In the last week’s English Premier League game between West Ham and Everton, the referee Anthony Taylor sent off West Ham’s Carlton Cole and Everton’s Darron Gibson for what he apparently perceived to be dangerous high-foot challenges that put the safety of their opponents at risk.  The first red card was awarded in the 67^th minute of the game to Carlton Cole after he challenged for the ball with his leg fully extended and studs up while Everton’s Leighton Baines was challenging for the ball with his head. Mr. Taylor almost immediately pulled the red card from his pocket and dismissed Cole. However, even though the replays showed that Cole’s foot was dangerously high and close to Baines’ head, he was going for the ball and there appear to be no intent on his part to injure or intimidate the Everton player. What’s more, Baines was barely grazed by Carlton’s foot and, to his credit, he did not embellish any injury from the contact. The second red card was awarded in the 90^th minute of the game to Darron Gibson for a similar high-footed challenge on West Ham’s Mark Noble. Like the Cole’s challenge, Gibson’s tackle did not appear malicious or retaliatory in nature and he did not appear to intentionally target his opponent. (See the video below.)

In the 28^th minute of the Manchester United v. Newcastle match that took place on December 26, 2012, Newcastle’s fullback Danny Simpson drove a ball from the upper corner of Manchester United’s penalty area toward his teammate Papiss Cissé.  At the time of the shot, Cissé was clearly closer to the goal than the second to last Manchester United defender Jonny Evans and therefore was in an offside position. Both players were at the top of the goal area but out of the line of sight of Manchester United goalkeeper David De Gea who could clearly see the shot hurdling toward him. As Evans attempted to turn and face the field to have a better chance of clearing the incoming ball, he appeared to slip on the wet pitch and went down to the ground. While Evans was falling to the ground, the ball ricocheted off his foot and into the goal without ever making its way to the intended target, Cissé.

In front of a record setting sell-out crowd at the Home Depot Center, LA Galaxy came back from a 0:1 deficit to beat Houston Dynamo 3:1 and claim MLS Cup 2012. While the game was sloppy at times, it was also hugely entertaining and not entirely free from controversial refereeing decisions.  The game was refereed by Silviu Petrescu, who also was voted the MLS Referee of the Year, and the assisstant referees were Daniel Belleau and Darren Clark. For the first time in MLS league history, the MLS Cup final was refereed entirely by a Canadian crew of referees.  Mr. Petrescu, as expected, had his work cut out for him and, for the most part, we believe that he managed and refereed the game well.  For example, Mr. Petrescu’s two penalty calls were spot-on. There is no doubt in our minds that the handball (first penalty kick) and foul on Robbie Keane (second penalty kick) were correctly called.  However, a couple of his decisions – one involving the second penalty -- merit additional scrutiny.

Sometimes, one referee decision can influence and overshadow the entire match and stir a lot of controversy. The first-leg of the Eastern Conference Championship match between DC United and Houston Dynamo gave rise to such controversy. In the 48^th minute of the game - at the time when DC United was leading Houston Dynamo 1:0 - DC United midfielder Raphael Augusto and Houston Dynamo defender Andre Hainault were locked in a fierce foot-race and battle for the ball. Sprinting towards the Dynamo’s goal, both players tried to outmuscle each other. As United’s Augusto appeared to get upper hand over his Dynamo opponent, in a desperate attempt to prevent Augusto from a one-on-one encounter with his goalkeeper, Dynamo’s Hainault hooked his arm around Augusto’s arm and dragged him down to the ground stopping the dangerous attack. As the video below shows, all of this took place merely two or three yards away from the penalty area with no one other than the goalkeeper in front of the two players. Referee Ricardo Salazar, however, who was directly behind and also a few yards away from the encounter, did not spot any infringement and let the play continue.

The New York Red Bulls clinched their playoff spot after tying Sporting Kansas City 0:0.  The Red Bulls came out energetic and eager to avenge their loss to Kansas City from a couple of weeks before the encounter. The 0:2 loss to Kansas City was also the Red Bulls’ first season loss at home so perhaps, with their high energy and enthusiasm, the Red Bulls wanted to send a message to their potential play-off rivals that “you don’t tread on us at home.” Indeed, the Red Bulls were a better team in just about every category that matters: they outshot their opponents 10:6, their possession was 63.7% to Kansas City’s 36.3% and they had 9 corner kicks to their opponents only 3. Thus, being clearly a much better team in this game, the 0:0 draw had to feel disappointing to the Red Bulls.

The New York Red Bulls recorded their first comeback from a two-goal deficit this season when, after an exciting game, they beat the Portland Timbers 3:2 at Red Bull Arena on August 19, 2012.  This was also the game in which Tim Cahill, Red Bulls recent signing from Everton, scored his first goal in MLS. Cahill’s goal, however, was controversial because it looked like it was scored after Referee Jasen Anno blew his whistle, indicating a foul inside Portland’s penalty area. As the video below demonstrates, it appears that Referee blew his whistle immediately after the ball bounced off the Portland Timber’s defender. Mr. Anno’s whistle was not only immediate (premature?!) but also very loud as it can be clearly heard on the video. 

In the 42^nd minute of the Community Shield match between Chelsea and Manchester City, Referee Kevin Friend showed Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic a red card for a tackle on Manchester City’s Aleksandar Kolarov. As the footage below shows, Ivanovic attempted to dispossess Kolarov by a sliding tackle. While sliding toward Kolarov and the ball, Ivanovic raised his leading leg off the ground,  exposed his studs and -- with speed and fully outstretched leg -- barreled his way into Kolarov’s shin, taking him down in the process. Mr. Friend did not hesitate and immediately showed Ivanovic a red card. Despite Chelsea’s protests at the severity of the punishment, Mr. Friend was absolutely right in dismissing Ivanovic from the game because his tackle was not merely “reckless.” Rather, it was "serious foul play." 

For the reasons explained below, Ivanovic was guilty of “serious foul play” when he tackled Kolarov and therefore deserved the most severe form of punishment.

The U.S. Women Soccer Team defeated Canada 4:3 to reach the final at the London’s Olympic Games. The game was fast-paced, hard-fought and highly entertaining. Indeed, Canada led the U.S. Women on three separate occasions and the U.S. team came back to tie the game each time. The U.S. Women’s final game winning goal also came in a dramatic fashion. It was scored in the 123^rd minute -- the last minute of the added time in the second overtime  -- by Alex Morgan (click here to see the highlights from the game). Now in the finals, the U.S. will be given opportunity to avenge its loss from the last World Cup final against Japan. The gold medal match between the U.S. and Japan  will begin at 2:45 p.m. ET on Thursday, August 9, 2012 at Wembley Stadium in London. It should be equally entertaining game.

On July 18, 2012, Toronto FC continued its recent good form (after a truly horrible start to the season) and defeated Colorado Rapids 2:1 before home crowd at the BMO Field. This was an important game to both teams which were seemingly heading in the opposite direction. Toronto FC was playing for its third win in a row. Colorado, on the other hand, was trying to avoid its fourth loss in a row. Ultimately, Toronto FC prevailed and continued its remarkable recent resurgence while Colorado’s search for a better form goes on.

On June 30, 2012, in an entertaining game before the sellout crowd of 50,000 that saw a total of seven goals scored, San Jose Earthquakes defeated LA Galaxy 4:3. The spectators witnessed a flurry of goals and their home team clawing back from a 1:3 deficit to win the game 4:3. There was another goal -- a game wining goal -- by a league leading scorer Chris Wondolowski in the 61^st minute of the game and also a spectacular goal by David Beckham in the 31^st minute of the game. But Beckham was also involved in another - much less glamorous - incident in the 93^rd minute of the game which almost caused a melee between the two teams.

At a special meeting held in Zurich on July 5, 2012, the International Football Association Board (IFAB) approved the use of goal-line technology (GLT). GLT technology was undergoing a rigorous testing process for the past nine months and of the eight companies that took part in the first phase of testing only two systems -- Hawk-Eye  and GoalRef -- successfully completed the entire process and will be now allowed to apply for FIFA goal-line technology licenses. This was a historic decision as for the first time in its history IFAB agreed to introduce technology to assist the referee in determining whether a goal has been scored. As we understand, however, the referee will retain absolute and ultimate authority to determine whether a goal should be awarded or not. The IFAB also stressed that “the technology will only be utilized for the goal line and no other areas of the game.” Moreover, the use of technology will not be mandatory for any national soccer associations. The decisions concerning GLT went into effect immediately. However, given the approval of GLT technology, IFAB stated that certain wording of Laws of the Game, “relating to Law 1 (The Field of Play); Law 2 (The Ball); Law 5 (The Referee); and Law 10 (The Method of Scoring)”, will have to be made in the immediate future.  We, of course, will cover these changes when they are made.

In the 62nd minute of a recent FC Dallas vs. Chicago Fire game, MLS referee Mr. Hilario Grajeda awarded a penalty kick to Chicago Fire. Dallas goalkeeper Kevin Hartman saved Sebastian Grazzini’s shot, but another Chicago Fire striker, Marco Pappa, pounced on the rebound and knocked the ball into the net. Pappa, however, entered the penalty area well before his teammate Grazzini struck the ball (see the picture to the left and the video below). In other words, Pappa entered the penalty area illegally and the referee should have disallowed the goal. In addition, the footage from the game showed that another player from FC Dallas also illegally entered the penalty before the kick was taken. Therefore, the referee should have disallowed the goal and should have ordered the penalty kick to be retaken.

The year’s biggest soccer tournament -- Euro 2012 – has just got under way. We, of course, anticipated that the tournament would provide a fertile ground for interesting articles about the game and, obviously, refereeing. But we did not suspect that we would be so quickly confronted with controversial refereeing decisions. Well, in the opening game of the tournament between the host nation Poland and 2004 Euro Champions Greece, Spanish referee Carlos Velasco Carballo was the center of controversy.

We hate diving! Unfortunately, diving or “simulation” has long been the scourge of world soccer and FIFA has made repeated attempts, with varying degrees of success, to eradicate it from its competitions. MLS has also stated that it would not tolerate diving.  In fact, back in 2011, following a suspension of a former D.C. United forward Charlie Davies for diving during a game between DC United and Real Salt Lake, MLS stated that “all instances of behavior that serve to deceive and that directly impact the game will be subject to severe discipline, including a fine, suspension or both.” 

In this blog, we are writing about remarks that were included in the Advice to Referees on the Laws of the Game issued by the United States Soccer Federation (the “USSF”) in 2011.  Specifically, we express our disappointment and dismay over the advice offered by the USSF, which appears to direct referees to disregard specific provisions of the Laws of the Game, dealing with the substitution and changing of goalkeepers.  Indeed, we direct your attention to the following paragraph in section 8.3 titled “THE START OF PLAY” and, in particular, to the sentence that we underlined below:

In this article, we are highlighting a no-offside decision that was made by the assistant referee in the game between DC United and FC Dallas.  As the video clip rather indisputably shows, when the ball was played , Blas Perez of FC Dallas was clearly in an offside position.  However, as all referees and students of the Laws of the Game should know, simply being in an offside position is not an offense.  The Laws of the Game require more.  Thus, before we start passing our judgment on the assistant referee’s decision, let’s review waht happened (see video below), analyze the applicable law and then apply it to the situation at hand.

We wanted to highlight one referee’s decision from this past weekend’s MLS game.  In a game between Columbus Crew and Montreal Impact, Mr. Mark Geiger, called a foul on a Montreal Impact player, Jeb Brovsky, for elbowing the opponent.  The infringement occurred roughly in the middle of the field and early on in the game in the 19^th minute.  For these reasons, many referees would be inclined to “look the other way” and only caution the offending player.  However, Mr. Geiger correctly sent off the Montreal player who, as replays clearly showed, made no real attempt to play the ball (see video below). 

We watched several local games over the past couple weeks.  It boggled our mind that all of the refereeing crews in all of these games failed to observe and enforce a proper substitution procedure. Unfortunately, this was not something out of ordinary. Over the past several years, we have noticed that referees consistently fail to adhere and enforce the substitution procedure that is spelled out in the Laws of the Game.  For example, referees regularly let substitutes to enter the field of play before substituted players exit it.  Or, the substitutes were allowed to enter the field of play from the area next to their team’s bench and not from the halfway line. We also saw the referees allowing substitutions to take place before their assistant referees were even informed that a team wanted to substitute a player or before a substitution slip was completed.

The International Football Association Board (the IFAB) agreed to extend the testing of the Goal Line Technology (GLT). IFAB approved two companies, Hawk-Eye and GoalRef, for the second phase of testing. According to the statement issued by FIFA, "the second test phase - to take place between March and June 2012 - will rigorously assess the reliability and accuracy of each system, as well as how robust the technology is. Following the conclusion of Test Phase 2, should one or more companies fulfill the criteria, a Special Meeting of the IFAB in Kiev on 2 July 2012 will decide on a definitive approval of GLT."