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Real Salt Lake: RSL feels 'wronged' by officials

Can't agree any more. Refs have been really hurting us lately. Sounds very cliche and whiney, but if you watch any soccer games, one will see that the calls have been extremely questionable, and as far as the Beckham goal goes, flat out WRONG. It cost us the game!!!

Very frustrating...

It's all about money...and the league needs it...badly. And other markets will provide that. Until that is different this likely will not change.
As a comparison, the NBA needs money and an emotional boost (again, for revenue) that is why it will be the Lakers vs. Celtics this year. The league will see to it (anyone else see the game thrown by atlanta and the amount of calls kobe gets?)

It isn't only us and we aren't the only ones upset about it either. One of the most common, and most valid, complaints about Major League Soccer is the poor officiating. Every year MLS promises to make changes and every year there are the same morons blowing the whistles. Until we can truly get clear and consistent officiating in this league it will be seen as second rate.

As for the calls vs. RSL, I watched them all and he has a case for each of them, but the most bizarre (though least likely to effect outcome) was the ref stopping the game with another minute (plus) of stoppage time in Toronto. In football that would be like blowing the whistle to end the game after 13.5 minutes past in the fourth quarter...it should be embarrassing to the league. It is one thing in soccer when refs blow subjective judgment calls, but to even error in the objective decisions is just pathetic. As mentioned earlier, it is tough to see my team use the media as an outlet to complain about officiating, but something does need to be done because it greatly diminishes the joy ability of the game.

Unfortunately, in soccer the defense dominates and penalty shots have become essential for a team to win. Probably more than 50 percent of all goals are the result of penalty shots. The better "acting job" a soccer player can produce when touched by an opposing player, the better the odds that a penalty shot will be awarded.

It would certainly open up the offense in soccer, if the offsides rule was just done away with entirely, and it would also make soccer much more exciting to watch. The offsides rule makes it extremely difficult to have any break-away goals.

Excellent article and points made by coach Kreis. Thanks coach for having the courage to come out and work for fairness and excellence on the field, despite the obvious retribution that will come your way.

Regarding DC & the Galaxy, the league has openly admitted that it wants to see teams with these high paid, designated players succeed. So I don't know why it would be a conspiracy theory to think that the refs, controlled by the MLS, were overtly favoring teams like DC, Galaxy, Red Bulls, even Toronto (with its sold out stadium). Checketts needs to step up and use his clout with the league to ensure a fair game on the pitch, every time.

As for me, I've tried to air my grievances about the officiating directly to the MLS, but I'm unsure of whose email address I actually need before I'm listened to. One thing is for certain, the refs need to step it up a level, and soon, before the MLS can continue progressing.

I watch most MLS games on TV. I have to say that no other team has more adverse officiating than RSL. I have no idea why, but if you recall the last 3 seasons these types of calls have cost RSL many games. I just don't see the same type of one-sided officiating when I watch the other games. I have to agree with Kries on this one.

While I agree that the officiating has, at times, been atrocious, I think it's ridiculous to presume that the referees or the league are "out to get" RSL.

Trust me - take an anonymous survey of coaches in the league, and the ones whose teams are not winning will tell you that the refs have been unfair to them.

These refs just have not been well trained, and it sounds like the oversight committee is not doing their jobs by disciplining the refs for blantant errors.

First Jason is right, but venting his fustrations in the media is something he probably should not have done. It will lead to no good.

MLS has suffered with poor officals since the league started and only in recent years did they allow a small group of officals to become full time league employees. I do question allowing officals to officiate matches in which their home team is involved. This weekend is no exception, how can you have a head offical from LA involved in a match with a team from LA? Smell something fishy, and I am not talking about Ruiz.

Do I think officals are tilting the matches on purpose? I am not ready to go that far, but I know that the MLS has put a lot of their eggs into a couple baskets, the Galaxy and TFC are two of the biggest baskets.

I do think something has to be done about the officals, offside calls on a field with yardlines left from pointy ball should be right more than they are wrong, this weekend's offside call on Deuchar's 2nd goal, was a bad call, not even as close as some have thought.

Hey yo. yeah officials have an influence on game at times, but all in hand lets not spend to much energy on this subject and more energy on improving this team. We can blame the officials all we want but nothing is going to change the fact that were all humans who are going to make mistakes. Look at us letting go the leading scorer. MISTAKE I thought, but I guess I probably don't know the full story.

Jason is a crybaby! Keep blaming the refs. WAAAA WAAAA WAAAA.

I didn't know soccer had rules. I thought players just run around in circles and never kick the ball in the goal and then after the "game" all the fans had riots.

Not only was Deuchar's offsides a bad call, how about Donovan's (2) almost goals, they were both offside no calls.

It's not just RSL with these match breaking bad calls, I have watched some matches where the call is made & you really wonder what the referee was thinking.

Is Rick Adelman coaching Real Salt Lake now? Losers complain about the officials to the media. It's pathetic.

Not to be like the NFL, (pointy ball, knuckle-dragger ball, neanderthal ball, etc.), but what if disallowed goals that would change the game outcome, be reviewed.

Only goals -- no other calls!

The thing about the rule book is the last one, which basically states that the referee can do whatever they want "in the interest in sportsmanship." I've only been watching MLS for two seasons and their refs aren't worse or more capricious than anywhere else.
I watched a La Liga match in which a player got a RED card for taking his shirt off celebrating a season changing goal and a PHYSIO was ejected for standing too close to the sideline (the replays showed him silently minding his own business), even the announcers couldn't stop laughing once neither send-off changed the result. My premiership team, however, once lost the European title to a flagrantly bad call. I'm still bitter of course, but as they say, the bad calls as well as the good do go both ways.

As a neutral watching the Galaxy RSL match, I would certainly say that was so. The second goal was offsides, but RSL deserved other calls that were missed, as did the Galaxy -- including a late penalty on Beckham, which I expect the ref might have, if only subconsciously(?), have considered as much as awarding a goal.

I am getting more and more displeased with Kreis. He just seems so immature. I'm not sure if other coaches do it too, but if he loses, he never accepts that the other team was better. Always insults them: "special goal by a special player...other than that all he did was whine", or says his team should've won. Officiating is hard. 22 guys on the field, and the refs have got to watch for everything. Mistakes will happen. If you're a good enough team to score the goals, the couple messed up offsides won't matter. If you're good enough, you can even survive a wronged penalty-kick. Suck it up.

It's SOCCER for heaven's sake! I've never watched a sport that is more dominated by officials. The officals have more control in this sport than any other, by far! The only other sport that comes close is NBA basketball. This is the reason I don't watch either one...when I can help it.

The more I learn about soccer, the more I wonder why anyone watches it.

Refs have way too much control, they flop more than NBA players, the players celebrate like they've cured cancer (could they embarass themselves more?)...All of you, quit wasting your time watching soccer!

I would like to know where you came up with the stat that over 50 percent of goals come from penalty "shots" (its penalty kicks by the way) You obviously have no data to back up your claims. Check your sources before spouting off.

Late Penalty against Beckham? Are you talking about Borchers' tackle in the box? He slid straight on and led with his shins (not studs) = perfectly legal. Personally, Beckham flipping through the air was pretty entertaining. No one was injured, Beckham left his feet after taking the shot and Borchers blocked it. Good thing you aren't a ref Bella.

The refs give the shaft to plenty of teams, they tend to be the bigger teams with bigger players. The ref on saturday was definitely star-struck. He didn't want to call back Beckham's goal off the free kick cause dealing with RSL's fans is a lot less than with the league officials for calling back oone of their baby's trademark goals. Easy decision for the ref.

I don't know why we complain about the calls anymore. The refs are incompetent, we all know this, the league knows this. Most of the refs aren't even fully trained. We are going to struggle if we depend on the refs to call good games to win. It might never happen.

Actually Scotty, less than 10% of all goals scored in MLS this season have been penalty "shots". Don't know where you got the 50% number, but my guess is it would take a doctor with a flashlight to show us.

And getting rid of offsides wouldn't cause more breakaways because defenses would be forced to sit back by their own goal. If anything there would be less breakaways.