April 2016 MLS Referee Power Rankings

Here is the first installment of MLS Referee Power Rankings for 2016!

Rank	Referee		Trend	Comments
1		Alan Kelly	-	Alan Kelly continues to be solid and controversy free. This is again probably why we never see him at Crew matches. Interestingly, as of 4/26/16, he was averaging 1 PK call per match, taking over for Unkel as PK-Giver.
2		Ismail Elfath	-	I've not seen much negative or positive about Elfath. But hey, he drew the ire of Cosmos fans in 2014! That's something to keep him at the top! YAY PRO/REL!
3		Kevin Stott	+4	Stott has been reffing MLS matches since 1996. Think about that. His call of the game between Columbus and Houston was spot on, except the missed Alex forearm to Saied's head. I'm including the Meram yellow and the correct defender-playing-the-ball-non-offside and DOGSO red card to Tyler Deric.
4		Armando Villarreal	-	In my mind, Villarreal continues to be a top referee in terms of fitness and calls. He did miss a penalty recently, but his reaction of admitting to missing the call is refreshing. Striving to be better is important.
5		Mark Geiger	-	I continue to advocate that Geiger is one of the best refs in the world. He's stayed in the background pretty well this season...
6		Nima Saghafi	N/A	Mr. Saghafi recently earned his first MLS match as center referee. This weekend, he earned himself a second assignment for Real Salt Lake vs. Houston. Usually the new refs get the Crew!
7		Ted Unkel	-4	Ted has been pretty solid, but he really messed up the red card in the Crew game against NYCFC. When your employer says "Referees should know their players, particularly MLS players who are well known, and should be aware of the difference between Michael Parkhurst and Tyson Wahl." Yeah, that's not good. He'll have to work hard to get back on top.
8		David Gantar	-	ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
9		Marcos De Oliviera	-	I hope he gets more assignments so that we can see if he improves or goes downhill.
10		Baldomero Toledo	-4	What a disgrace. The way he handled the no handball called--handball foul--penalty--not actually a foul debacle was embarrassing! (Interestingly, Kaka defended him)
11		Chris Penso	+6	Penso's arrogance drives me batty. And I'm not alone! Penso has to find himself at the center of big plays. He gave two reds and a PK in his first match of the season. He also gave Valeri two yellows for dissent. For that he moves up a couple of spots. :)
12		Ricardo Salazar	-	Salazar averaged 5 yellow cards per match in 2016 through 4/26/16.
13		Edvin Jurisevic	-	Not a fan.
14		Drew Fischer	-	Yawn!
15		Juan Guzman	-5	The man in the middle for the Crew tomorrow in Seattle has averaged 6 yellow cards per match in 2016, the highest of any ref as of 4/26/16. Who will get sent off tomorrow?
16		Jorge Gonzalez	-5	Gonzalez is one of the "olde guard" MLS referees. Here's looking at you Petrescu and Toledo. These are refs that don't really seem to care and don't really want to improve. Last year, he claimed a handball hit a hip, and then later told the press he saw it but it wasn't deliberate! Just last week, he gave two yellows in quick succession for dissent to Brad Evans. Although I'm glad Brad is out against the Crew tomorrow, and he shouldn't have "given him an expletive," the arrogance of refusing to talk to a captain is jarring.
17		Alan Chapman	-1	He found himself removed by PRO from a scheduled match after giving De Jong only a yellow for his vicious tackle on Nagbe.
18		Robert Sibiga	-	He's received a few assignments since his first one at MAPFRE. Nothing stands out... which probably means he earned a higher spot on the chart. Hey, nobody said this system is perfect.
19		Sorin Stoica	-	His first assignment of the year comes tomorrow in NYC.
20		Hilario Grajeda	-	Grajeda finds himself getting a few assignments, but just like his colleague Marrufo, he missed a pretty obvious DOGSO red card. Peter Walton of PRO later said it was a PK because the foul advanced into the box. Obvious misses are not good.
21		Silviu Petrescu	-6	Again, I ask: Is he retired yet?
22		Fotis Bazakos	-6	As of 4/26/16, Bazakos was averaging 4.67 yellow cards per match for 2016... As in "If you don't know what you're doing, book 'em."
23		Jair Marrufo	-2	I was told I was unduly harsh on Marrufo. Well, too bad! I gave him a chance to redeem himself, but his arrogance and bad calls continue. Although I like when Vermes is upset, and I fully expected his rant to be about nothing last weekend... when I saw the play that was a no PK call, it was crazy. That was a DOGSO red, and a SFP/VC red. And a PK. No. Question. At. All. Referees are human, but how can they miss the obvious calls like that!?
24		Mathieu Bourdeau	N/A	Bourdeau made his first appearance as center ref in MLS in 2015 and recently saw action in 2016. He joins the chart for the first time and here's hoping to good calls to help him work his way up!

(All Photos credited to www.proreferees.com)

My Thoughts on DOGSO

There are two Laws that I passionately dislike in soccer. (All screenshots of Law are from the FIFA Laws of the Game 2015/2016.)

One is Law 12, that discusses that handball must be deliberate.











The more 'obvious' Law (like the pun?) that needs to be changed is the red card for Denial of Obvious Goal Scoring Opportunity of Law 12.



If a DOGSO foul occurs in the box, this creates a "triple punishment," whereby the offender is sent off and the team goes down a man, a penalty kick is awarded, and the offender receives a red card.



This can be seen when Chelsea goalkeeper was sent off in a game against Manchester City earlier this month.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/dyVEkHObOXE" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

And I saw a Tweet from a fellow Chelsea supporter.





Alexi Lalas interviewed new FIFA President Gianni Infantino, who said, “Triple punishments you know very well, red card, and penalty, and then suspension, this has also been changed after 10 years that everybody wanted to change it from now on. If the goalkeeper tries really to catch the ball but commits the foul, well he will not be red carded, but only yellow carded.” (The interview was on Fox, but you can hear the clip on the Mutant Gene Podcast.) 

I wasn’t sure if this applied just to goalkeepers, so I reached out to Shaka Hislop on Twitter. Shaka was appointed by FIFA to serve on an advisory panel for the International Football Association Board (IFAB), which really has the power and authority to change and alter the Laws of the game. Shaka confirmed that beginning June 1, the interpretation of DOGSO will be any player, not just a goalkeeper, who doesn’t intentionally foul will receive a yellow card not a red card.

 

In doing a little bit more research on this, I found this excellent blog on the issue.  

My primary concern was whether "intentionally" would create the same heartburn that "deliberate" creates with handball. See my previous post about Michael Parkhurst being sent off in Orlando in 2015 and the ensuing debate/discussion on whether it even was a handball.  

However, according to this article's quotations of the IFAB document, there are specific instances that would result in a red card:

• Holding
• Pulling
• Pushing
• No attempt to play the ball
• No possibility to play the ball
• Otherwise punishable by a red card (Serious Foul Play or Violent Conduct)

In my opinion, this is fantastic! It completely removes the ambiguity from the rule and even takes away some ambiguity/discretion a referee may otherwise have. 

It is unlikely that PRO will put this new interpretation into effect until the 2017 season, but it's worth it to take a look at some recent plays. 

First, the play from Columbus vs. NYCFC, when Unkel, according to PRO, incorrectly called DOGSO. 



Second, the play from this weekend when Tyler Deric was sent off by Stott in the Columbus vs. Houston match, which PRO said DOGSO was the correct call.



Both of the PRO articles about the criteria in determining DOGSO:

• The distance between the offense and the goal 
• The likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball
• The direction of play
• The location and number of defenders
• The offense which denies an opponent an obvious goal scoring opportunity may be an offense that incurs a direct free kick or an indirect free kick

Here, Larin was taken down from behind. Grajeda didn't call anything on this play. In the broadcast, Alexi Lalas said that Peter Walton of PRO stated that this should've been a red card for DOGSO and because the foul carried into the box, it should've been a  PK.



 


Finally, one last no-call to take a look at. Jair Marrufo is back in match-ruining mode, and did not call a PK or DOGSO here. I haven't seen or heard anything from PRO regarding this particular play yet.

Moments before Wondolowski's PK goal Dwyer goes down on the opposite end. PK or na? pic.twitter.com/r8SSXYq5nv

— Sporting Kansas City (@SportingKC) April 24, 2016

A part of me believes that the latter two plays saw no calls because of all the people being crybabies about too many red cards. I continue to believe that PRO is making strides to improve refereeing, and hopefully, the new DOGSO interpretation will create consistency in the calls on these plays.