NWSL 2021 Referees

Luis Guardia isn't new to the NWSL. He doesn't referee in the league as regularly as some others, but he's been around in the NWSL since at least 2018. He refereed Houston vs Portland just a couple of weeks ago.

 

Watched the CHI-ORL game. Can't really disagree with the notion that the misconduct decisions in some key incidents could be improved.

The aerial charge could definitely have been yellow. The off-the-ball foul after the "hold" (wasn't a hold) near the touchline could definitely have been yellow. There were a number of slides that didn't seem to be addressed that may have built up the harder tackles throughout.

The tackle near midfield opposite the benches wasn't as bad as made out to be. It wasn't violent. He gave a yellow and had a stern word and handled it fine. Never a red. The second replay on the broadcast showed that.

He actually could have been okay despite not giving the above two yellows if he gives red to the foul on Colaprico. He definitely seemed to think about it looking at his body language as he blew the whistle. There wasn't a ton of speed in the tackle but it was just clumsy and the clash was ugly. Given it was right in front of the benches made everything worse. A red there would have saved him from the backlash I think, especially since coaches would then not have been cautioned and sent off.

BTW he has been in the league since 2017. That's up to 5 seasons in the middle depending on how involved he was last year.

 

Every one of those tackles is a Yellow Card at most. Your efforts to pretend they are red cards and paste tweets that say they are definitive red cards are not in the realm of serious discussion here. You're in @Sport Billy territory.

Saying these are more than a YC causes us to forever discount your judgment here. It's clear that you are biased and cannot be trusted as someone who has legitimate complaints, in other words.

On the first tackle on Guatrat:

• "blindside sweep" -- she's coming from the front. Clearly.
• "with the studs so high if she had been off in the timing of her tackle she's destroying Guatrat's knee. Stud contact on top of Guatrat's foot." -- These are incongruent sentences. The studs were never high and made contact with the opponent's foot on the ground.
• "Back leg sweeps in and takes out Guatrat's legs from under her." -- Not a viable description here.

The tackle is clearly a Yellow Card at any level.

On the hip/shoulder check as the attacker passes the ball: In a vacuum this is a Yellow Card. Not knowing any context on game flow or anything else, I can't say that not giving a YC is wrong here. But I'll give you this one.

The foul by Turner on Pugh:

• "late first half foul on Pugh by Turner, correctly given a yellow." -- Agreed
• "The sheer violence of this foul is borderline red territory." -- There is no violence here. None.

On the 27th minute foul in the back by Turner: Could be a Yellow Card. It is in a vacuum. But if a Referee chose to chew out a player and warn her instead, then that would be a completely appropriate decision to take.

On the "long tug" on Pugh: You're upset that an advantage wasn't shown? That's the complaint here?

 

Thanks for commenting on the tackles. I just posted the tweets because they contained the clips even if I didn't agree with all the comments. I didn't think someone would take such offense; it's here for people to offer their opinions.

I'm really glad to see confirmation that these are at least yellow-card territory infractions. It's a little shocking how many Brits are responding to these tweets by accusing Americans of being "softies" and not understanding that "it's a contact sport"

I, too, thought the foul on Gautrat looked like a Yellow Card level. No card was given. Sorry if the posted tweet didn't make that clear enough.

My impression of the scissors tackle which forced Colaprico out of the game was red card but I told the Twitterer that a full speed clip is always helpful in evaluating a referee's decision.

The foul by Turner on Pugh by the touchline — I'm relieved that at least it's a yellow because, as I said, the Brits are saying clean tackle. Again, I think a full speed clip is important to make a final decision but I thought even in this slowed down clip, the speed and force with which Turner is going into the challenge is pretty obvious. Trying to borrow or adapt some language from the Referee Forum or other ref discussions, Turner's going through Pugh's legs with force (obviously with the trailing leg and knee, not the leading one, but it hardly matters, right?). I should think that if Pugh's foot was planted or caught on the surface, there' would be a high chance of something breaking or tearing.

 

Chicago Sun-Times has a piece looking into ref assignments in the NWSL:

https://chicago.suntimes.com/2021/8/14/22618427/nwsl-has-a-problem-with-refereeing

The strangest stat in NWSL refereeing was in the 2018 season, in which a grand total of two red cards were shown -- to Marta and Carli Lloyd.

 

I did not find the article to be particularly insightful. It takes info from the documents out of context. The reality is that you cannot just wave a magic wand and start assigning MLS refs to NWSL. Collective bargaining agreements would be a problem, and the NWSL match fees are significantly below MLS.

As I have posted before, this is a problem that requires a long term, strategic approach. You cannot fully professionalize the refereeing in NWSL without significantly increasing the financial commitment to those referees. Whether there is an appetite for that when player salaries are still so low and a collective bargaining agreement is being negotiated is an open question.

 

Long-term, strategic approaches are important. Short-term steps can be valuable, too, especially because they can do something right away.

Here are some names I pulled from the MLS assignments over the last month: Victor Rivas, Rosendo Mendoza, Ramy Touchan, Jon Freemon, Michael Radchuk, Timothy Ford, Lukas Szpala, Malik Badawi, Guido Gonzalez Jr.

All of them were either CRs or VARs in MLS games the last month. All of them were also CRs in the NWSL in 2017

We all know NWSL isn't going to be able to use (or afford) MLS refs anytime soon. But why would the league want to cut itself off from a pool of referees, some of whom are on a path to becoming MLS refs in a few years time?

In 2017, in roughly 38% of NWSL matches the center referee was a woman. This season, up until this last weekend (when 3 of the CRs were men), almost 90% of the center referees were women.

We all want more women referees. It's more important that the women playing in the NWSL get as many good referees as possible for their matches, whether they are men or women. It's clear there is some policy or agreement between NWSL and PRO which has been preventing that this year, at least up until now.

 

In the last two weeks, there certainly seems to be more men as center referees

Two more as center referees today. And a send-off for a 2nd yellow (Havana Solaun for North Carolina)! Didn't think it was part of the Laws of the Game anymore!

After (if I recall correctly) having only 8 men as center referees in the first 65 matches this season, in the last two weeks, men have been the CRs in 5 of 8

We'll have to see if this results in better officiating or greater satisfaction in the officiating.

 

Ya think @Thug Mentality was right?!

Lukasz Szpala has been assigned today's match between Chicago / KC. He makes the 8th CR in the last 12 games to be a man.

In the first 12 weeks, only 8 of 65 center referees were men (by my quick count)

Of course this isn't going to end all the controversies and complaints. The next time there's a major referee controversy with a man as CR, people can say having men as CRs doesn't solve the problem. That could, of course, "justify" going back to the unacknowledged policy of using only women CRs if at all possible. But will the NWSL do that?

No one's saying having more men as CRs is a cure-all, but suddenly we're getting matches with 8 yellow cards (including a 2nd yellow) or PKs called on tackles from behind, and WoSo isn't abuzz with talk about the officiating. There simply seems to be a lot more men referees than women, meaning the pool is deeper among men and the weaker candidates are weeded out.

The elephant in the room is changing genders before our eyes and everyone pretends to not notice, whether it's a pink elephant or a baby blue one. Instead, when talking about the officiating, the Commish babbles about VAR or adding a technical director. And the journalists dutifully act as stenographers.

This isn't healthy and it goes beyond soccer. Corporate people or people in positions of power will, if they can, paper over nagging and intractable problems with corporate-speak if they're allowed to, if no one's calling them to account.

 

Ya-think-he-was-right-Sunday-Update:

Four matches today, Sunday, and PRO has posted that they have assigned 3 men as CRs and one woman (one of the non-FIFAs). In the first 12 weeks of the season, only 8 of 65 CRs were men by my unofficial count. Since then,11 of 16 have been men.

***
So how do we expect this to unfold? What's the plan? Sooner or later, this being soccer, there will be an officiating nightmare with a man in the center; is the plan to say that having men referees doesn't solve the problem, so let's go back to an all-women-whenever-possible policy?

I have little confidence that coaches will publicly say the officiating has improved, whatever they may think to themselves. Why would they say they're satisfied that improvements are being made when it takes away a possible excuse for losing the next week?

***
Let's make it clear once again — No one's saying women refs can't be as good as men; or that we don't want them to have opportunities to gain on-field experience. As much as anything, this is a matter of not letting corporate people get away freely with corporate-speak, tossing out words like so much salad in an effort to evade talking about a real problem.

 

Lloyds was a Louis Suarez handball off the line. Marta’s was a hands to the face frustration foul in a 3-1 loss to Houston.

both deserved.

lloyds turned out ok. The pk was not converted.

 

As we get ready for this week's Orlando match (against Racing Louisville), I've been looking at another bad Orlando tackle and curious miss by the referee from last week's match televised on big CBS. Turnover / counterattack / tackle at 69'18



I don't think there's much question about an error on Koroleva's part — she gave the yellow card to the Orlando player who made the second contact (Megan Daugherty-Howard) rather than Amy Turner for the first, bone-crunching tackle — but what I think is interesting (assuming it should've been a red card) is whether a rigid adherence to a "game-management" model leads a referee to overlook a red card which should be given.

Watching the game live, I was really happy to see Koroleva issue two standard yellow-cards in the 2nd half to Houston. At 67'15 Houston's Gabby Seiler makes a clumsy tackle on Sydney Leroux, stepping on Leroux's foot. Nothing vicious but it's studs on foot so it seems perfectly reasonable. I thought the two cards set a standard that showed Koroleva was willing to use the cards when appropriate, especially if more dangerous shenanigans were to follow. Which is what happened only two minutes later when Orlando's Amy Turner goes for a straight-in stab with the studs as Shea Groom steps into high gear on the counter.

I thought the two yellow cards to Houston perfectly positioned Koroleva to issue a red card for just such a situation as this. But apparently not.

***
It's perfectly natural that referees are trying to manage their games to keep 11 players on the pitch for both sides. I've been of the opinion for a few weeks, however, that it should no longer be a paramount objective for a referee in any match involving the Orlando Pride. And if that means being firm with their opponents, fine. If it means yellow cards for the opponents, fine. If it means their opponents wind up with less than 11 players, fine. Because at least you can deal with dangerous tackles and Serious Foul Play quickly and cleanly.

One of the disadvantages the NWSL has, as pointed out by others here, is they don't have the full-time referees dedicated to the league the way MLS does, where they can study and prepare for games and be alerted to potential problems.

I'm disappointed in WoSo journalists (and fans, too) for not trying to fill that void. They endless complain about the officiating (a lot more than I do, believe it or not) yet never try to find any way to be constructive about it. Saying Orlando seems to carry trouble around with them is one way to be constructive. Saying we shouldn't be surprised their matches end with less than 22 players on the pitch is, I believe, a way to be constructive.

I suspect, not being a referee, that most referees wonder if they did something wrong when one of their matches ends with less than 11 players on each side. There are times — and there are teams — where we should be equally likely to think the opposite, wondering if we did something wrong when there are 22 players on the pitch at the end of the game.

 

Hard to argue that shouldn't have been a red. That is pretty horrendous! A ref at that level shouldn't have missed that. Maybe it is because the Dash player didn't sell it?

 

So, the Afghan-born star and Danish international, Nadia Nadim, got her ACL torn after getting her foot stepped on by an Orlando player last night in the 15th minute.

Nadim got her foot stepped on pic.twitter.com/HsfCbsJvjZ

— Zach (@zach13_) September 11, 2021

Not saying it should've been a red card. (I heard Phoebe McClernon received a yellow card for it but the NWSL website isn't reporting any cards were issued for that match) But injuries, bad ones, are starting to happen in the NWSL as the direct result of fouls, which should lead to us asking, is there something that the referees can be doing to better protect the players? And if there are limits to what the referees can do, what could the rest of us do?

Isn't it sad that a player has to "sell it"? One of the things the women's game has received praise for is the relative lack of diving, players not rolling around on the ground like they've been shot, and trying to play through tackles and keep on their feet. But then they're punished for it, by not getting a call they may have gotten if they went down.

 

That's one of the many differences between the women's and men's games.

I have actually gone to the last two Gotham FC games (formerly Sky Blue). In the last game, a Chicago player's jersey was tugged on for a brief moment 25 yards from goal. If she goes down, it's probably whistled and either a yellow or a red for DOGSO, but she stays up on her feet and dribbles downfield for an off balance shot. The head coach is ripping into the referee for the next 30 seconds who stops the game to give a caution for dissent.

On the topic a few pages back about the quality of officiating in the league? The gripe the big name players have is that the officiating hasn't improved compared to the play on the field. Totally untrue. Perhaps I'm biased since I've worked with some of the referees that either have been in the league or are still there.

My last game prior to this was in 2009, when it was called the WUSA. That game had a Grade 7 AR and a 4th official who I'm shocked passed any fitness test (her dad was influential in getting her there). These two games were well officiated with referees with impressive resumes.

One of the major differences I'm noticing with the all-male crews is there seems to be less tolerance towards the dissent. Also, on any foul that is a bordeline yellow, the referee is running right to the spot to ensure nothing stupid happens. I didn't see that as often in clips I've watched here and in other places in previous matches.

Again, the folks they have doing the NWSL games this year are MORE than qualified.

 

Ah, but you didn't notice the change in the referee pool after the 12th week of the season! The referee in one of the Gotham matches you attended, Matt Franz, has been in charge of several matches this year but he was one of only 8 men to referee an NWSL game in the 1st 12 weeks of the season. (Actually only one of 7 as he was the CR in two matches in the 1st 12 weeks.)

In the 1st 12 weeks, men were CRs in only 8 of 65 matches, while 18 of 65 had one of our FIFA women as CR and 39 of 65 had non-FIFA women.

Since then, 15 of 24 CRs have been men, including Kevin Broadley who I think was the CR in the other Gotham match you attended.

So when we say the folks doing the NWSL games are "more than qualified", we have to remember there was a big change in the pool of referees after Week 12, which is what @ThugMentality told us was coming

 

Old stereotype. Abby Wambach was a diver. Marta was and is. USWNT has gotten several key calls on dives.

 

Ya-think-they-were-right? Sunday update

2 FIFA women (Koroleva and Abt) and 3 men assigned to this weekend's games. In the last 6 weeks, the ratio of men to non-FIFA women CRs has reversed.
1st 12 weeks:
FIFA women 27.7%
non-FIFA women 60.0%
men 12.3%

last 6 weeks:
FIFA women 24.1%
non-FIFA women 13.8%
men 62.1%

The elephant-in-the-room has changed genders before our eyes and everyone pretends to not notice

For all the vague talk about long-run plans to improve the officiating, the league has undertaken a major short-term step without announcing it. Instead of conceding things were hopeless in the near-term, NWSL actually did something. Yet doesn't, at least for now, want to take credit for it, doesn't want to talk about it.

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Here's the thing. It either helped or it didn't. And this recent pool of referees includes men with, as @MetroFever calls it, "impressive resumes." It includes people who we assumed were beyond the paltry reach of a women's league — guys who work as MLS CRs and VARs.

If it didn't help, then we should go back to almost-all-women-referees because I agree it's important to have more women officials and to get them experience. The NWSL should be forthright about it and tell the players and coaches since opening the pool to more men didn't help, we're going back to a policy of women-whenever-possible.

It's a simple matter of courage-of-our-convictions, isn't it?

 

Gotham FC is awarded a PK in the first half, but the defender who the foul was called on might have been fouled by the forward seconds earlier to regain possession of the ball. The play starts at 30:33 of the video (or 26:29 of the match):

 

There was some grumbling on WoSo Twitter on this sequence. Some said it was exactly the same play, but one wasn't called while the other was (making it a PK no less). The contact is similar enough that I understand the grumbling — and it's certainly far from the most obvious PK in the world — but they're not quite the same. When the North Carolina defender, Caldwell, is shielding the ball with her arms outs, no doubt there's some contact, even with Purce's arms and maybe they even get momentarily tangled but it's just incidental. Both players are where they're allowed to be; their arms happen to be attached to their bodies so they could come in contact, but I don't see Purce reaching out to tug on her opponent, which is what Caldwell does when it's "her turn".

Is it a soft PK by current standards? I'm not a ref but probably yeah, but also this is where I try to take into account the CR (Mark Allatin) is closer to the play and has a better view. For example I don't know if Caldwell keeps grabbing Purce's arm when she goes down and Allatin has the better view of it.

I don't like the "clutching and grabbing" which is normally allowed on plays inside the box, but that's a separate issue on which I take a heretical view. I'd like to discourage it more than what, apparently, current refereeing standards call for.

The other interesting thing about this play is that it appears to be part of an unfolding story, the "education" of a player, in this case Midge Purce and her becoming something of a diver, which I can trace back at least to a match we discussed here a couple months ago. It was against Portland and the CR was Tori Penso; and while quite likely there was nothing wrong with Penso's calls, it seemed to teach Purce that when she tried to keep her feet, she wasn't going to get a call. When someone else went down easily, they got a call.

A week or two later came the really messed up play when she went down easily against Washington and she got the call; a Washington player got sent off (the wrong one to boot)

I'll probably bring this up in the Women's Forum because, as I say, it touches on some issues where I know I take a heretical view of things and which may be of less general interest in this forum

 

Behind a paywall but of possible interest here ->

We all moan over bad calls, but it's more complicated than "the referees suck." For @TheAthleticSCCR, a deeper look into the support, training, and pay #NWSL refs actually get:https://t.co/f7KGvk3XAi

— Steph Yang | Horrible Soccer Goose (@thrace) September 29, 2021

I have a feeling it doesn't really cover the switch to an all-women-referees policy this season; then the switch back 6 weeks ago. (hmmmn)

 

It doesn't and that's because the writer probably hasn't noticed it and it's not easy for even the anonymous referees to tell people that NWSL is using more men instead of women in the middle.