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. 

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.

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.

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.” 

Last week Major League Soccer announced that the MLS Disciplinary Committee has decided to rescind Fernando Cardenas’ red-card suspension. Unlike many other leagues, MLS has empowered the MLS Disciplinary Committee to review all games and all incidents that occur during regular season and MLS Cup Playoff games. Thus, under the rules governing the MLS Disciplinary Committee, clubs do not even need to request a review.  We believe that the review process set up by the league is of great benefit to the league, teams and players.  In fact, the Committee’s decision to rescind Cardenas' red-card suspension serves as a perfect example for why the review process set up by the league should be emulated elsewhere.

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). 

On March 6, 2012, the U.S. Soccer Federation and Major League Soccer announced that they formed the Professional Referee Organization (PRO). The statement on the Federation's website stated that:

"[PRO] will be responsible for managing the referee program in professional soccer leagues in the United States and Canada.

The creation of PRO is designed to increase the quality of officiating in U.S. and Canadian professional leagues, develop more professional quality officials at a younger age and develop officials who will represent the United States and Canada in FIFA competitions.

Finally, after months of wrangling, shouting and accusations, Brian Ching is heading back to Houston. The Dynamo and the fans were elated to hear the news. Dominic Kinnear, the Dynamo head coach stated that he was "very happy to have Brian back with the team" and that "[t]his is a very important year for the Dynamo, and if anyone deserves to be involved with the team, it's Brian." The Dynamo wasted no time celebrating Ching's return and displayed the good news on its website's front page (see picture). 

When Major League Soccer (MLS) was founded in 1996, the founders of the league organized it as a single entity. The idea was that as a single entity that owns all of the teams and player contracts, the league would be better able to control its costs because the individual team owners would not compete against each other for players' services. However, our analysis of MLS payrolls from 2004 through 2011 brings us to the conclusion that, despite its single-entity model, MLS players' salaries show a very impressive growth.

For example, the lowest guaranteed team payroll rose from $846,765 in 2004 to $2,690,688 in 2011. This represents a gain of over 217% or nearly 18% on an annualized basis in the period at issue (see Chart A).

So the long lasting saga of whether he stays or goes is finally over. As reported in this article by MLS, Beckham signed for another two years with the Galaxy. According to the article, Beckham said that he "had many offers from clubs from around the world, however, I'm still passionate about playing in America and winning trophies with the Galaxy." Indeed, reports abounded that teams such as Paris Saint-Germain, Queens Park Rangers and Tottenham Spurs expressed interest in acquiring services of Beckham at one point or another.