Referees: once again, the subject of MLS debate. Fans saw two red cards this weekend, both of which MLS will privately take issue with but will leave to us to debate publicly. So we shall.
In the game between Real Salt Lake and the Los Angeles Galaxy, a horrible red card was given, one that may or may not have affected the outcome. On the day, L.A. was the better team; however, RSL threatened to equalize several times in the final minutes of the game. RSL had just scored to get within one goal of the Galaxy, and were putting some things together.
In the 86th minute, a ball was played to captain and MLS all-time leading scorer Jason Kreis, and as he chased it to the endline, Galaxy defender Chris Albright clearly pushed him in the back, and Kreis went down.
Was the push severe, or malicious? Absolutely not. Was it a foul? Absolutely it was.
Kreis may have fallen a bit easily, looking for what would have been a dangerous free kick opportunity, but the fact remains that it was indeed a foul. As Kreis looked up to see that he was not being awarded a free kick, he did what most competitive athletes would do - he reacted. All he did was throw his arm, expressing disbelief, anger, frustration - take your pick. And he may have said something a little harsher than, "Are you kidding?"
I think anyone who had been the victim of an unpunished foul at that stage of the game would have reacted in a similar manner. So I was absolutely flabbergasted and dismayed to see the referee pull out a yellow card and present it with so much enthusiasm. As disappointed as I was with the call, I was blown away as I realized that the referee had no idea what he had just done.
As the referee put away his card and walked away from the debacle he has just created, Galaxy forward Herculez Gomez informed him that it was Kreis' second yellow. Only then did the referee reach into his pocket for the red card, apparently forgetting that he had cautioned Kreis just minutes before.
It was a terrible non-call on the original foul by Albright, an even worse decision to give Kreis a card for an understandable reaction, and then the trifecta of ineptitude was completed by not even realizing that he had just thrown an undeserving player out of that game and his next one too.
Houston Dynamo forward Alejandro Moreno was also victimized by bizarre officiating on Saturday night. The physical Venezuelan forward had received a yellow card earlier in the second half, but continued to play hard. Late in the game, he and Colorado Rapids midfielder Kyle Beckerman challenged each other for a bouncing ball in the middle of the field.
As Moreno went into the challenge, he got up first and higher than did Beckerman. The player with good timing who gets up first almost always wins those battles. The problem occurred because Moreno was up so much higher than Beckerman, that as he was heading the ball, his feet happened to catch Beckerman in the stomach/ribs.
As I watched replay after replay, it became more and more evident that the contact was purely incidental. It was a physical challenge as the two players battled for the ball. Really though, it was just as much Beckerman running into him, as it was Moreno making contact.
Again, I was shocked to see the referee pull out a card for that, again handing out a second yellow card, costing the Dynamo Moreno's services for this game and again next week.
As Moreno trotted off the field in utter disbelief, I couldn't help but think about the call earlier in the day against Jason Kreis. It doesn't happen that often, nor should it, that there are two bad calls in a day, that lead to questionable red cards, in two separate games.
The referees need to try to empathize with the players, and try to get into their heads. If they are better able to think of situations from the players' side, they are guaranteed to be better referees. Paul Tamberino was the best at managing players on the field. He was a referee who retired a few years ago, and the league has never been the same without him. I am thankful that anyone wants to be a referee (it must be lonely when no one likes you), but the standard needs to improve, and referees need to think of their jobs as being able to manage personalities.
The days of ex-players being referees can't be that far off - can they?
Robin Fraser, a five-time MLS Best XI selection and two-time MLS Defender of the Year, ended his 10-year MLS career and 16-year professional career last October, and now begins his first season with RSL as the team's color television analyst. Born in Kingston, Jamaica, Fraser amassed 27 caps for the U.S. National Team and was drafted fourth overall by the Los Angeles Galaxy in the inaugural MLS draft.
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