Pardon me if this has been posted somewhere already. I had not seen this previously, and just ran across it. Meet Ref Czar Wow! Sounds almost like MLS realize that their refs suck and that they must do something about it. Actually, I have thought that some of the younger guys have been better than many of the old farts. Mods: Feel free to move or torch this thread as appropriate. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
Give him time, he just got here. But yeah, we have some refs in our league who ought not to be doing under-8 matches. I was troubled by the Czar saying that on a second yellow card, you might not want to give it. That's one of the HUGE problems with officiating in our league. Players do not feel that they have to be careful when carrying a yellow card because they know that the refs are loathe to give out a second yellow. Watch Mexican league games. The refs hand out early yellow cards (when warranted), they take zero crap from the players, and the players all know that the ref will send them off if they screw up. There is a ton less hacking in those matches, which makes the game far more fun to watch. Sure, there is a bit more diving (hoping for the call), but in general the refs don't fall for that crap either. In MLS, the refs hate to hand out early yellow cards, so some players (think Nick Garcia) take advantage of that by laying a really heavy hit on an opposing player within the first five minutes of the match. It's crap and ought to draw a yellow, but our refs are wimps. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
From the article... Walton illustrates the point with the aid of a hypothetical. "When a player makes a challenge that endangers an opponent's safety and everyone in stadium just goes "Ouch!" the law dictates "Red Card." But if the player already has a caution and the challenge is merely worthy of a second yellow, I would prefer to see a referee employ a management technique: talk to the player, calm him down and let everyone know that the he will get another card if the offense is repeated." For Walton, a referee's prime value is to "give the game every opportunity to take place on the field." I'm sorry but when the "law dictates 'Red Card'" I want the ref to issue the red card especially if the offending player already has a caution (even if the offending player plays for "my" team). IMHO there are too many red card offences rounded down to yellow cards and too many yellow cards rounded down to warnings.
Funny -- but it seems to me that over the past two weeks both of those observations have been put to lie; first with the sending off of Ramiro for a second cautionable offense at Dallas and then on Saturday when Bonjour was cautioned in the 11th minute...
And there was much rejoicing!! Hey, the officiating in our league is getting better. The newer, younger refs are less inclined to take crap from the players (which I think is great). I've seen them hand out more cards too, which is also great. And Ramiro earned his second card for certain. The first one I thought was pretty questionable, but the second was totally deserved. I want to see more cautions for dissent, but we did just see a yellow for encroaching on a free kick right? Or did he just call the foul. Don't remember now. It's going to take time to see improvements in officiating, and it will be really uneven because we still have some old fart officials who suck. (Marrufo) Also, the players try to get away with as much cheating as they can, and they accustomed to being able to argue with the ref. So some habits will need changing. I expect some rough patches. I think we'll see some games where the ref hands out eight or nine yellow cards. That's the way of it. Until the players learn to start playing more by the rules we'll see more yellow and red cards. But if that's what it takes to get some of the thuggery out of our league, I'm all for it. GOOOO QUAAAAAKES!!!! - Mark
My only concern (and something I've discussed with a couple of MLS refs) is that Peter may not have an appreciation for how different the US is than England in terms of size and travel difficulties. Apparently, Peter has told some refs that he officiated about 30 games per season and would like to see MLS refs do the same. This is really impractical when you factor in that Peter could probably get 75% of those games within 150 miles. One of the things people don't appreciate about our referees is how difficult it is to be an MLS ref. It doesn't pay nearly enough to be a full-time job (except for the very small number of professional refs who receive a stipend from USSF -- e.g. Baldo and Salazar) and thus an MLS referee has to balance family, a full-time job and refereeing. This can be a real problem when you are on the East Coast and have games, for example at San Jose. Because our airport closes early, referees have to miss three days to attend one of our games -- a travel day on Friday, game on Saturday, and a travel day on Sunday. That put a whole lot of pressure on the ref and his family. I just wanted to get that out there. I think most people figure refs simply show up and don't really think too much about how much time they've invested in it, and how much dedication it takes. Given that pay rates for MLS games (IIRC, the very highest-paid refs get $1200 or less for a center currently -- recently the top rate was $800) and a per-diem that is apparently not terribly generous. To me, that's not a lot of $$ to make it worth missing out on three days with my family every week I have a game!
Yeah, this is certainly important. It would be good if we could figure out how to move the refs around less, though that might mess with balancing refs with teams. Also, unlike your rec league games, the guys in MLS are a zillion times faster, and they try to cheat as much as they can. Officiating is not an easy job. Still, I'm pleased that we have a new guy in here to oversee our refs and try to make improvements. It's a step in the right direction for sure. GO QUAKES!! - Mark
Which was the uncalled DOGSO since Wondo was running at goal and Bonjour was the last defender. Marrufo just didn't want to follow the LOTG since it was the 11th minute. And then he let Bonjour get away with 3 additional yellow card worth offenses in the game. He didn't talk to him at all. Marrufo is a dancer, not a talker.
They should fix this part and pay them better even as a part time job....and fine them if they screw up.
might be naive here, but i am from the school of refs should not "talk" to players. the way a ref talks to players is with his hands signals, cards and whistle.
I don't think it's that cut and dried. I think it's a situational decision -- to me it depends on the 'temperature' of the match. Sometimes I have been pretty chatty with players, but there are other games where, as you say, all of my communication is non-verbal.