MLS Week 6 - 2018

Matt Doyle has a somewhat amusing slip-up on this week's Instant Analysis segment.

Zack Steffen had 2 bad turnovers last night, and one lead to Chicago's goal and a 1-0 Fire victory over Columbus. He talks about how the Crew like to play from the back and hold the ball deep, tempting opposing mids to come forward and create gaps, etc, etc. and it usually works for them, but it leads to some deep turnovers "and you have to hope that Sean, uh, Zack Steffen improves. " The discussion starts around 6:20 and his accidental SJ reference comes at 6:52. His subconscious must really associate that style of play with NYC

By the way, Chicago did not look very good despite the win. The goal off the turnover came from their only shot on target all game that wasn't blocked. They can't create scoring opportunities in regular play.
 
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Matt Doyle has a somewhat amusing slip-up on this week's Instant Analysis segment.

Zack Steffen had 2 bad turnovers last night, and one lead to Chicago's goal and a 1-0 Fire victory over Columbus. He talks about how the Crew like to play from the back and hold the ball deep, tempting opposing mids to come forward and create gaps, etc, etc. and it usually works for them, but it leads to some deep turnovers "and you have to hope that Sean, uh, Zack Steffen improves. " The discussion starts around 6:20 and his accidental SJ reference comes at 6:52. His subconscious must really associate that style of play with NYC

By the way, Chicago did not look very good despite the win. The goal off the turnover came from their only shot on target all game that wasn't blocked. They can't create scoring opportunities in regular play.
Columbus had several great chances there at the end that they just couldn't put in the back of the net.
 
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So that was an interesting VAR scenario there.

Blanco (previously given a yellow) is tripped in the box and the ref misses the call and awards a second yellow to Blanco.

Goes to VAR and reverses the decision and awards a PK and now Blanco is still playing.

The interesting thing here, is that second yellow cards are not reviewable. So per the VAR rules, I believe Blanco should still be sent off, though the PK could still be taken.
 
The following are examples of referee decisions that are NOT reviewable:

  • Throw-in decisions (including placement and execution);
  • Goal kick decisions (including placement and execution);
  • Corner kick decisions (including placement and execution);
  • Foul decisions (including placement and execution of free kick);
  • Offside decisions (unless an offside decision impacts goals, penalty kicks and red cards);
  • Yellow card decisions, including second yellow cards (unless awarding the yellow was a clear and obvious error; Ex. the yellow card should have been a red card OR there was a case of mistaken identity);

So the interesting thing here is, that this was a clear and obvious error, but I'm not sure it fits with the examples MLS is providing within their rules.

Edit: The below is from the FAQ
Note: A foul that originally received a yellow card could be reviewed if a potential red card was warranted OR in case the yellow card was awarded to the wrong player (mistaken identity).
 
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Basically, what should have happened here, per the rules, is Portland down to 10 men and awarded the PK
 
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Also, I'm surprised there isn't much chatter about this going on.

Twellman noted before they went to VAR that second yellows are not reviewable, and then once the VAR decision was made and Blanco stayed on the field, Twellman just didn't bring that back up.
 
How long does Kreis last as head coach? Over/under on making it to the All-Star break?
I doubt Kreis makes it 4 games past the ASB, but the manager on a short leash has got to be Savarese - he replaced a guy who had a solid MLS track record and Savarese also got to retool the team while trading away one of their best players. Merritt Paulson cannot be thrilled with the fact that the coach of the “best” NASL team was only that because of the disparity of roster salaries, and how long does he wait before trying to right the sinking ship he created with the hire? He’ll have to do something because the Timbers’ fan base won’t stand behind Savarese for very long.
 
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Agree that Savarese is underperforming at Portland.

Give Orlando some credit for playing better the last few games. Still a long way to go though.

On the VAR reversal, the question is whether you can reverse a second yellow if you are already reviewing that event for some other reason. I bet that’s not explicitly in the rules. I wonder if they ever thought of it. I am fine with doing so in principle.

I thought the penalty for the second Orlando goal was really weak.
 
On the VAR reversal, the question is whether you can reverse a second yellow if you are already reviewing that event for some other reason.

The section I quoted some posts previously explicitly says you can give a yellow as a sort of ancillary effect when reviewing for one of the allowed purposes. I think you're right and the reverse is true also even though it isn't mentioned. It's logical, we know that MLS never spells everything out such that we can go by the strict written text, plus what I quoted is only a summary FAQ because I don't think we have the actual rules (or at least I couldn't find them).
 
Also the PK that Dwyer drew was bullshit. On top of that, you could barely see because the purple smoke hadn't cleared from the prior goal. I would have no complaint if the league banned smoke like that -- it's kind of ridiculous when it obscures the field of play so much.
 
Ladt season, I remember it being mentioned on a broadcast that VAR can rule on anything directly involved in a reviewable play, even if the event is not reviewable by itself. I believe it was an FS1 match.
Makes sense, but I guess we don't have it publicly in writing.
 
The section I quoted some posts previously explicitly says you can give a yellow as a sort of ancillary effect when reviewing for one of the allowed purposes. I think you're right and the reverse is true also even though it isn't mentioned. It's logical, we know that MLS never spells everything out such that we can go by the strict written text, plus what I quoted is only a summary FAQ because I don't think we have the actual rules (or at least I couldn't find them).

The rules are from IFAB, and I think you can find them. I don’t believe MLS is (or even could) doing things differently.
 
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Even though we are the toughest opponent, we have had by far the hardest schedule so far in the Eastern Conference. We also have the easiest remaining schedule.

http://www.playoffstatus.com/mls/easternsosag.html

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The rules are from IFAB, and I think you can find them. I don’t believe MLS is (or even could) doing things differently.
Well, I dunno.

They definitely seem to do some things different in Europe. EG, this article about a VAR penalty given to Italy against England says that under the IFAB rules the Video Assistant Refs decide whether to make the call themselves or to have the On Field Ref (OFR) look. MLS says that decision is up to the OFR who may opt to review or rely upon the Video Ref.
In Europe, on field review is only for subjective decisions such as fouls, while objective factual decisions like offsides or ball out of play should always be done by the video ref. Again, in MLS, the on field ref always gets to decide whether to review himself.
And apparently the phrase "clear and obvious error" does not appear in the IFAB rules (per the same article linked above). The actual phrase in the Handbook is "was the decision clearly wrong?" MLS says "clear and obvious error."

On the other hand, the MLS FAQ I linked here does specifically mention they worked with IFAB to develop the rules. But I wonder if instead of adopting the IFAB rules as-is, they developed something slightly different that is IFAB approved.
 
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