Play of the week: NY vs HOU

This week’s Play of the week features a goal line decision from the Playoff match between New York Red Bulls and Houston Dynamo.

PRO Training & Development Manager Paul Rejer looks at the decision to award a goal to the Dynamo in the vital Eastern Conference Semifinal second leg.

Rejer explained: “If you recall in Play of the week 35, I highlighted the difficulties that ARs face when making goal line calls, using an example from the Seattle Sounders vs. LA Galaxy game.

“My objective was not to make excuses but, by highlighting the difficulties, I wanted to provide a balanced view to demonstrate that these calls are not as easy and as straightforward as they seem.

“As I mentioned in that play, it is vitally important that ARs are on the goal line to enable them to have any realistic chance of seeing whether the ball has wholly crossed the line for that split second.

“When the ball crosses the line for Houston’s winning goal, AR Daniel Belleau was on the goal line and was in a perfect position to see daylight between the post and the ball and, therefore, correctly signal for a goal.

“Also, the ball is towards Daniel at the near post, so there was no guesswork involved.

“On top of that, no players were in his way blocking his line of vision, so on this occasion all the criteria necessary was in place to make a call of this magnitude at such an important time in such a crucial game.”