US Open Cup 2022

ARs using the same CONCACAF flags I have, nice. Also CR has blue Nike swoosh on the cleats, nice.

1 to me seems like should be at least a foul on GK if not a SPA YC right?

Others seem pretty straightforward. That potential handball on the line seemed borderline but he intentionally moved his arm toward the ball on that one to intentionally block it. Surprised he got the benefit of the doubt.

 

No way he can be calling the goal scorer offside. The assister does a header from the end line and the goal scorer is a few yards off the end line. Maybe he's calling the assister offside on the free kick. Who knows

Anyway if you're gonna be watching this regularly and can post clips that would be great, I would never watch this. But if this "DFK" team is on more games you watch I recommend writing out the full name of the team because writing "DFK" when discussing ref decisions is very confusing (direct free kick)

 

The assisted being off looks reasonable.

 

It's D'feeters/Kicks Soccer Club or DKSC, two long time independent Dallas clubs that merged. ESPN/Vista couldn't fit all four letters in their score bug so they shortened it to DFK.

 

1. Nothing here. Attacker has already gotten the shot off and runs into the goalkeeper and falls dramatically.
2. Correct red for VC, but terrible that no one on the crew gets the right player.
3. 100% correct.
4. Absolutely a penalty and a red card for me. Once you do not call that, there is almost nothing you can do to prevent a red card to the team that feels they got screwed.
5. On the offside call to disallow the goal, very hard to tell which player was offside, but the referee's position was poor in the beginning, as she was still moving and had her back to several players. Also not a fan of the body language used to explain the decision. Reads like the AR is being thrown under the bus.

In the bigger picture, this feels like an assignment that was above and beyond the current capability of the referee.

 

As a crew you have to get this call right. Just from watching the clips, this seemed like a referee in over her head and not ready for the level of assignment.

I think Open Cup games are probably the most challenging games available to your average national or regional referee. There is a real energy and sense of urgency to these games that you just don't see on a USL match or even maybe a regular season MLS games.

As referees, we always hear the following phrase, just as we are about to do 5 games in a day, "this is team X's World Cup Final."

But for the Open Cup, it really is some of these teams World Cup Final. Especially, the amateur sides. The top amateur sides have about a one or two year window to make some noise in the Open Cup tournament before everyone gets old and has to start raising families.

They had to get that hand ball right. I can only imagine how ugly the scenes were at the final whistle.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post and get a thread going! These first few rounds can present great opportunities for referees to review clips that look like adult amateur/semi pro matches instead of fully professional games. Quite a few reviewable incidents in the match you shared.

I won't comment on specific match incidents for a few reasons, but I will comment that many of these early round games can be real challenges for referees to manage. On some preliminary/early round USOC matches, 4th officials really have their work cut out for them because they're trying to manage "technical staffs" who are: (a) not used to one another (because often not everyone shows up for regular league matches); (b) not used to their opponents (and, from my experience, are more likely to react emotionally); and (c) are not used to the stricter expectations of US Open Cup play/even having a 4th official.

 

+1, 100%. There will always be some professional matches that are more difficult than the early rounds of the USOC, but the USOC is pretty consistently difficult. Where even an "easy" game can go off the rails if there's a feeling of injustice on a decision near the PA.

 

The trend seems to be the same on these types of plays at this level where the 4th officials are useless. He would have had the best view to correct the referee while the red card was being issued (or when it was apparent it was going to the wrong person) to be yelling in the mic while this was going on as well as the AR.

On the hand ball, the referee is looking over at the AR praying he saw it. Should it have been seen? We know the answer. Have we seen similar plays missed in MLS and other domestic leagues? Of course. There's obviously no VAR so their mistakes are going to stand out more.

 

Thanks for these clips, keep them coming, this was great to see.

In the clips, I actually thought the ref kept her cool pretty well, especially on that last one. No nonsense, no drama, just Yellow, then boom Red.

(too bad she missed that last handball -- atleast it looks like they never went back to it)

 

Sorry fellas but can you explain to an idiot (me) how the first clip isn't a foul on the keeper?

The attacker is through 1v1 with keeper (defender alongside) and the keeper is making a desperate run out to stop him. The keeper comes out out of the box and puts his arms up to block the shot, likely outside the box, but gets his hands down in time to avoid a clear YC SPA for the handling. He has no real play on the ball. I'm aware both of these things are legal because everyone is entitled to space on the field and nothing has been done yet.

However, he attempts to slow up to avoid the attacker and is nearly successful, but to me as he digs his heels in after the attacker chips it, it appears that he is still moving forward when making contact with the attacker, almost like a block/charge foul in basketball. This feels like the situation where people say how defenders seem to get away with fouls just because a shot was gotten off. I dunno, watching this clip, it seems like a charging DFK foul at minimum, potentially YC SPA. This doesn't seem like the keeper was just holding his space and the attacker barreled through him, or that it was a fair 50/50 ball. Keeper attempted to run out to challenge the attacker, was nowhere near getting there, tried to hold up, and was unsuccessful.

 

Look at the attacker and how he falls. The feet are together, the back arches, all the signs of seeking to win a free kick. Was there contact? Yes. Did it deny the attacker anything? No. Trust me, at the professional level, the expected decision here is not to give a free kick.

 

I've worked a couple of amateur qualifiers for Open Cup and they were some of the most difficult games I've ever worked for all of the reasons listed above.

 

gaolin, thanks for posting these.

 

Whew, no clips from the Des Moines Menace v Minneapolis City match that night. My friend was doing one of his first matches since getting his national badge and joining the PRO2 group. I watched the first 60 minutes on replay last night. He seemed to be doing well through the time I watched. Hopefully the last 30 was as smooth as the first 60!

 

This right here. I spend more time than I should watching Spanish third division highlights because I find them quite educational. I'm happy the RFEF posts them, but I feel for the officials sometimes.

 

The clip worth watching from Mr. Omanovic's match was the first free kick goal by Minneapolis City. My goodness that was beautiful (Source: https://streamable.com/j6n8kb)

100% agreed.

With that being said, this one looked quite difficult based on the clips shared. I think there's room for some healthy debate for referees who are interested in discussing these clips....and some learning opportunities are there.

I'll start the dialogue in hopefully a constructive manner. There are multiple decisions that need to be made in the first '44 DOGSO clip and there's only one camera angle.

If you agree with the first decision (foul), DOGSO is relatively straightforward. But, if that first tackle/instance is not a foul, the decision becomes much more complicated. What are other referees seeing?

 

That Brockton goalkeeper is a handful!