The Definitive Angle: MLS Week 22
The Definitive Angle is PRO’s analysis of the week’s Video Review use in MLS.
Week 22 overview
There were two Video Reviews during Week 22.
COL vs MTL: Penalty kick
What happened: After review, Montréal #24 [George Campbell] committed a punishable handball offense inside the penalty area.
The final decision was penalty kick [to Colorado Rapids] and a yellow card to Montréal #24 for stopping a promising attack.
Length of review: 1:41
PRO’s opinion: Campbell’s (MTL) arm was not in a justifiable position and made his body unnaturally bigger when he blocked the header from Andreas Maxsø (COL) that was going toward goal. This was a good, efficient use of the Video Review system to rectify a clear and obvious error.
STL vs ATL: Foul (no goal)
What happened: After review, St Louis #10 [Eduard Löwen] fouled Atlanta #8 [Tristan Muyumba] in the buildup to the goal by St Louis #29 [Nökkvi Thórisson].
The final decision was a direct free kick [to Atlanta United].
Length of Review: 4:50
PRO’s opinion: There were two parts to this review: starting with the on-field decision to disallow a goal because João Klauss (STL) was standing in an offside position when Thórisson (STL) scored. The assistant referee determined that Klauss’ position impacted Brad Guzan’s (ATL) ability to play the ball and raised his flag for an offside offense. The VAR concluded that Guzan’s ability to attempt to save the ball was not impacted by Klauss but rather by the deflection of the ball from his teammate. However, he also believed that Löwen (STL) committed a foul when he lunged over the ball and created contact with the legs of Muyumba (ATL), which led to the start of the attacking phase of play.
It is unusual to have an outcome of “no goal” after a review when the on-field decision was already not to award a goal. However, the VAR must recommend the review because the reason the goal was not awarded in the first place was clearly wrong. This would confuse fans, players, and technical staff, who would not understand why the goal was not reviewed and awarded. The referee needs to go monitor to judge the other incident to determine if that was a clear error and then cancel the goal for that reason.
This was a good use of the Video Review system to reach the correct outcome.
Please note: These videos do not contain audio. They are a recording of the screen as viewed by the VAR in real-time.