Able Referee Assistants Must Assist Referees Ably

The following incidents occurred during the MLS league match between DC United and FC Dallas on Friday 30 March 2012. The match finished 4—1.


Incident One Offside Not Given by AR1

In the 41', the ball is cleared from the penalty area by DC United goalkeeper (green). The ball is intercepted on the halfway line by FC Dallas player Daniel Hernandez (red) back toward the DC United penalty area. Here are the freeze frames:

DC United keeper Joe Willis (green) wonders why there was no Offside call

Here is the incident from another camera angle:

Referee Hilario Grajeda (yellow) appears to be looking to his right at AR1 to query whether there was an offside offence

FC Dallas player Blas Perez (red) gained an advantage from being in an offside position, and therefore should have been penalised for an offside offence. However, no offside call came and FC Dallas were awarded a goal which brought the scores level at 1—1 by half-time.


Incident Two Mass Confrontation

In the 77' with DC United running away with the match at 4—1, FC Dallas player Hernandez (red) makes a reckless challenge on DC United player Dwayne De Rosario (black). Referee Grajeda whistles for the foul but Rosario (black) decides not to wait for the Referee and takes matters into his own hands. Rosario gets up quickly and pushes Hernandez. This leads to a mass confrontation; here are the freeze frames:

Referee Grajeda shows the yellow card to FC Dallas' Hernandez (red 2) for the reckless challenge on DC United's Rosario (black 7)

During the melee, the Referee brandishes a red card to Hernandez (red 2) for his second caution of the match

During the melee, the Referee brandishes a yellow card to Rosario (black 7) for his reaction
The match officials did not make a very good Triangle of Control

While the Referee's disciplinary sanctions were correct (a second caution to FC Dallas Hernandez and a caution to DC United De Rosario), Referee Hilario Grajeda could have dealt with the situation better. Perhaps the Referee should have been aware of the increasing tensions building up.

First, for the foul, if the Referee had shown the yellow card quickly (Hernandez's second caution), that may have helped to avert the increased ill-feelings amongst the players. Instead, the Referee opted to get himself physically involved but by that time the players were not interested in the Referee's physical presence since the players were already 'kicking off' at one another.

Second, as the mass confrontation escalated, showing cards simply adds to the 'messiness' of everything. During mass confrontations, players are more interested in what other players and opponents are doing rather than what the Referee is doing or saying, so waving cards around becomes secondary and does not give any indication of being in control of the situation.

See here for an example of an effective Triangle of Control during mass confrontations from an EPL match.


SUMMARY
Unfortunately, the ARs did not give the impression that they were ably assisting the Referee. There was also the impression that the Referee let the match run out of control. Match video highlights of the above two incidents can been seen here (on the official MLS site).

Related Post: Able Referee Assistants ... Part 2

On the same weekend, EPL Referee Peter Walton was having his final match as a professional Referee (PGMOL) in the Premiership league match between Everton and West Bromwich Albion on Saturday 31 March 2012. The match finished 2—0.

Referee Peter Walton cautions Everton's Tim Cahill

Everton manager David Moyes bids 53-year-old Referee Peter Walton farewell from the EPL

Peter Walton embarks on a new challenge as the General Manager of the Professional Referee Organization (PRO) which is responsible for match officials in the professional leagues in North America. The hope is that Walton will pass on to the MLS all the wisdom and positive elements of officiating in the EPL, while making sure that the bad elements (e.g. Referees who physically man-handle players) do not creep in to the MLS.

Here's wishing Peter Walton great success at PRO.

Comical Referee-Related Captions: Arsene Wenger

"No Arsène, I'm not Tony Adams in disguise. Leave me alone."

Arsène Wenger 'having a word' with AR1

Match: Champions League Round of 16 second leg match between Arsenal and AC Milan on Tuesday 6 March 2012. The match finished 3—0, with AC Milan advancing to the quarterfinals 3—4 on aggregate.

Arsène Wenger faces the prospect of receiving another UEFA touchline ban, but remains adamant that he was justified in confronting Referee Damir Skomina from Slovenia after Arsenal’s Champions League exit against AC Milan.


Related Posts: UCL: Strange Impressions of FIFA ARs and UEFA EARs and A Slovenly AR


Happy to receive other people's Comical Captions in the comments section (below).

Pondering the Probert Professional Puzzle Part 2

This post continues from Part 1 and looks at another performance aspect of EPL Referee Lee Probert. Namely, what is he looking at?

The following incidents occurred during the EPL match between Tottenham Hotspur and Wigan Athletic on Tuesday 31 January 2012. The match finished 3—1.


Incident One What is Probert Looking at?

We have already seen this incident of serious foul play in a previous post. But here is a perspective that shows Probert's position and his 'unheightened' or 'uninterested' take of the unfolding situation. Here are the freeze frames:

Referee Lee Probert appears to take his time and amble over to see what is the matter

Probert taking a closer look at the injured player

Question: What is Probert looking at?


Incident Two What is Probert Looking at?

This incident is a typical example of Probert's overall match performance. As Spurs (white) collect the ball from their own penalty area and look to push forward, what is Probert looking at? Here are the freeze frames:

Looking at the above freeze frames, it is simply quite incredible to see a professional Referee perform like this. In this sequence where the ball is moving from one half of the field to the other half, Probert has not taken his eye off the ball for one moment.

What would happen if a Wigan (blue) defender had fouled the Spurs attacker (or how about the reverse, whereby the Spurs attacker had fouled a Wigan defender)? And in such a scenario would the AR help Probert? Had a foul occurred, it is highly unlikely that Referee Probert would have spotted any foul play.

Also, this is a good time to recommend an excellent post titled What is the referee looking at? from the wonderful blog For the Integrity of Soccer, which is compiled by the highly-respected 'diamond' duo of Robert Evans and Edward Bellion (or Bob and Ed, as they like to be called).

In that particular post, Bob Evans masterfully uses the example of a talented 7-year-old player to illustrate the importance of having vision and looking ahead. He cleverly asks: "Could this technique exhibited by a seven-year-old player be used by referees?"

Bob and Ed's blog is a treasure trove full of pearls of wisdom and nuggets of useful information about the Art of Refereeing. They are also 'diamond geezers' to boot!


SUMMARY
To coin a cliche, Probert just appears to be looking but not seeing.

In many of the recent analyses this blog has made about Lee Probert, he appears to just be looking at the ball.

Probert doesn't appear to be looking at the perspective surrounding the vicinity of the ball (i.e. the surrounding players) or the perspective beyond the ball (i.e. in the space where the player intends to play the ball). He appears to just be entirely focused looking at the ball (as demonstrated in Incident Two).

This conclusion may help explain why Lee Probert's performances this season (i.e. here and here) have been noticeably poor.