goal that was taken away for offside was also correct. Were there one or two fouls in the middle of the field that could have gone either way, sure, that happens every game, especially when the team's playoff lives are on the line. If there was any mistake that I would be willing to consider it would be Diallo's caution, as it looked more like an issue of players stumbling than a dive. The metrostars have no one but themselves to blame for losing this one. A more proffesional attitude on their part might help.
This is meant as no offense to you, but your quote illustrates part of the problem when fans talk about 'poor officiating' in MLS. Sometimes, of course, they are right. There are bad calls in MLS, just like any other league, and the officiating isn't perfect. However, oftentimes, attacks on these boards against refs over controversial plays (80% of the time it involves a red card) are fueled based on misunderstanding of the Laws. I'll use your quote as an example. The play involving Suarez is only a penalty if it's intentional. You can't say--as you did--'that it was a penalty but I'm not sure if it was intentional'. Without intent, there is no penalty, nevermind a red card. So, the first question on that play for Hall is, "did Suarez intentionally handle the ball?". He said 'yes' and called the penalty. Based on the way Suarez raised his hands and opened his palms as he tackled, I, along with most neutral observers, would probably agree with him. Now, the next question is over the red card. All Hall has to ask is "did Suarez deny an obvious goal-scoring opportunity?". The answer, to anyone who saw the game, should be obvious. The red card was the only possibile decision. My point is that the first part of the decision (whether or not it's a penalty), is much more tough than whether or not it should be a red card. However, many fans have misconceptions about the Laws. They are not helped, I might add, by commentators saying things like the Revs announcers did last night, such as "that should be a penalty but only a yellow". There's no way that call can be justified under the Laws, yet these commentators shoot their mouths off as if they know what they're talking about. Anyway, I'm not saying that ignorance of the Laws is the explanation for all the fury against MLS refs. But, in many cases, it's part of the issue. There are bad calls in MLS, yes. But, there are many perfectly correct calls that are still vilified on these boards as though they were horrendous.
Suppose a defender in the penalty area is already in position to block a shot, but because the shot is aimed at his head, he instinctually moves his arm to protect his head and handles the ball. Obviously, a foul should be called since the ball was deliberately handled. But is it appropriate to give him a red card since he would have blocked the shot and denied the goal scoring opportunity whether or not it it had hit his arm/hand?
These kind of 'what if's can get very complicated. I see what you're saying (that it would have hit his head anyway), but there are counterarguments to that. What if he, instead of raising his hands to protect his head, had decided to duck instead? Or, remember, the criteria is only that a player deny an obvious goal-scoring opportunity, not that he deny a certain goal. So, what if the ball had deflected off of his head and in? In my mind, there are so many 'what if's, that I think it's wrong to make an exception for a player 'protecting' himself. If the handling is deliberate and it denies an obvious goal scoring opportunity, then the Law should be--and is--clear. Also, your hypothetical is a good one, but I'm wondering if you think it applies to Suarez in this case. Because, from what I saw--live and on replay--Suarez's arms were raised above his thighs as he slid to block the goal, and were not raised to protect his face.
Is the world in agreement that the US deserved a PK when Frings handled the ball on the line? Sure it was unintentional, but isn't a defender responsible for where his hands are? In that case, PK w/o red would seem OK. Or I am I taking too much liberty with the rules here?
The missed offside call (Ruiz) was clear because of the lines on the pitch. If you have a replay available, you will see the assistant referee sprinting down the sideline MANY yards behind the play and he was in terrible position. I feel there was no excuse for that mistake. (note: no bias toward SJ or against LA) A couple of weeks ago I saw Ante Razov get thrown down in the box, (note: bias can be found here) and the assistant ref on that side was also in poor position to see it (I was in line with the play). All too often, in my opinion, the asst. ref is too close to the midline and has a poor view. The Razov play was a good example.I said to an acquaintance after the game that I could not believe it was not called and he said he couldn't see it and he was only about 20 yards off line (toward the middle) from the play. I would like to hear MassachusettsRef comment on proper positioning guidelines for the assistants, as I see that as a major weakness in MLS.
Two things. First, after all the debate that happened on these boards, I doubt it's correct to say that the world is in agreement that the US deserved a penalty. But, that's not the issue here. Second, and more importantly, you are taking too much liberty with the rules. As an example, if the US was given a penalty in that situation, Frings had to be sent off. There's no discretion, unless the referee can somehow convince himself that a handball on the goalline didn't deny an obvious goal-scoring opportunity.
I also believe that the missed offside call last night was the worst call in the history of soccer. Carlos Ruiz owed it to the fans to deliberately kick the ball out for a throw-in rather than score a goal under such unsportsmanlike conditions. I encourage all fans to boycott until this tragic and repulsive situation is fixed. Stay strong, my brothers.
Most people seem to think that the Columbus/Fire game was called well so that should give me an unbiased view. The MLS refs suck ass. Someone said that they're making the World Cup refs look good and that someone was correct. The quality of the league is definitely being held back by the quality of the officiating. There has to be a weak link somewhere in the chain. It used to be the crappy play, but that's changed. The play isn't perfect, but it is good enough that were it to be held in check by decent officiating, the games would be more enjoyable.
san jose fans are still hoping the result will be overturned. Bill Reeves has contacted NASA about obtaining possible satelitte images from space to use as evidence that Ruiz was in fact offsides.