Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N Not the worst game ever, not the best either. Since he's an MLS ref, he let a bunch of yellow card fouls go by without being cautioned, so he had to crack down later with a yellow flurry. I could make a macro of the above sentence and put it into the match thread for 80% of MLS matches.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N I am one who thinks it was a horribly called game. First, all I want from an official is consistency, I am yet to see that from any MLS ref. There was a lot of stuff last night that wasn't consistently called, that is what gets me going. If you want to let everything go, great, if you want to rule the game with an iron fist, great, but be consistent at least the players and the fans will know where you stand. Second, a PK for an unintentional hand? His hands were down at his side, below his waist and at no point that I saw did he raise them to indicate that he was intentionally blocking the ball with his hand. Now, in every other league in the world, that is NOT called. But in Terry Vaughn-land (a place I never want to visit) it's a PK. Which brings me to consistency. If you are going to award a petty PK like that, there should have been about 6 or 7 others both ways awarded last night. Just my two cents.
I thought he made a couple of calls that were pretty damn borderline. Joseph's tackle 15 seconds in should have been a straight red. There's no excuse for that. But it's not like Vaughn let it slide completely. On the other hand, there's no way Joseph should have finished the game. I can't understand how Twellman and Dempsey skated without bookings. The penalty on Carroll was borderline, but not egregious. Vaughn just flat blew the call on Quaranta. John never touched the ball--it never moved in the slightest. That's a penalty 100% of the time. I can understand how you can give the guys credit for being good guys doing a tough job. But you have to get the message back to them that tough circumstances or not, they're simply not doing the job well enough.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N 1) Look again. John cleanly gets the ball and Vaughn correctly calls a corner kick. Tino never touched it. It was a bang-bang play, Tino was close.... but John was up to the challenge and he got all ball. Other than that I'd score Vaughn a B. Some suspect calls but he kept the tone of the match the way both teams like to play it- physical- without letting the game get overly so. Compare this game to last week's DCU-metro game where the cards were flying so that both teams got into playing for the ref and for retaliation more than to win for awhile. In last night's game, that never happened. A very hard faught game, what you would expect between the two teams.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N Fvck vaughn. In RFK if an opponent falls over in our box it's a PK. If a handball occurs (even though ball to hand, heck think back to the WC quarters vs Germany) in our box it's a pk. In short, anything remotely suspicious gets a pk vs DC. But let our players get pushed down, interfered with, grabbed or elbowed in the enemy's box there is no PK call. Look at the statistics for the season. Simulation seems to earn a PK (unless you're dc) maybe 90% of the time. I am very proud of our boys for not stooping to cheatin bob tactics and still winning the game. If no pk's had been called, it would have been an ok match for that piece of $hit. But he calls a tenuous one against and then lets at least two better cases for pks for go uncalled. I hope he inhales his fvcking whistle and leaves us alone in the future. Fvck you Vaughn, we advance despite your bull$hit inconsistencies. GM
I just watched the replay and screamed at my tv when Tino got taken down in the box. Clear cut PK. What the hell game was Vaughn watching?
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N I think we can all agree that this was a very difficult game to officiate. As a neutral observer, though, I find the accusations of bias hard to fathom. In particular, if there was one player who shouldn't have finished the game, it was Bryan Namoff. He was the poster child for persistent infringement and was lucky to get off the hook on a couple of caution-worthy fouls. What's more, his two-legged tackle from behind on Twellman was easily the worst foul of the game. Outside of underdeveloped soccer leagues, that's a straight red. Incidentally, on the tv broadcast, you could see Vaughn trying to catch his breath during overtime. For those who were there, was he also losing his legs?
I just posted this on the post-game thread, but I think it belongs here instead: The call I most disagreed with was the yellow card for Joseph for the studs up kick to Jaime's midsection 16 seconds into the match. It should have been a straight red. I taped the NE broadcast of the game, and even their cheerleading announcers thought the only reason it wasn't a red is that the ref was reluctant to kick someone out so early in the game. If it had been 20 minutes in, in their view, he'd have been gone. Looking at the replay, there is no conclusion other than that the kick was a deliberate, dirty, violent attempt to injure an opponent. I think this guy should replace Dema as the man refs should watch and apply the rule, when in doubt, give him a card. Meanwhile, MLS should review the tape, fine the sonofabitch, and suspend him at the start of next season.
Frankly, I thought that Vaughan's performance was thoroughly incompetent from start to finish. He demonstrated a complete failure to understand the laws of the game or the basics of game management. First and foremost, if the ball strikes a player's arm or hand, it is not a foul. Only intentional handling of the ball is a foul. The ball struck Carroll; Carroll did not handle the ball. Vaughan is not the only official to have trouble with this rule, but most of the others appear only in rec league games. Late in the first half, Vaughan called a foul on DC around midfield and then allowed NE to play a free kick without first ensuring that the ball was stationary. Naturally, the DC defenders were caught off guard and a good scoring chance for NE resulted. Again, nearly every official understands and enforces the rules for free kicks. Again the first half, Gros took the ball forward with Heaps (?) trying to defend. Reis came off his line and out of the 18 yard box to challenge Gros. Vaughan then called a foul on Gros. At the game, most of us thought that the foul was for contact with Reis. Watching the tape later, Vaughan appears to signal a push -- presumably by Gros on Heaps. Since the contact between Gros and Heaps appears to be incidental, I believe that Vaughan was trying to "protect" the goalkeeper. Only problem is, goalkeepers lose whatever "protection" they get when they leave the 18 yard box. Referees in professional matches need to understand the rules and enforce them. Vaughan apparently doesn't understand the rules. Vaughan's approach to giving cards was peculiar as well. He started out well by giving Joseph a card on a particularly gross foul. I disagree with several of his other cards -- on Namoff and Alecko -- but, nonetheless, it appeared that he was trying to keep the fouling in check. Then, however, Vaughan appeared to lose his nerve and kept his cards in his pocket. John and Heaps deserved cards for fouls late in the game -- on Bennie and Alecko -- Vaughan couldn't work up the nerve to card them. I couldn't see the tackle on Quaranta in the box, I would not be surprised if it was a foul and Vaughan refused to call a penalty late in the game. The overall result is that the rules are enforced inconsistently during the game. What's foul or what deserves a card changes as the game goes on -- not the proper approach to game management. Vaughan allowed persistent fouling on Freddy. Bennie, bless his heart, seemed to get his yellow for protesting Vaughan's failure to call a particularly gross trip on Freddy. The NE player did tackle the ball, but then raised his leg to take Freddy down. Certainly a foul, and perhaps a card as well, but no call. I disagreed with several of Vaughan's calls on fouls, but that's normal in game's like this. If that's all there was to complain about, no big deal, but Vaughan's crimes went far beyond the result -- he got the ball -- no, he didn't!!!
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N In the case of the PK, if Carroll's arms aren't in a natural position, even if it's ball-to-hand, that's still handling.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N Vaughn's crimes, huh? Nothing criminal happened in this game. I think it's notable that every one of your complaints are about calls that were not made in the favor of DC. If you don't think Namoff deserved the yellow, then a DC player should never get one. And you didn't see the Quaranta play/take-down in the box, but you're just going to assume Vaughn got it wrong? That's logical.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N 99.9% of a time an official won't call that if it is clear that it is unintentional contact, which clearly in this case it was, and clearly Vaughn is that .1% moron who makes that call. The guy is a horrible official and has no business officiating in any league higher than an under 6 rec league.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N The thing is Carroll had his arms well infront of his body and his reaction to put his hand behind his back after contact certainly did not help his case. Cancela clearly got taken down in the box but Vaughn correctly ruled that the ball was out of his reach. Also Twellman gets knocked down while taking a shot in the box but no call. Not as bad as some would make it out to be but still not great, if this had been a typical Brazilian ref there wopuld have been 6 more cards and 5 pk's.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N This kind of goes back to my original point of consistency. There was none. I am yet to see two games called the same. Hell, I'm yet to see two halves called the same. Like I said, if you want to call the petty stuff, call ALL the petty stuff. If you want to let everything go, let EVERYTHING go. In both cases you would be a horrible ref, but you would be 100 times better than Terry Vaughn. And yes, it did look like he was about to keel over during OT. Someone needs to hit the gym during the offseason. Hopefully he'll study some rulebooks while he's on that treadmill.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N Tell you one thing. Thinking that Eskandarian didn't deserve his caution is atrocious. Hell, other than the Joseph thing, that was probably the closest thing I saw to deserving a red card in the game.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N Fvck Vaughn and his apologists. Especially non-DCU lurkers. GM
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N Couldn't have said it better myself. Seriously though, to say I'm not biased would be a lie, but Terry Vaughn is quite possibly the worst thing to happen to the MLS. I'm not saying DC didn't commit some fouls, I'm not saying none of the DC bookings were unjustified. I am saying that Terry Vaughn couldn't call a consistent game to save his life. I am also saying that the guy who refs the weekly YMCA matches could do a better job. If I was a Revs fan I would be saying the same thing, he blew calls both ways, he sucks.
Agreed - with the possible exception of Tino in the box but then at that point of the game it probably should not have been called. I would hate for that call to have gone against a DC defender if say Prideaux made the same takedown of Twellman. There were a couple of questionable non-calls that maybe coulda even been cards, but then we maintained advantage and no call was made. At the match I thought Vaughn did an awful job. After watching the video I think he did an above average job, especially for this league.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N I have always been taught that a foul is a foul, be it the 1st minute or the 115th. Just because it is late in a game doesn't mean a takedown in the box doesn't deserve a PK. Likewise, just because it was early in the game doesn't mean a studs up kick to the sternum doesn't deserve a red card.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N Let's not forget that Vaughn was the turkey who bought the bogus wipe-out by the yellow surfer diving biatch that cost us two points back in May. Last night he again calls an iffy penalty against then refuses to blow up on a couple of occasions for DC. Fvck Vaughn. May he inhale his whistle in a Heimlich-free zone. GM
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N He barely made it through that game last night. I seriously thought he was going to pass out towards the end of the second half of OT. Oh, wait that reminds me. Lest we forget him stopping play at the end of the first half of OT while DC was attacking. Has anyone else EVER seen an official blow the whistle while the ball is in the air on a cross?
I thought Vaughn did a solid job. He was definitely much better than expected. It was absolutely a penalty shot against Brian Carroll. One of the worst non-calls of the game was a hand ball on United in the box which should have been a penalty shot. It was a brutal game to ref, and I don't think it's reasonable to expect much of a better job from a ref.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N I've seen it before. If a team were to keep crossing the ball back and forth over the box for 2 minutes at the end of stoppage time, would you allow it? A simple way to evaluate whether or not you're letting your biases get in the way is this. Ask yourself if New England had been in posession and crossed the ball at that instant, would you still think the play should have continued? Chances are, you'd be stopping the clock as soon as you could. Vaughn was at the very least fair and consistant last night, which is all you can ask from an official. Just because he didn't give DC another chance to score after time had expired does not mean he had a bad game from an officiating standpoint.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N Exactly. He put his arms up as a reaction to the cross, and then the ball struck him around the wrist area. It was an absolute penalty. An unfortunate one for sure, but it was well within the rules.
Re: Terry Vaughn :: Revolution @ United (Eastern Conf. Final) :: Referee Thread [R][N Had they been booting it around for two minutes I could see your point. That, however, unless I just completly lost track of time, was not the case last night. And yes, if the Revs would have been in the same position, I would still think it was unfair for him to stop play like that. Granted, I would have been happy to see him do it, but it still wouldn't have been right. I really don't understand this mentality that people have that "it's a tough job, cut him some slack" I know it's a tough job, I've done tough jobs, and if I sucked, I would have been fired, period. Just because it's tough doesn't mean your mistakes should go unnoticed.