20 September 2007

This Explains Much

Over at For the Integrity of Soccer, a fascinating bit of blog writing:

After a match at D.C. United, one member of the audience at the post-game meeting asked the referee for his thoughts about persistent infringement. In particular, he asked what his threshold was (the number of fouls before he intervenes), because one player (Fred) had six fouls. That's a fair question, but the answer was not.

The referee replied: "I don't keep track of the number of fouls during the match. Too many other things to keep track of."...on the stage with the official was the in-stadium observer representing one part of the assessing process of MLS. He said not a word, thereby giving his tacit approval.

Now, in this case the question is why a DC player wasn't given a yellow for persistent infringement, but many of us have had this same question about a number of other games and teams (cough...Revs...cough). I think we understand a bit better now.

By the way, I'm not sure who the referee was. I don't find a record of Fred having six fouls in any game this season, but he's picked up a few. I'm guessing that it was the New England match, which would make the ref...oh, look at that, it's Abbey.

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3 Comments:

At 20 September, 2007 18:01, Blogger Unknown said...

DC United has done two of these this year and has a third yet to come. They are:

May 26 v. Houston
July 14 v. Dallas
October 20 v. Columbus

(http://www.vadcsoccerref.com/docs/home/ORDER%20FORM.pdf)

Fred signed with DC on March 1, so that makes it either the Houston or Dallas game.

So I guess we can't blame this one on Abby, though I'd have to check on who refereed those two games.

 
At 21 September, 2007 14:09, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I hope it's not new england, they and chicago get away with constan tick-tack fouls, heel gouges and shirt pulls. because they commit thousands of them per game and get the whistle, but never the yellow. We've started to play that game too, and now they bitch.

 
At 21 September, 2007 17:23, Blogger Ray said...

The blogger made a rather large assumption with the "silence = tacit approval" comment.

No league official is going to step in and comment either way. The risk is that he undermines the referee. These things--as with many other things in MLS--occue behind closed doors.

It is entirely possible that the referee was harshly remonstrated for his actions and answers. MLS will never let you know that, however.

 

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