MLS Referees: What's it like?
October 27, 2015 7:50 AM Subscribe
Get an in-depth look at what it takes to be a referee in MLS. (Warning: Auto playing video)
Related: Behind the Scenes: See how PRO monitors its refs on matchday
You could not pay me enough money to be a soccer referee. You want to support a ref? Start suspending people who argue with him. Start suspending people who dive. Don't make him do it -- if you see a guy grab his face when the tape shows his face was never touched, he was diving and should be suspended. That's the support they need.
The reasons players do this is because it works and they don't get punished for it. They're hyper competitive. They'll find every advantage. And the big advantage right now is there's only one guy they need to fool or beat down.
Change that, and the game will be played. Right now, the game to pay is dive for penalties, and send 6 guys to argue with the ref after every call.
But no, purity of the game, blah blah. There's a reason I can't stand to watch men's soccer much anymore. If I want to see people screaming about how badly they've been hurt and arguing with the guy in charge, I'd watch Congress.
posted by eriko at 9:02 AM on October 27, 2015
The reasons players do this is because it works and they don't get punished for it. They're hyper competitive. They'll find every advantage. And the big advantage right now is there's only one guy they need to fool or beat down.
Change that, and the game will be played. Right now, the game to pay is dive for penalties, and send 6 guys to argue with the ref after every call.
But no, purity of the game, blah blah. There's a reason I can't stand to watch men's soccer much anymore. If I want to see people screaming about how badly they've been hurt and arguing with the guy in charge, I'd watch Congress.
posted by eriko at 9:02 AM on October 27, 2015
I am a soccer fan and watch a fair amount of the game. There is no question that soccer referees have the hardest jobs in sports - hugely subjective rules to be enforced across a vast space with little to no time for further considerations.
I think that post-facto disciplinary action including long term suspensions is the only true solution to the diving issue - for the ref to make the call one way or the other (give a penalty kick for a foul or discipline the "fouled" player for diving) in the moment is too difficult, but just because the refs word is final within the game does not preclude the league taking action (even if it contravened an on field call) after matches.
As an MLS and CONCACAF fan i feel like we see some terrible officiating, but even if it were better it would still be bad/nearly impossibly hard. one OBVIOUS improvement would seem to be doubling the number of assistant referees on the sidelines (to a total of 4). It would be an easy-to-implement solution to the problem of having too much ground to cover by too few officials.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 10:28 AM on October 27, 2015
I think that post-facto disciplinary action including long term suspensions is the only true solution to the diving issue - for the ref to make the call one way or the other (give a penalty kick for a foul or discipline the "fouled" player for diving) in the moment is too difficult, but just because the refs word is final within the game does not preclude the league taking action (even if it contravened an on field call) after matches.
As an MLS and CONCACAF fan i feel like we see some terrible officiating, but even if it were better it would still be bad/nearly impossibly hard. one OBVIOUS improvement would seem to be doubling the number of assistant referees on the sidelines (to a total of 4). It would be an easy-to-implement solution to the problem of having too much ground to cover by too few officials.
posted by Exceptional_Hubris at 10:28 AM on October 27, 2015
Right now, the game to pay is dive for penalties, and send 6 guys to argue with the ref after every call.
The only people whinier than soccer players are Anglo-Americans (because it's overwhelmingly a British and white American thing) who complain about diving.
posted by asterix at 2:10 PM on October 27, 2015
The only people whinier than soccer players are Anglo-Americans (because it's overwhelmingly a British and white American thing) who complain about diving.
posted by asterix at 2:10 PM on October 27, 2015
MLS refereeing has been poorer this season than I can ever remember. Absolutely appalling, to the point where I joked that you knew the MLS calling last Sunday #DecisionDay was because it was going to come down to a call.
CONCACAF is atrocious. Mexico's Gold Cup win nwill forever have an asterix next to it for me and even yesterday we have heard that the Costa Rican ref who was supposed to officiate Canada v Honduras World Cup Qualifier in three weeks was thankfully taken off the match because he did an interview with a Honduran newspaper in whcih he discussed his wishes for Honduras to return to the World Cup Finals.
Whatever machinations the CSA did behind the scene paid off. But holy hell, why do we have to tolerate this kind of crap?
I'm for more goal line technology and video where it makes sense as long as it doesn't mean stopping and starting. At the least it will lessen the effect of simply awful refereeing in our league.
posted by salishsea at 8:53 PM on October 27, 2015
CONCACAF is atrocious. Mexico's Gold Cup win nwill forever have an asterix next to it for me and even yesterday we have heard that the Costa Rican ref who was supposed to officiate Canada v Honduras World Cup Qualifier in three weeks was thankfully taken off the match because he did an interview with a Honduran newspaper in whcih he discussed his wishes for Honduras to return to the World Cup Finals.
Whatever machinations the CSA did behind the scene paid off. But holy hell, why do we have to tolerate this kind of crap?
I'm for more goal line technology and video where it makes sense as long as it doesn't mean stopping and starting. At the least it will lessen the effect of simply awful refereeing in our league.
posted by salishsea at 8:53 PM on October 27, 2015
it's overwhelmingly a British and white American thing
You are probably just monolingual. The summer of "No era penal" was only last year. Of course you won't hear anyone else complain if you live only in the anglophone world. I've yet to visit a place where people don't complain about it. It's just not a fun part of the game. If the FA or MLS or A-League is actually doing somethingabout it then that is to their credit and a perfectly silly topic for race-baiting.
posted by Winnemac at 10:46 PM on October 27, 2015
You are probably just monolingual. The summer of "No era penal" was only last year. Of course you won't hear anyone else complain if you live only in the anglophone world. I've yet to visit a place where people don't complain about it. It's just not a fun part of the game. If the FA or MLS or A-League is actually doing somethingabout it then that is to their credit and a perfectly silly topic for race-baiting.
posted by Winnemac at 10:46 PM on October 27, 2015
(because it's overwhelmingly a British and white American thing) who complain about diving.
It is?
posted by josher71 at 6:34 AM on October 28, 2015
It is?
posted by josher71 at 6:34 AM on October 28, 2015
You are probably just monolingual.
Nope!
But I should clarify: everyone complains when players on the other team dive. What seems to me to be a specifically Anglo thing is the moralizing about diving in general, even in games where the complainer's watching as a neutral. (See, e.g., the uproar when Sergio Busquets got Thiago Motta sent off in the 2010 Champions League semifinal.)
posted by asterix at 9:10 AM on October 28, 2015
Nope!
But I should clarify: everyone complains when players on the other team dive. What seems to me to be a specifically Anglo thing is the moralizing about diving in general, even in games where the complainer's watching as a neutral. (See, e.g., the uproar when Sergio Busquets got Thiago Motta sent off in the 2010 Champions League semifinal.)
posted by asterix at 9:10 AM on October 28, 2015
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Though, may favorite live-ref video is AHL ref video. Just great. The give/take, constantly talking to players etc - it's same in both soccer and hockey video..
posted by k5.user at 8:46 AM on October 27, 2015 [1 favorite]