Toronto (Home) - Postmatch

In the recent Laws updates, IFAB has implicitly been attempting to remove all subjective interpretations of "intent" regarding handballs in the box. I get the technocratic impulse here, but it's resulted in a lot of shitty "handball" penalties.

I personally prefer dealing with the vagaries of "intent" rather than a reductio ad absurdum of "if the ball hits a defender's arm in the box it's a penalty", which is where we seem to be.
I forget if we've talked about the idea of say:
- any contact below the shoulder in 6 yard box = penalty
- any contact below the shoulder in 18 yard box = direct free kick

That way subjectivity goes out of the window but the punishment is more likely to be appropriate to the advantage gained from the handball (whether it was intentional or not). Of course, it's not perfect, but I think it would be an improvement on the current law. I'd also be open to marking out the areas differently, although this might make it harder to apply the law in circumstances where redrawing the lines is unfeasible.
 
Picture tells some of the story. Maybe Seb was last to let go but I think Altidore slipped on his own more than Seb pulled him down.
Ring's yellow? He didn't go studs up into the player. Not from behind. Nothing dangerous.
If Jozef Martinez was forearmed like Anton was you know that's a PK. Dude raises his arm as he hits Aton from the side.
Although...
Watching the replay of the foul on Taty that led to Mitrita's free kick goal... I think Taty gets an Oscar nomination.

Just saw the Mavinga swipe at Castellanos.
The inconsistency in how the match's are called is a big problem.
When they decide to call fouls on shirt grabs and when they don't...
I'd be more concerned about raised arms during a "tackle" and forearm blows to the back (Red Bulls whistle to whistle) than a little pulling of the jersey.

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Dome in with this quote on Maxi: "I’ve said it, not today, but how important he is for the tempo. Sometimes we play fast and we lose the ball in two seconds. When you have these kinds of players you play comfortable, because our style is, sometimes, recover the ball and play quickly if you’re able to play quickly because it is the first option. If not, you have to kick the ball, and he has this quality".

To me this was really the story of the game and our lack of control. I was saying before the match something similar. There are moments where Maxi goes deep and picks it up and you want him to turn and fire off a counter attack, but he will turn, hesitate a couple of times, maybe even play a sidewards or backwards pass. It can be frustrating, but that time he spends on the ball is important because it allows his team mates to get set up in good positions.

We didn't have much of that, if any, last night. Comparatively, Toronto were doing this really well. They were moving up the field as a team instead of getting stretched out, like we were. A couple of people have mentioned how Keaton lost the ball in dangerous situations, or how bad the distribution was from our CBs and I think the absence of a Maxi-type player, who is hungry to get on the ball, is a big part of that too.

On the penalties and lack of penalty I'm only slightly disgruntled. You see a lot of those calls go the other way but the grounds on which the calls were made are technically defensible. I just wish there was more consistency. It is what it is though, and with a full squad we probably would have been good enough that we don't necessarily need those calls to go our way. Or maybe the situations in which those calls were made never would have even arisen.

Happy for a point in the end.
 
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I forget if we've talked about the idea of say:
- any contact below the shoulder in 6 yard box = penalty
- any contact below the shoulder in 18 yard box = direct free kick

That way subjectivity goes out of the window but the punishment is more likely to be appropriate to the advantage gained from the handball (whether it was intentional or not). Of course, it's not perfect, but I think it would be an improvement on the current law. I'd also be open to marking out the areas differently, although this might make it harder to apply the law in circumstances where redrawing the lines is unfeasible.
I'd have to think through this a bit more to figure out if I would really like this or not, but I definitely dig the creativity at trying to level this out a bit.
 
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It looked to me as though the ball was going flutter up and over Ben Sw3at and his slight touched kept in front of him, so it definitely impacted the play. Not much argument on that call.
 
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It looked to me as though the ball was going flutter up and over Ben Sw3at and his slight touched kept in front of him, so it definitely impacted the play. Not much argument on that call.
Ball wasn't getting through to Jozy in my opinion. The movement was almost directly vertical.
 
I agree the first penalty call was correct. It was just trash from Ibby. If you want to grab someone's jersey, fine. But, you can't continue to hold onto it - and hold onto it - and pull back harder - and hold onto it. That's too obvious, and it's going to get called. And it actually makes a difference as he pulled Jozy away from the ball so that Jozy couldn't play it. After that, Jozy goes down because what other choice did he have?

The second penalty call, I hate. The ball came off Sweat's torso and barely grazed his arm. Yes, his arm was high over his body, but so what? Sweat had no time to react, and the touch didn't change the trajectory of the ball at all. Terrible penalty.

I didn't realize during the broadcast that Mavinga did get a Yellow Card for throwing his arm back against Taty. I don't think they ever actually mentioned it. I think it's a Red Card, but it's close. Mavinga was not looking at Taty, so he didn't know where his arm would hit. I agree it will be interesting to see what the DISCO does.

There were some poor calls last night, but I don't think Penso was nearly as bad as Petrescu in our prior game against New England. Petrescu totally lost the game, had no consistency in his calls, and made major errors. It was awful.
I don’t buy the excuse he didn’t know where his arm would hit (not you, but by the general consensus online) because if the guy was shielding the ball and he put his arm out, it was a direct action to make his body bigger. Failure to understand ramifications is on him. It’s a red.
 
I forget if we've talked about the idea of say:
- any contact below the shoulder in 6 yard box = penalty
- any contact below the shoulder in 18 yard box = direct free kick
This could be interesting, though I'd want to think a little harder about the idea of "any" below-the-shoulder contact in the 6-yd box resulting in a penalty. In my mind you should have to clear a pretty high bar to hand a 75% chance of scoring to the attacking team.
 
In the recent Laws updates, IFAB has implicitly been attempting to remove all subjective interpretations of "intent" regarding handballs in the box. I get the technocratic impulse here, but it's resulted in a lot of shitty "handball" penalties.

I personally prefer dealing with the vagaries of "intent" rather than a reductio ad absurdum of "if the ball hits a defender's arm in the box it's a penalty", which is where we seem to be.
FWIW, the new laws don't take effect in MLS until next year.
 
Alex Ring and Valentin Castellanos are now both 1 yellow card away from suspension.

Ben Sweat received a good behavior reduction and is now at 3.
 
Alex Ring and Valentin Castellanos are now both 1 yellow card away from suspension.

Ben Sweat received a good behavior reduction and is now at 3.

So if NYCFC is comfortably ahead of SJ at the end of the game, do you tell Ring (and maybe Taty) to take a yellow, sit vs Dallas and be clear for Atlanta?

Otherwise you risk them getting a yellow in the Dallas game and missing the far more important Atlanta game.
 
So if NYCFC is comfortably ahead of SJ at the end of the game, do you tell Ring (and maybe Taty) to take a yellow, sit vs Dallas and be clear for Atlanta?

Otherwise you risk them getting a yellow in the Dallas game and missing the far more important Atlanta game.
That's assuming the ATL game will be more important. For all we know by the time we reach that game, ATL could be out of the race. (I doubt it, I know they'll get all the upcoming points... but you never know...)
 
Alex Ring and Valentin Castellanos are now both 1 yellow card away from suspension.

Ben Sweat received a good behavior reduction and is now at 3.

Does the slate get cleaned for the playoffs, or could they enter the playoffs 1 game away from suspension?
 
I meant one yellow from suspension...

Yellow Card Accumulation Entering the Playoffs
Yellow card accumulation thresholds are reset entering the Playoffs.
  • A player who reaches an accumulation threshold in the last MLS Regular Season match (e.g. Fifth, Eighth, etc.) IS ELIGIBLE for the Playoffs and IS ELIGIBLE for the first Regular Season match of the following season.
  • A player who receives a straight red card or second yellow card (thus a red card) in his last MLS Regular Season match IS SUSPENDED for the next match for which he is eligible including a Playoff match(es) or the first Regular Season match of the following season.
  • A player sanctioned by the Disciplinary Committee will have any corresponding suspension applied to the next match(es) for which he is eligible including a Playoff match(es) or the next Regular Season match(es).

Yellow Card Accumulation during MLS Playoffs
  • Once the Playoffs begin and up until MLS Cup (when playoff yellow card accumulation will again reset), a player accumulating a yellow card in Round One AND the Conference Semifinal will be suspended for the Conference Final (if a player’s Club does not advance in the MLS Cup Playoffs, the suspension DOES NOT carry over to the next MLS Regular Season).
  • For clarification purposes, a player who earns his second yellow card in the Conference Championship IS ELIGIBLE to play in MLS Cup.
  • A player who is issued two (2) yellow cards in the same match IS SUSPENDED for the next match for which he is eligible including MLS Cup or his next Regular Season match.

Red Card Accumulation during the Playoffs
  • A player who earns a straight red card in the same match in which he previously earned his second cumulative yellow card WILL BE SUSPENDED for his next Playoff match.
  • Example: A player earns a yellow card in his Round One match. He then earns a yellow card (his second consecutively) in the Conference Semifinal and a straight red card (different from earning a second yellow card) in the same match. The player IS SUSPENDED for the Conference Final (for his red card) but IS ELIGIBLE to play in MLS Cup (in which yellow cards reset).

Red Card Suspensions. A player who earns a red card in any Playoff match, whether a straight red card or two (2) yellow cards, IS SUSPENDED for his next match (if this occurs in the final game of a team’s season, then the suspension carries over to the first regular season match of the following season).

Disciplinary Committee. Under Video Review, the Disciplinary Committee will only act on red card incidents which warrant a two (2) or more game suspension. A player sanctioned by the Disciplinary Committee will have any corresponding suspension applied to the next match(es) for which he is eligible including any Playoff match(es), MLS Cup or the following MLS regular season. In instances in which a player receives a yellow card in a match and the Disciplinary Committee acts to suspend the player for the offense, the yellow card will not count toward the player’s cumulative yellow card total.

 
Yellow Card Accumulation Entering the Playoffs
Yellow card accumulation thresholds are reset entering the Playoffs.
  • A player who reaches an accumulation threshold in the last MLS Regular Season match (e.g. Fifth, Eighth, etc.) IS ELIGIBLE for the Playoffs and IS ELIGIBLE for the first Regular Season match of the following season.
  • A player who receives a straight red card or second yellow card (thus a red card) in his last MLS Regular Season match IS SUSPENDED for the next match for which he is eligible including a Playoff match(es) or the first Regular Season match of the following season.
  • A player sanctioned by the Disciplinary Committee will have any corresponding suspension applied to the next match(es) for which he is eligible including a Playoff match(es) or the next Regular Season match(es).

Yellow Card Accumulation during MLS Playoffs
  • Once the Playoffs begin and up until MLS Cup (when playoff yellow card accumulation will again reset), a player accumulating a yellow card in Round One AND the Conference Semifinal will be suspended for the Conference Final (if a player’s Club does not advance in the MLS Cup Playoffs, the suspension DOES NOT carry over to the next MLS Regular Season).
  • For clarification purposes, a player who earns his second yellow card in the Conference Championship IS ELIGIBLE to play in MLS Cup.
  • A player who is issued two (2) yellow cards in the same match IS SUSPENDED for the next match for which he is eligible including MLS Cup or his next Regular Season match.

Red Card Accumulation during the Playoffs
  • A player who earns a straight red card in the same match in which he previously earned his second cumulative yellow card WILL BE SUSPENDED for his next Playoff match.
  • Example: A player earns a yellow card in his Round One match. He then earns a yellow card (his second consecutively) in the Conference Semifinal and a straight red card (different from earning a second yellow card) in the same match. The player IS SUSPENDED for the Conference Final (for his red card) but IS ELIGIBLE to play in MLS Cup (in which yellow cards reset).

Red Card Suspensions. A player who earns a red card in any Playoff match, whether a straight red card or two (2) yellow cards, IS SUSPENDED for his next match (if this occurs in the final game of a team’s season, then the suspension carries over to the first regular season match of the following season).

Disciplinary Committee. Under Video Review, the Disciplinary Committee will only act on red card incidents which warrant a two (2) or more game suspension. A player sanctioned by the Disciplinary Committee will have any corresponding suspension applied to the next match(es) for which he is eligible including any Playoff match(es), MLS Cup or the following MLS regular season. In instances in which a player receives a yellow card in a match and the Disciplinary Committee acts to suspend the player for the offense, the yellow card will not count toward the player’s cumulative yellow card total.

This makes so much more sense now they MLS moves to one and done. The old way with home/away series each round made it too easy to be suspended.