MLS Playoffs Open With Bad Calls, Fewer Goals
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

As was to be expected, the already low goal-scoring rate in Major League Soccer slumped a bit lower as the playoffs began this past weekend.
The four first-leg games of the conference semifinals produced only eight goals — 2.00 a game to set alongside the regular season average of 2.62 (the second worst in MLS’s 11 year history).
The dip was expected because that is the way that soccer has been going for a couple of decades now: The more important the games, the more cautiously the teams play.
The MLS playoff format doesn’t help matters, seemingly designed to invite caution by the four teams playing away from home. In a week’s time, those away teams will be playing the second leg at home — and the soccer wisdom is that you play for a tie on the road, a win at home.
Or maybe not. Because there was little evidence of cautious play in any of the weekend’s games, and two of them were won by the away team — DC United winning 1–0 at the New York Red Bulls, and FC Dallas coming away from Denver with a 2–1 win over the Colorado Rapids.
Fact is, playoffs or no playoffs, goalscoring is not something that comes easy in modern soccer. All four of the weekend’s games were decided by onegoal margins. While that may look good to those who believe that parity is the essence of a credible pro league, it greatly increases the importance of each goal, and of refereeing decisions.
Two of the games were, in effect, decided by refereeing calls — one of them simply wrong, the other incredibly, disastrously wrong. Abe Thomson should have been flagged for offside when he received the ball moments before scoring Dallas’ winning goal, but the call was not made by the referee’s assistant. Well, okay, sort of, for we have become used to faulty offside calls — and at least this one went in favor of the attacking player, when the majority of such mistakes favor the defense.
I can’t think of any attenuating circumstances to excuse referee Jorge Gonzalez for his appalling non-call in the 64th minute of the Chivas-USA vs. Houston Dynamo game. Dynamo forward Brian Ching had broken clear, was bearing down at full speed on the Chivas penalty area as Brad Guzan, the Chivas goalkeeper, came thundering out to meet him. The two met up just inside the penalty area — Guzan launching himself recklessly at Ching, who had to make a mighty leap to avoid what would have been an ugly collision. Ching had already played the ball forward, toward goal — Guzan made no contact with the ball. Possibly he also made no contact with Ching, but that was only because Ching had leapt into the air to avoid contact, a leap that ended with him flat on his face and ball rolling harmlessly out of his reach, over the goal line.
At the very least Guzan’s challenge should have been judged as dangerous play (defined as “playing in a dangerous manner”), giving Houston an indirect free kick, and Guzan a yellow card caution. A more realistic decision would have been to judge that Guzan was guilty both of dangerous play and of denying “an obvious goal-scoring opportunity to an opponent.” That call would have meant an automatic red card for Guzan and a penalty kick for the Dynamo.
Referee Gonzalez blew that one bigtime and went on to compound his inadequacy by later awarding Houston a penalty kick for a foul by defender Jason Hernandez on Ching. The call was questionable, but once it had been made, Hernandez should have been redcarded because, exactly as Guzan had, he denied Ching a scoring opportunity.
To round off the Dynamo’s dismay, Guzan, who should have been sent to the showers 21 minutes earlier, then made a brilliant save on Dwayne De Rosario’s penalty kick.
The leniency that Gonzalez showed toward Guzan is deeply worrying. Had any field player made the same sort of reckless challenge on an opponent that Guzan made on Ching, I have no doubt whatsoever that Gonzalez would have called a foul and issued either a yellow or a red card.
But, not for the first time, we have an MLS referee bending the rules for goalkeepers. This is a highly dangerous game to play. Last year, New England goalkeeper Matt Reis went totally unpunished when he brutally barreled into DC United’s Alecko Eskandarian, giving him a concussion that sidelined him for several months.
Guzan must surely have noticed that demolishing opposing forwards is not considered foul play in MLS, so why not launch himself violently at Ching?
Goalkeepers are invariably big guys — Guzan is 6-foot-4, 210 pounds — so they can cause mighty collisions. Ching is no slouch at 6-foot-1, 195 pounds and did well to throw himself out of Guzan’s way. The alternative — and this is the crucial fact that makes the complacency of MLS and its referees resemble criminal negligence — is the strong likelihood of serious injury. In Ching’s case, this would have been a nasty leg injury as Guzan came in feet first, studs up.
To underline the point that goalkeepers consider themselves a protected species, we had the objectionable sight of Guzan, right after his attempted assassination of Ching, who now lay winded on the ground, indicating to referee Gonzalez that Ching had taken a dive.
Gonzalez, at least, didn’t buy that (it would have meant giving Ching a yellow card), but his failure to eject Guzan was a huge break for Chivas. Had Guzan been red carded, he would be suspended for Sunday’s return leg in Houston, a severe blow for Chivas, which has only one other goalkeeper on its roster, the erratic Preston Burpo.
From goalkeeper thuggery, I turn in relief to the real game, to soccer artistry, to the goal with which DC United beat the Red Bulls. A wonderful confection from the Bolivian Jaime Moreno and the Argentine Christian Gomez, worked out in a few magical seconds in tight space at the defendercrowded edge of the Red Bulls’ penalty area: a short pass from Gomez to Moreno who, as he swiveled and fell, supplied a perfect return pass, and a superb finish from the airborne Gomez who met the ball on the volley and neatly lobbed it over Bulls goalkeeper Jon Conway.