Getty Images The Red Bulls performance last night was ridiculous, as I’ve already said. Only thing worse, perhaps, was Silviu Petrescu’s performance in the dying moments as he refused to eject Victor Palsson for an awful tackle on dynamic Houston playmaker Oscar Boniek Garcia.
(MORE: Analysis on Houston’s Friday win)
Let’s hope Major League’s Disciplinary committee won’t be as remiss during the standard review process.
Watch the terrible tackle below and consider:
- Palsson lunged from behind, appreciably late and with both feet. Classic definition of a red card.
- It was another example of an MLS hard man taking down one of the league’s talented creators. Let’s just be honest here: if Palsson doesn’t play another minute this year, no one will miss him. Fans do, on the other hand, pay to see the DPs like Boniek Garcia.
- It looked something like the tackle from behind that kept Dallas playmaker David Ferreira out of MLS for more than a year.
- It was partially fueled by frustration, as Houston fans chanted “Ole!” while the Dynamo kept possession and tried to see out the final moments.
- We’ve seen these fouls (reckless or of malicious intent) before from Palsson, even in limited minutes, so there’s no reason to extend benefit of the doubt.
Petruscu (pictured above in a match earlier this year) is another MLS referee who prefers not to call fouls, which leads to moments like this one.
That was a nationally televised match; ratings are looking swell, which means plenty of eyes paying attention to how MLS matches are conducted. What a great chance for Petruscu to demonstrate an intolerance for this kind of wanton action. Don’t forget, since it was the only MLS match a night before 10 teams play, plenty of MLS athletes were in last night, paying attention to this one. What a terrific opportunity lost to remind them that bad fouls will mean red cards.
So how about this: why don’t the Canadian and U.S. federations begin eliminating referees from the pro pool who clearly aren’t up for the job, rather than seeing talented players like Boniek Garcia eliminated by these kinds of tackles?
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- dfstell - Aug 4, 2012 at 11:58 AM
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Isn’t the best thing to just maintain an onslaught of pressure via blog posts like this? Just have you and the other soccer journalists keep talking about it. Fans love to bitch abou the referees anyway, so it isn’t like we’ll get bored.
Doesn’t the league have to take some steps to fix things if the prevailing attitude is “the refs suck”?
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- joeyt360 - Aug 4, 2012 at 3:54 PM
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It wouldn’t shock me if the Disciplinary Committee will come back and assess an extra penalty for this one. It’s worth watching.
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- Steve Davis - Aug 4, 2012 at 12:41 PM
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You are absolutely correct that one of a journalists’ main jobs (not just soccer or sports writing, but in more important matters) is holding officials’ feet to the fire, creating accountability, etc.
And in fairness, as I’ve written several times, I think the refereeing situation is slowly improving. But quite a few miles left to travel, obviously.
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- east96st - Aug 4, 2012 at 3:08 PM
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Just as a point of reference, Steve, have you ever been a referee? A line judge? Gone through US Soccer’s training for officials? Because, as a youth coach, there’s probably no one who has been more frustrated by bad calls than me. When the ref screws up on the youth level, a child gets hurt, a few quite badly. Nothing worse than that. But, having walked in their shoes, I also know it’s a damn hard job to be able to see everything all game long. I watched that replay eight times. It looks like Pahlsson himself MAY be blocking the referee from getting a clean view. Petrescu may be incompetent or maybe he just was at the wrong angle. It may have looked like a legitimate attempt to play the ball from where he was. What the MLS SHOULD do, is adopt the NFL’s standards and review each game with each referee and the line judges before their next assignment and go over what they missed, what they got wrong, and what they did right using a point system so the MLS can track each person’s performance. This way, most of the officiating crews can improve and those that don’t can be weeded out. It’s too easy to condemn one man who is trying to see everything that happens in a 90 minute plus game across a very large field that is occupied with 22 extremely fast, strong, and gifted athletes. There are seven officials on the field for each NFL game. There’s only one for soccer. Maybe, and I know the purists will howl, the time has come for a second referee to be on the field. I have found officiating, even when you’re doing it as a volunteer for a youth league and want nothing more than to keep kids safe, is extremely difficult in soccer. Me, personally, I would welcome having another set of eyes out there running the fields with me. I have given it my all and I know I have missed calls. Officials are imperfect and unless you’ve personally reviewed each of Petrescu’s games and seen the call from the angle he saw it from, it’s tough to judge whether or not he’s up to the task. I’m not saying there aren’t bad refs, there are. I am saying what looks blatant to us watching on our large screen HD TVs from three different camera angles and, sometimes even in slo-mo, looks a hell of lot different on the field in real time with bodies flying all around you.
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- boscoesworld - Aug 4, 2012 at 3:21 PM
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There are actually three officials for soccer. Linesmen can make calls but not give cards. I too was a youth coach and was very frustrated with the officiating. One thing I DID learn is the the Center ref ALWAYS watched the ball. Its not a valid excuse that he saw a butterfly or some such thing.
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- east96st - Aug 4, 2012 at 3:41 PM
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Line judges are on the lines. They are not on the field. Some are very helpful,but I have seen far, far too many in the MLS that act like their feet are imbedded into the ground. Having been a line judge, again strictly on the youth level – not pretending to be a pro, I do not believe for one second that you can do that job well if you are not willing to move.
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- Steve Davis - Aug 4, 2012 at 3:21 PM
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Yes. Got my referee’s license at 14. Was doing men’s and women’s games when I was 16.
You’re correct, Petruscu could have been at a bad angle. But I’ve watched dozens of his games; he’s among the crew who takes the safe route, declining to make a call whenever he can. So, he’s lost the benefit of the doubt in my mind.
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- east96st - Aug 4, 2012 at 3:48 PM
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Ok, fair enough. If you’ve been following the guy, and he’s a repeat offender, I understand your frustration. There’s a ref that makes the rounds in our youth league that won’t call anything short of a double homicide and the kids know it. I always tell my players to get ready to get hammered by the other team and not to expect a whistle. I still can’t help but feel on that call above, Petruscu didn’t have the angle to make the right call.
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- Steve Davis - Aug 4, 2012 at 4:19 PM
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He’s in the bottom 2-3 in the MLS referee pool, in my opinion. Just misses too much or opts not to call it. … same deal as you said about the man in the middle in your league.
Look, refs miss calls. Players miss passes. I get facts wrong from time to time. It happens. But, as you said before, the review process has long seemed flawed and / or insufficient. And that’s exactly what I’m advocating. More accountability, that’s all.
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- mvktr2 - Aug 4, 2012 at 4:46 PM
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Absolutely looked like a red. I’ve seen more vicious intent and more contact. However the retaliatory nature is what sealed it as a red to me, along with how late and far behind he was.
As for the ongoing discourse between Steve Davis and east96st I feel your pain. I coach my sons teams U9 in rural MS. The refs who are generally high school kids won’t call anything and I beg them to even on my own team. No matter who gets kicked and how much their bleeding, if the challenger touches the ball first it’s a-okay. Yet the tone of the game could be so much different if the refs/league would stress non-contact etc. Watching the older age levels, it does improve, but not enough!
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- east96st - Aug 4, 2012 at 8:34 PM
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mvk – I’m with you on the High School kids. I know they need to get experience, but not at the expense of kids getting hurt. I’ve had some long talks with those boys at the half. I’m always polite, try to be fatherly, and I remind them that were young once too, had a passion for the game, and no kid should have his/her season ended by a cheap shot. Some of them come around when you explain it to them that way. Some will do the bare minimum possible to collect their check. One of the best weekends of soccer I’ve been part of was my son’s end of season Middle School tournament. All the teams had been real chippy all season long and the refs decided they were done with it. The first five games, there were multiple yellows and we hadn’t even hit noon. Once the teams knew it was “no BS allowed” tournament, the tackles were clean, the elbows came in, and the mouths were shut. All it was pure youth soccer with every team trying to take home the championship. The kids had the time of their lives, no one got badly hurt, and the whole weekend was all about soccer – completely drama free. I wish every youth game had a yellow card in the first five minutes. It makes things so much better for everyone.
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- sluggo271 - Aug 5, 2012 at 11:29 AM
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As an active referee in the US Soccer youth system, I can’t begin to explain how much training we go through. Meetings, acadamies, mentorships games,..hundreds of games a year, alot of time away from home. But we try are best, I believe, every game to be fair. I referee because I can no longer play and I absolutely love this game.
I wanted to continue to be active and I thought the best way for me to give back to my community was through refereeing.
It is hard. Very hard. The game has changed so much from when I played. It is faster, it is smarter.
I do this knowing full well that i will be given no respect from the coaches, will be yelled at from a usually ignorant parent, will work with younger(much) officials just starting out(how else will they learn).
But at the end of the game when the kids are smiling, laughing and maybe crying from a tough loss. It is worth it!!
To all the referee complainers, remember this….there is a severe shortage of referees in this country, please go down and register with your local registration,we could always use a few more referees. There are hundreds of games a day in most metros.
And if you just want to continue to complain feel free. We are used to at too.
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- manchestermiracle - Aug 5, 2012 at 9:33 PM
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The refs in MLS are atrocious. Watching the Sounders/Galaxy game right now and the ref completely ignored an obvious foul in the box in the 15th minute. The Galaxy are up to their old still-asleep-at-the-start trick of giving up an early goal, but how do you ignore a blatant foul on a player about to take a point-blank shot from about five yards? If it had been called it would have been a penalty kick, so the gutless ref just ignored it. Seattle must be pleased to have a homer on the whistle. Steve watches a lot more MLS than I do, so maybe the officiating is getting incrementally better, but it’s still horribly amateurish….
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- manchestermiracle - Aug 5, 2012 at 9:35 PM
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24th minute and the ref books De La Garza for a non existent trip. This jackass is obviously either blind or bought. Maybe both.
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- bobinkc - Aug 8, 2012 at 3:02 PM
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I have always worked the refs at sporting events that our kids participated in since they were 5 years old. Usually the ref/refs will pull up their big-boy pants and try to do a little better, whether it be basketball, soccer, or volleyball; a natural response to hearing a certain amount of harrassment from the sidelines over bad or missed calls. Occasionally it would backfire and I would be told to hush or leave (usually by the school principal). But it does change the calling to some extent.
That said Petrescu sucks. The groans are audible when he walks out for warmups with his crew at Livestrong. However, there is another one that is about 9000 rungs lower on the ladder than Petrescu. This fellow is short, wears his hair all gelled up into a mohawk, and hasn’t a clue what a whistle is or where it goes. He assiduously ignores his linesmen, allows play to continue while players roll about on the field in LEGITIMATE agony, and is generally contemptible in all ways, shapes, and forms. In many SKC games, he has completely ignored injured players until whoever has the ball finally does the ultimate in self-rescue and kicks the ball so high into the stands it almost winds up on the concourse. Then he finally gets himself together late in the second half and starts pulling cards out for silly, bump-and-run violations that nobody else would call on kindergartners but still allows potential injury violations to go unnoticed. When his linesmen call his attention to infractions, he waves them off and continues the play. The poor fool is roundly booed when he comes on the field for warmups. This clown should not be allowed to ref Upward Sports kindergarten games.
We had hoped that bringing in the Englishman would translate into better officiating, but he probably to fire a majority of his head refs and replace them with some of the better linesmen. I would love to officiate, but I haven’t been able to run more than a few yards at a time in more than 20 years. In the meantime, I thoroughly enjoy the Sporting Kansas City games, win or lose.
Now that I have that off my chest, I look forward to tonight’s Open Cup game with Seattle. Should be a good one.
