Major League Soccer
MLS parity or parody?
Laughable decisions from replacement referees are having a real impact on Major League Soccer where margins are incredibly thin.
Week 2 of the 2024 Major League Soccer season has finished up and yes, we noticed the replacement refs. Again.
MLS boasts it’s extreme parity. The league is proud of those incredibly thin margins at the end of the year! But when only a couple points can mean the difference between 2nd place and 9th place, the referees can make or break a season.
Which makes moments like this, feel a bit like a joke.
Clear missed call from the refs.
The ball went off Mikael Uhre here, the Union were awarded a throw and then earned the corner that led to the equalizer. pic.twitter.com/eU5jahU3h3
— Joe Tansey (@JTansey90) March 3, 2024
It should be noted, of course, that the regular referees also sucked. So it’s really hard to distinguish the source of the awfulness. But the main point is that something needs to be done to improve the quality of the officiating.
Because we can’t go a whole season like this… can we?
While it appears MLS instructed media members to not “belabor” the point about replacement refs, Shades of Blue had plenty to say on this week’s show.
The newest episode starts off discussing the atmosphere at CMP with fresh new vibes during pregame. Did some new lights and bigger screens really make a difference?
So far it doesn’t quite feel like last season yet. Alan Pulido is out there after all. Or is he?
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What a joke. I’m even okay with the mistake, but doubling down on the mistake in the post-game conference is bush league. The ball clearly did not come off of Leibold (as claimed in the PRO statement after the game). Just own the mistake. Dipshits.
Did they really made a statement about that and if so where is it
Check out the published quotes from SKC. Sperry (likely) put a question in as pool reporter.
https://www.sportingkc.com/news/skcvphi-quotes-it-s-disappointing-especially-when-we-played-so-well
What did you see on the play that resulted in the Philadelphia Union throw in in the 94th minute that led you to believe the ball went out of play off of a Sporting KC player?
KC #14 was the last player who touched it last using his lower part of his leg. Therefore, we awarded a throw in to Philadelphia Union.
Sperry is the primary pool reporter, I am one of the alternates if he is not there.
I’m gonna take a little credit. He wasn’t going to submit a pool reporter question and I pushed him to ask that one.
I’m making no excuses; it was off the back of a bad call this 3pts became 1. We did know this was coming though. It’s hard to rail against the injustice knowing if the owners would just pay the refs we could actually rail against the injustice.
I’ve been watching a lot of MLS Live, so I have to ask: Have there been many bad calls like this so far? Are the replacement refs obviously worse? I really don’t get why the owners feel the need to cheap-out all the time. MLSNext broadcasts and a PRO retirement fund aren’t going to make any of them switch from breakfast caviar to porridge.
I haven’t watched enough to know either. There was the phantom 2nd yellow (that was rescinded) in the LA Galaxy/Miami game last weekend. That changed that game.
I know they didn’t give New England a PK on the weekend when the Revs player (Gil? I can’t recall) clearly was stomped on in the box).
For Rusert, I saw that hand gesture by Remi too. I think he made an “A”. Presumably for his son, Adonis?
Unrelated, I think we are really going to miss Gadi this year. In my view, he’s typically been the key to unlocking Pulido over the last 4 years. Admittedly, it’s a small sample as they were both out so much, but I think Pulido was at his best when Gadi was creating from the left side of the field. The rest of the team has not figured out how to involve Pulido in the same way Gadi could.
Interesting observation on Gadi and Alan.
Pro is just as bad stfu
Dang maybe I should have written this exact paragraph into the article.
Why didn’t I think of that?!