PRO Referees error on Revs disallowed goal was a break for RBNY

photo by Matt Kremkau

by Daniel Feuerstein

As you know I have been very critical of the referees from PRO who have made calls either by the officials on the pitch or off it when it goes to VAR in Atlanta. Multiple issues continue to show how inept this organization has become once Mark Geiger took over for Howard Weeb running this office. All I want and you want these refereeing decisions to be correct and stop creating controversy. 

Well, the 2-1 win against the Revolution should've been a 2-2 draw. What we all thought was either passive offside or blocking the line of sight from goalkeeper Carlos Coronel by Giocomo Vrioni. VAR missed the deflection off of Tom Barlow's foot when Andre Farrell blasted the ball back toward the net and hit the inside of the near post and beat Coronel. 

So what did PRO do? They made a statement on the situation on Monday, July 10th, and here is that statement below. 

"During the MLS match between New York Red Bulls and New England Revolution on July 8, an officiating error was made in the third minute of additional time at the end of the second half when the match officials incorrectly disallowed a goal.

A goal was scored by New England’s Andrew Farrell. New England’s Giacomo Vrioni was standing in an offside position between Farrell and the New York goalkeeper, Carlos Coronel. As the ball came close to New York’s Tom Barlow, he reached out and deflected the ball, causing Coronel to miss the ball as it went into the goal.

The VAR reviewed the angles and did not see the ball deflect and thought the goalkeeper was impacted by Vrioni in the offside position. He, therefore, recommended an on-field review. The referee, who also did not see this deflection, accepted the review, and the goal was disallowed.

PRO acknowledges that an error was made, and the goal should have been allowed."

What's upsetting right now to me is that once again these officials are continuing to get these calls wrong. On the pitch and inside the VAR room. If you're not sure of what you saw, make the call, then have a conversation on the microphone to make sure that everything is correct, or make the correction on the var monitor. I don't know what the turnover is bleeding in new referees or those older ones who might have already signaled retirement, but at this moment in time, it's not a very good look.

Now the real question is this, does this signal a change in the laws of the game where this type of error is constituted as a possible replay of the match? Or we leave it as status quo and just say, sorry. We should've allowed you to keep the point or the full three points? Honestly, I don't know, but PRO really needs to clean this up as quickly as possible, because if this does happen to the Red Bulls or any other MLS team, it's going to sour everyone.

But since this didn't happen to the Red Bulls this time, I'm not going to complain too much. Oh believe me this team has had so many opportunities to gain a numerical advantage on possible red cards being dealt to their opposition, but it never came. When there should've been a penalty awarded to the Red Bulls, they would get a no call, or booked for simulation, when that was the wrong decision.

So I'm not broken-hearted about the Revolution that much, because the Red Bulls this season have been a victim of too many calls or noncalls going their way. As the old adage goes, everything is fair in love and war, and for 90 minutes, that was a war and this time around the Red Bulls won that battle.