Fire - United [R]

[mckid]

It's sad when Brian Hall wants the glory of deciding a game through a phantom call.

For anyone who caught the playoff match last night Chad Barrett of Chicago looked to put the Reds up on a pretty header through traffic with only minutes left to play. But, Hall had just enough time to put the crack pipe down to make some kind of call to disallow the goal.

The DC homer announcers couldn't see it, I didn't see it, did you? maybe one of you who had the game on a real tv could shed some light on this.

But, to go off of what Prime said in another thread, it was a fun game to watch. Free flowing crisp passes through mutch of the game. There were lots of chances on goal. Watching the playoffs makes you feel good as to where MLS is going with the quality of play on the field.

Now if teams could only play like that all season long...

[RSL_Fan]

I didn't watch the game live, but caught the highlights on MLSnet.com. I don't know what game Mr. Hall was watching...I didn't see anything either. Ironically, the play-by-play callers were saying that they had one of the best refs in the middle. Well, he cost the Fire the game there with his phantom call.

Brian Hall is the same ref who gave Mathis the silly yellow card in RSL's home opener against Colorado.

[mckid]

That's the irony. Hall should be our best official in the league. He was the only US ref who was invited to the last world cup.

I heard he's coming off an injury (the RSL home opener was his first game in a while), so I guess he's supposed to be a little rusty?

[Jim Umber]

We need some drastic, emergency training for our refs. We have the worste refs in the world. Most of our top refs, shouldn't be allowed to officiate above the high school level. They should have to train every year. Maybe have a mandatory training camp every year, like the teams do. Paid by the league, so there is no excuse not to go.

Then main problem that I see, is that the refs and assistants are often out of position. They don't keep up with the play. Part of that is conditionning. But part of it may be not understanding where they should be at any particular time. Both could be helped by the training camp. Work their tails off! Get'em into condition. Make sure they really understand where they should be and why.

[SoccerPrime]

Whats odd is that if there was any contact it might have been Curtin and Brown, 2 FIRE TEAMATES who made contact with each other.

Silly, really. Would have started a rather interesting, under-dog, weekend in MLS playoffs.

[Scholesy]

Originally Posted by mckid

That's the irony. Hall should be our best official in the league. He was the only US ref who was invited to the last world cup.

I heard he's coming off an injury (the RSL home opener was his first game in a while), so I guess he's supposed to be a little rusty?

He was out for two years and his first game back was our game ... nice ... I often feel like the league uses the expansion teams - mostly us - as a testing ground for refs. it worries me that we don't have full time refs, the EPL went through that phase of going from part time to full time and although I still wonder sometimes what the ref was thinking - like the ref for the Liverpool game the other day - I know that generally they do a good job and if they don't then they get to ref in the Championship for a while and if it was a really bad game they might go for re-training with the FA, so I know as a fan that things will improve, mistakes will always be made but knowing that there is a consequence and a fix in place makes me feel so much more confidence in the league. I think it's a sad statement to the league, the world, the players, fans and particularly the refs that we actually have a review board that can overturn, change penalties, add fines (and systematically does so) decisions that were made the week before. It makes for a system where refs have no reason to improve, no support from the league, a lack of respect from the rest of the world, and mostly makes for an extremely inconsistent league in terms of discipline (How can you fine a rookie nearly all of his wages for a month and yet fine a highly paid player only a fraction of his weekly wage? How do some teams, not just RSL by the way, always get reviewed and fined week in and week out and yet other teams never pick up a fine a la Oshani with Jamie Watson and Chris Brown and Brian Kamler and ... oh hell the list goes on with his elbows).

I will say that there are some decent refs in MLS (Abiodun Okulaja in particular), they should be given more of the lead and the league - and yes I know it has so many things to do - must improve the quality of refs. In the meantime we have to be patient, alright loud and obnoxious to them - but either way we'll still have to be patient.

[Scholesy]

You know sometimes I think we as fans should club together and pay for refs training at least then we'd have some control. The refs in the EPL are provided by a seperate company. I think it's still Professional Game Match Official Ltd, maybe we should lobby the league to get real refs from these guys. Yeah cause they take calls from fans.

[ZoomZip]

Originally Posted by Scholesy

I will say that there are some decent refs in MLS (Abiodun Okulaja in particular), they should be given more of the lead and the league - and yes I know it has so many things to do - must improve the quality of refs. In the meantime we have to be patient, alright loud and obnoxious to them - but either way we'll still have to be patient.

(Mind boggling) 😲

Are you serious? Abbey? Did you see him lose control of the LA/SJ game? Man has no idea how to consistently call a game. For ten minutes he's too lenient, then ten minutes of ticky-tack.

Hall's calls throughout the Fire game were egregious. I'm just glad that DC got the most egregious call in their favor.

[Scholesy]

Originally Posted by ZoomZip

(Mind boggling) 😲

Are you serious? Abbey? Did you see him lose control of the LA/SJ game? Man has no idea how to consistently call a game. For ten minutes he's too lenient, then ten minutes of ticky-tack.

Hall's calls throughout the Fire game were egregious. I'm just glad that DC got the most egregious call in their favor.

Boy Zoom if that boggles your mind I woud hate to see what happens to you in a serious dicussion ... I don't think he had a great game either, but I think overall he is a liked and respected ref, certianly by players and coaches he is. I too think he does an over all decent job in comparison to the rest of the league refs.

[SoccerPrime]

This game sucked?
Did Trekker just start watching MLS this year?
http://msn.foxsports.com/soccer/story/5018920?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=2737

What a moron.
And of course he doesn't reply to emails. Coward.