Seattle v. Philly [R]

Well there is an early nominee for most gutless decision of the year in MLS. How that isn't a yellow card is hard to fathom? I'm not a fan of players chasing after referees demanding cards, but, come on. Nobody in the stadium would have been mad at you for sending him off.

Other than wanting to keep it 11 vs. 11 here, I can't really find any reason why that isn't a caution.

Really weak refereeing there. You lose a lot of credibility as a referee there from coaches and players.

 

Pretty awful no call on the second foul. I guess he didn't want to affect the game, but that was an obvious yellow.

 

At the game, we saw at least three times where the assistants' signalling contradicted Salazar. Two were really obvious to everyone. Any reason to think this team was not all on the same page as much as they should be?

 

First one looked easy red, but from that video angle it's tough to tell how much contact there was.

Second one is easy yelllow, and easy to call out Salazar for being yellow in this case.

Tough to tell without any description or video. Be interesting to hear the radio communication from the crew on the no yelllow decision. 4th would have had a great view.

 

First one was a throw-in. Salazar shows one way. 1st AR gives pointing hint at waist to go the other way. No big deal, but he didn't let up for what seemed like long the call had been made, as if he was trying to get Salazar to reverse his call. It definitely didn't look right to me. Once the center makes his call, unless he's looking for help, don't know why the AR would continue to contradict.

Don't recall the second clearly enough to describe. Again 1st AR.

Third was a foul signaled by the 2nd AR. Very emphatic. Occurred right near the AR, with good view. Big flag wave. Everyone sees it. I didn't see any indication from Salazar that he was waving off the call. He just seemed to ignore it. Crowd goes nuts. Very entertaining!

It just seemed unusual to for the crew to seem so out of sync.

 

GDG-

I'm not sure how you say both the green and the red. I don't see enough on the clip to condemn a yellow - barely missed the ball, doesn't look like it is leading with studs, and hard to tell how much contact. I'm OK with yellow based on what I can see in this clip -- though I would probably not condemn a red either, as I don't think the clip is clear enough to be adamant about either decision.

 

I had a decent angle to see Rose earn his yellow card - there was no contact, but it was reckless and the yellow card was not arguable. I have no explanation for why Salazar did not send Rose off in the 28th. Bad officiating hurts everyone.

 

Rose should have been sent off. Embarrassing as a Sounder fan that he wasn't. Didn't seem sporting. Everyone in my vicinity commented on the lack of sync between Salazar & the ARs. One situation in the first half involved the AR indicating no foul (right in front of the AR), while Salazar called a foul from the middle of the pitch. : /

 

It's good to see everyone on the same page at the lack of sending off. It was a terrible decision not to. I don't think the first was straight red, and thought well done ref for his YC decision, but then scared my cat when it went from "that's the same guy that is already on yellow, he's off" to "What the expletives are you doing ref, he has to be sent off for his 2nd yellow". We also thought there were some very strange decisions on throw ins and things that seemed to be ignored/wrong from Salazar. I'd be very interested if he is asked about why he didn't card him. While we were terrible, the ref may have cost us 1-3 points in the game, as you never know what can happen after that point.

Also - IIRC Salazar was the ref that didn't do anything to Marquez/completely messed that game up. Maybe it is about time that the refs who consistently don't apply even the simplest rules correct, and don't protect players like Salazar has seemed to do get some sanctions by MLS. Let them sit out a week or two. If i never see Salazar ref a game again, it'll be too soon (he's had some terrible games in the past with us)

 

I'm going yellow on the first and second yellow/red for the second foul.......if for no other reason than Rose's sheer stupidity. He already received a very emphatic yellow less than 20 minutes in, why on God's earth would he even ATTEMPT such a challenge 10 minutes later is beyond me.

 

I thought the decision to leave Rose on the field was gutless, but the Union sadly couldn't score on u-16s right now so I don't think it mattered.

 

First yellow could go either way, IMO. Pretty similar to the Johnson red but seemed to have less contact. If we're looking to punish the nature of the challenge, yeah, that's red. But Salazar has been notoriously lenient this year, so not especially surprising. As for the second, I agree with aek chicago. As a former national candidate friend told me, when he has an orange card where he's going yellow, the yellow will be accompanied by a short discussion with the player explaining how lucky he is to be on the field and far less lenience when another caution opportunity arises. If Rose's first caution were softer, I don't think I would have as much of a problem passing on yellow on the second. But Rose's first caution was orange. When he does something that stupid just ten minutes later, you don't have a choice.

On another note, Salazar has had a rough year so far. Overall, I like him and the players generally like him, but if there's anything to be learned from Terry Vaughn in 2011, Salazar is going to have issues if his game management problems continue.

 

I need to see replays, haven't looked for them yet.

Listening to the Sounders post-game show on the radio I got the impression there was no contact on the first yellow and that it was a soft yellow. Rose was interviewed and basically said he wasn't worried about getting sent off for that second tackle. He mentioned a conversation he had with the ref. So maybe the ref did think that first tackle was a soft yellow. *shrug*

I remember my impression from the first tackle was that it looked bad. My friend next to me in the stadium said it was a dive. I wasn't surprised at the yellow but my friend thought it was BS because it looked like a dive to him and he thought there was no contact.

Does MLS have replays up of the two incidents? I need to go look at them again.

 

That's why Geiger has refereed a U20 World Cup Final and has a good chance of being, in some capacity, at the World Cup in Brazil and Salazar won't ever sniff anything close to that internationally.

One referees by the Laws of the Game, the other by MLS' Laws of the Game. Salazar's career highlight will be refereeing the Man U vs. Barcelona friendly in DC last year or an MLS Cup Final.

 

After watching the replays, there may or may not have been some foot to foot contact on the first tackle. Regardless, I have no problem on that being a yellow card even if there was no contact. I don't think it is a red because of the way he was swinging his foot in rather than lunging in. If that makes any sense.

Only two reasons I can come up with on why the he got away with the 2nd tackle. First is the ref thought the first was soft. Second, would be that he had let Philly get away with a similar tackle at some point in the game before that. I don't know if that happened. I plan on watching the game again at some point if I can find it online.

Other than that, he didn't want to "ruin" the game I guess. Which is gutless.

 

Just curious...what's YOUR career highlight?

Salazar is employed by MLS...that's who he has to cater to.

If you're talking best referees in the MLS, he's in the very small team photo.

If you have a problem with the way MLS games are reffed, take it up with MLS...but to sit there anonymously behind a computer screen and take potshots at one of this country's best and a guy whose whistle you couldn't even clean is asinine.

 

Really? You are going to pull that crap? If we can't criticize officials on here, then why have a forum?

If you have to officiate at the highest levels or play at the highest levels in order to be able to criticize players/referees then we might as well just shut down this entire forum and maybe even the entire internet. GTFOH.

Geiger is employed by MLS, you don't see him make up his own rules and blatantly not give a guy a clear yellow card only because he is already on a yellow card.

 

YES, I AM going there...you come on these forums and absolutley lambaste US referees, English referees, one of the best refs in the MLS, etc., etc., etc. as if you're the Grand Poobah of soccer referees. If so, please tell us your qualifications to render such proclamations. It's one thing to say an official (Salazar) blew a call, quite another to claim he can never reach X, Y, Z level from the confort of your living room lazy boy. What exactly makes YOU qualified to render such a decision on Salazar's future?

After all, Salazar DID do the MLS final last year, no? Must say something about the quality of his work and his ability, no?

 

There are no rules...just Laws. And Salazar didn't "make up his own rules (laws)".... he simply decided (incorrectly IMO) to go the lenient route in assessing the severity of a couple of fouls, which he has discretion to do so. This isn't a case of misapplication of the LOTG, but rather mistakes in judgment.

 

Had a look at them - don't think Hernandez can complain about his 2nd yellow. However - i think that whoever was tackled hurt themselves more by the flips and rolls that he did after the tackle than the tackle itself. There was also a highlight earlier in the game where there was a bit of "overacting" done by a colorado player, in my opinion. Any time someone is lying still or not moving around hysterically, i trust they are hurt. ANy time there are 3 rollovers per tackle, not so much.

The 2nd red was one im not sure was needed. I can see why, but i see no intent, no loss of control. It was studs up - and 90% of the time (or more) would likely be a red. I wonder what else went on before hand that led to this - but from my memory, Geiger has had a game where the Union played that he let too much go early, and ended up having to send someone off.

Also - if what someone else said is true that Pickens acted like an idiot, "forearming" someone, that's the 2nd such instance this year. Add to his playacting at PPL park this year - your team better watch or they may get a bit of a reputation for embelishing and being dirty.

As for hte original topic - it's times like these that i feel Ref's have to be allowed to explain why they made a decision. If he comes out and says he didn't feel that it was YC worthy, and that because Adu has been terrible there wasn't really a tactical part of the foul, then sure thing. If however he says that he didn't go YC/RC because "it was too early" - i'd lose any respect i had for him (which right now is none anyway due to the lack of anything to Marquez for the Salinas incident". Instead of ref's being mute - let them explain decisions. It'll be better for everyone.