Getty Images Seattle Sounders manager Sigi Schmid was not a bit pleased with referee Ricardo Salazar following Wednesday’s U.S. Open Cup final, when visiting Seattle fell to Sporting Kansas City.
It’s difficult, you’re playing against a team at home so the crowd helps them. When you’re playing against the referee as well, and he makes some absolutely, I thought, ridiculous calls, it’s very tough to win.”
On the one hand, Schmid has a point about his main point of contention, the 84th minute handball that was uber-iffy at very best. Salazar (in my opinion the top MLS referee) didn’t appear to have a good angle and probably got that one wrong.
But I bristle when managers, officials or players put this untoward, conspiratorial slant on it. If Salazar got it wrong, he got it wrong. But please do not imply that a referee is intentionally attempting to affect the outcome of a match (or even the lesser offense of purposefully favoring one team over a series of decisions). That’s a much darker place to visit.
I much prefer the way Sounders defender Zach Scott (who provided his team with the late equalizer) handled this thing:
I have a ton of respect for the refs in our league, for Ricardo in particular. He’s a great ref. I think you guys saw the game. I think you guys saw the replays. I’m not going to comment any further on that. Sigi can comment on the refs all he wants. I’ll be the first guy to put my hand up if I make a mistake. I hope the refs do the same.”
That’s a guy saying “the referee made a mistake.” That’s OK.
But taking it further is taking it too far.
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- bobinkc - Aug 9, 2012 at 2:49 PM
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Yep, I figured the griping and whining would have to start eventually. Wrong calls are a part of the sport. Missed calls are a part of the sport. Our seats are first and second row so we had a real closeup and personal view of holding, grabbing the jersey, spinning SKC players around until they fell down, etc, etc, etc, ad infinitum ad nauseam and not one of the violations called against Seattle.
Man up, Sigi, pull up your big-boy pants and get your boys ready for their next game. I know that is what Vermes is trying to do today.
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- joeyt360 - Aug 9, 2012 at 9:23 PM
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I get pissed off at Sigi because I feel he does it to manipulate the refs into giving him favorable (but possibly unfair) calls. It all just has the feel of puppeteering with him.
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- thekingofnorway - Aug 9, 2012 at 4:58 PM
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As a Sounders fan, I’m telling my fellow fans: let’s take the high road, man up, and stop the whining. We lost, and that’s just the way it is.
Statistically in soccer, the home side has a 2/3 goal advantage for playing at home. That bias is pretty conclusively laid entirely to referee bias in the book Scorecasting, so you have to take it as a given. Not in a conspiratorial way, just as a factor of the game. That means, as the visiting side, you have to take the game outright when you have the chance and leave no questions as to the outcome. Leave nothing to the referee who might well decide against you.
The fact is, the Sounders did not play well enough to win this game. Montero was a non-factor for the whole event, Johnson had two good opportunities that didn’t break for us, the midfield squandered possession after possessioin, and the team failed on three PKs after going up 2-1. As good as they were against LA on Sunday, they were decidedly meh last night.
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- ndnut - Aug 9, 2012 at 5:41 PM
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@thekingofnorway
Thank you for pointing out the book Scorecasting, as that was exactly what I pointed at listening to the game on the Seattle radio feed. MLS is the most home-slanted professional sports league in all the world, and soccer is the most home-slanted sport. Using the data from the book, I say that the referee would not have done the following at a neutral site as Steve proposed earlier this week:
1. Called handball on Scott
2. Given SKC that last chance to score in stoppage time at the end of regulation. (I know one was given to Seattle as well, but it would not have happened at a flipped venue. Also, it didn’t make a difference in this game, but it can and will in other games)
3. Called Gspurning for coming up.All of this said, Seattle did not deserve to win after skying 3 PKs in a row, not even making Jimmy Nielsen save even one. I just think it was interesting after reading Steve’s earlier post and imagining how different these types of games could turn out.
P.S. I don’t think it could happen Mr. Davis. The USA is a wee bit larger than England where everyone is a fairly reasonable drive from Wembley if they are willing to pay for game tickets.
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- joeyt360 - Aug 9, 2012 at 9:29 PM
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I haven’t read that particular book, but I do recall a study in England on the Premier League saying roughly the same thing–that almost all of the ‘home field advantage’ consists of the refs giving the 50/50 calls disproportionately to the home team.
And 1) the handball was in that realm. I have seen that ignored many times, I have also seen it called many times. It was basically a 50/50, though if I were a ref the insult of Ianni pointing to his ribs when the ball clearly made contact with his arm (just a matter if it was out too far from his body or not) might have been counter-productive with me.
On 2) I doubt your premise here. I believe the ref would have played that out either way, it wasn’t akin to the infamous ‘Man United clock.’
On 3) the penalty retake, I was more mystified. If that’s coming off your line, every goalkeeper on every penalty of all time has come off his line.
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- zoophagous - Aug 9, 2012 at 6:41 PM
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I just want to point out that bad officiating and the Sounders not playing well enough to win are not mutually exclusive. Johnson and Ozzie had horrible PKs. Salazar made too many mistakes in a big game.
Glad KC fans seem interested. Hopefully they can represent in CCL.
On to the next one.
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- ndnut - Aug 9, 2012 at 9:46 PM
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As I said, I listened on the radio, and the clock thing was what the Seattle crew was talking about. On the coming off the line issue, Kasey Keller said it looked no different on the one that was called than the four before it. Also, oddly enough, the foul counts were nearly equal, yet SKC had no bookings while Seattle got 5 (we’ll say 4 since Alonso’s was fir dissent, not the foul itself). Looking at that as a sheer number it seems unfair, but I know that flow of the game and home-team bias can change things. Can an unbiased person tell me if the numbers are lying or not?
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