Question Number: 27694

Character, Attitude and Control 8/26/2013

RE: Rec Under 12

John Lubeck of Livermore, CA USA asks...

In my opinion the San Jose Earthquakes vs. Dallas game on Saturday 8/24 in Dallas was the worst job of officiating I have ever seen. Baldomero Toledo saw phantom PKs where there was only a dive, missed PKs when there were and worst of all gave a straight red card to a defender who in my view merely stood up after a tackle and inadvertently stepped on a player who then grabbed him by the neck and threw him to the ground. That was just a few of the horrible calls and missed calls by Toledo. In my view this officiating was inexcusable. Would you agree?

Answer provided by Referee Joe McHugh

Hi John
I don't agree. I have watched the highlights which no doubt showed the main decisions / incidents in the game only and based on what transpired in a game context I believe they made the correct decisions.
To take each incident
1. Red attacker 7 gets to the ball first and has his leg raised to play the ball which he does. Blue defender 26 does not play the ball but catches Red player's raised knee on the way down. Penalty for me. As it was a careless foul no sanction was taken against Blue 26. Correct decision.
2. First red card was a cynical foul of a scissor nature by Blue 15. Fair play to Red 9 to keep going rather than going down as there would have been no debate about this had he done so. Serious foul play as Blue endangered the safety of an opponent. Correct decision.
3. Blue 26 clearly stamped down on Red 33 on the ground who got up and retaliated. If both those incidents happened in the WC or Premier League both players would be dismissed for violent conduct with no questions. So again correct decisions for me.
The referee IMO has correctly applied the Law and there is no place in the game for the incidents that led to the three sendings off.
I believe that your ire should be directed at the players for their poor behaviour and play along with the poor commentating from the TV network rather than at the referee crew.

Answer provided by Referee Gary Voshol

If you are expecting us to publicly castigate a referee's performance, we will not do that on this site. There are plenty of fan sites where that takes place.

We will from time to time discuss a particular call made by a referee if it can be done in a teaching manner.