Things that make you go hmmmm

From the "It could be nothing or it could be SOMETHING." Department comes a little-known tidbit from last night's Red Bulls-Galaxy match. The match official last night was Kevin Stott, or some may say an evil twin who found his FIFA badge in a cereal box, but Stott wasn't the referee originally assigned to the match.

That distinction went to Brian Hall. Yes Mr. "How dare you call me an egomaniac, here's a red card." Apparently Hall suffered an injury leading up to Thursday's match and had to be replaced (no word on whether he hurt himself trying to lift his overinflated head). The cynic in me can't help but wonder if MLS pulled Hall off the match after his embarrassing display in the previous week's ESPN2 game between Chivas USA and FC Dallas, where Hall gave a straight red card to FCD captain Bobby Rhine for dissent (Yes, dissent.). The harcore conspiracy theorists might suggest that MLS assigned Stott to the match to give the home team (and Beckham) the calls. I'm not going to go that far.

Maybe Hall was simply hurt. That said, it still makes for interesting conversation.

What do you think? Share your thoughts below.

Comments

[EmorySoccer]

whatever the case may be, that guys offciating in the fc dallas-galaxy game was god awful, just horrendous. speaking of horrendous refereeing Ives, the refs in my Pier 40 league in the city are horrendous. just pathetic. no control over any match. someone is bound to get hurt (will probably be me)

[Clint]

Well, the calls were crap both ways so the conspiracy theories should be out the window. In my opinion, LA got worse from the ref than NY.

[Steve]

I'm writing from Chicago so I admit I'm blatantly biased (and paranoid) but the penalty miss was pretty bad. And I thought it was very interesting to see Hall and Stott both assigned to that game last night (ref and 4th). Wonder how many other tiems the league has had them in the same building this year?

Garber shaking hands with Beckham on the bench as the game was kickign off was a ridiculous move if he's trying to aleviate concerns of a league bias that are pretty strong in Fire country this week.

[Derek (Brooklyn)]

The referee truly embarrassed himself last week...I'm all for controlling the match but it seemed like Brian Hall had watched too many Pierluigi Collina highlights. A direct red for dissent? Hilarious to learn from Wynalda that Hall is known to players as "the peacock."

[Ben]

Hall needs to go through a re-certification course and be taught the section on game control and yellow and red cards. There is no such thing as a red card for dissent!!! You can issue one for violent conduct if the player threatens you but, I don't think even guys in the MLS are that dumb. Over the past year I have watched the referees at the highest level be too cocky and no follow the instructions that are given to evean the lowest level referees.

That being said, Hall should be suspended for a game or two simply for pulling the red out of his pocket for a completely unwarented reason. That to me is worse that the missed PK call for Richards last night.

[Jeff]

If you think Beckham and the Galazxy do not get special treatment you live in a fantasy world. It's not fair. It's not going to change. You're going to get the shaft sometimes. Deal with it or sign someone like Henry or Ronaldo.

[kebzach]

I would think that if the league wanted someone to help fix the game a bit, then someone who flies off the handle such as Brian Hall would have been that guy, not Stotts.

[Jeff]

Also funny that Dema did not go up against Sir Becks.

[PH]

Wynalda et al. did comment a number of times on Arena's likely and actual reactions to the bad calls RBNY was getting. At one point, it was both to see (by reading his lips) and hear (through the sideline microphone) Arena yelling, "H**y s**t!"

[mgp]

I'm pretty sure Dema couldn't play because of yellow card accumulation.

[Felix]

Being a referee or game official is such a thankless job, I wouldn't want to do it. Not saying that they are above criticism, but sometimes it way too far.
All that being said, whom do we consider to be a good referee?

[kpugs]

Not that I believe the conspiracy since EVERY ref in this league is awful...but it wouldn't surprise me to find out MLS were shoving the Galaxy into the playoffs.

[Larry Y]

Didn't Brian Hall ref World Cup matches in 2002?

When checking the reference via Google, his Wikipedia entry was good for a laugh or two.

[Steven]

Many years ago, my brother and I attended a friendly in Oakland between Santos and Chivas. Although his name meant nothing to me at the time, the ref was Brian Hall. We made note of this because there was a guy sitting in front of us, alone, and he spent the entire first half ripping Hall a new one. "Hey Brian, that call sucked!" is one of the few things I can type in a safe-for-work forum like this ... the guy was really foul-mouthed. Like I say, we didn't know who "Brian" was, but this abusive fan sure make us familiar with his name. At halftime, I had to lean over and ask the guy why he hated Referee Hall so much. Oh, I don't hate him at all, he replied. He's a good friend of mine. I'm just here to give him a bad time.

[tommymcb]

How can Garber think that its a good idea to be chatting with Becks before the game? He looked like Vince McMahon out there.

[Dave]

I think the thought went through a lot people's minds when the Pk for richards wasn't called. Other than that, I thought it was standard issue MLS reffing...that is to say, bad.

[Larry]

Ives--A straight red for dissent is a violation of the Laws of the Game and is an appealable error, i.e., the game could be replayed, if affirmed. That leads me to believe the ejection was for using "offensive or insulting or abusive language and/or gestures" (part of Law 12). Do you know for a fact that the red was for dissent, i.e., did that appear in the game report?

[Furia Yanqui]

I think the ref f'd up the call where Cannon knocked down Richards, but that's easier to say with benefit of watching the replay.

I think the more obvious mistake was when the ref failed to give LA the advantage, whistling the play dead after a foul on Beckham even tho the ball fell to Donovan. Landon had no one around him and was beginning a surging run. Becks was visibly frustrated with that call.

[JJ]

Brian Hall is more dangerous than the other refs because of his arrogance. Incompetence is one thing, Hall is the kind of guy who will influence the outcome based upon how he feels towards a certain team and/or player. Hall is also slow and is out of position frequently in my opinion. I thought that I recalled something at the end of last season that Hall was retiring from officiating or something like that because the Western Conf. Final was said to be his last game (in which he gave a very weak yellow card to Ricardo Clark which kept him out of MLS Cup)

There were some curious calls in the Red Bull-Galaxy game. My favorite was Arena saying (audibly too) "Holy s***" after Altidore got called for a non-foul while on offence. Stott looked like he was giving the Galaxy every chance to win without being blatant about it.

[Nathanhj]

Just another day of crap refereeing in MLS. I was actually more annoyed by the 3 missed handball calls, including one on NYRB in the box, and the series of horrendous offsides calls in the first half, than the abysmal calls regarding advantage.

I say a lot of things about increasing the salary cap and getting the development salaries up to a living wage, but MLS could invest just a little bit more money in their refs and get a massive ROI.

The level of reffing has not kept pace with the increase in playing quality.

[Don Garber]

Last night, Stott refused to call a blatant red-card penalty against Joe Cannon, the Galaxy's goalkeeper, which would have essentially ended all hopes of MLS Golden-Boy, David Beckham, making it to the playoffs.

During the same match Stott refused to call a "simulation" yellow-card after Beckham appeared to collapse to the ground violently after coming into contact with some grass & air.

[RobertTheBruce]

You conspiracy nuts are hilarious.

For the record, I saw in the pregame matchup article at mlsnet.com that LA actually do es very well (13-6-2) when Hall refs. I don't think that points to any conspiracy as far as the choice of refs last night.

[wendel]

i just hope hall stays out

[Daniel]

Champions Soccer Radio host Gary Richards said Brian Hall picked up an injury during warm ups as the officials jog around the field. Pulled a muscle, so Stott had to take the middle of the field, while Hall was the 4th official.

Good for us.

[who-knows]

I'm just really upset by the Penalty Kick/Red Card no-call to Joe Cannon for taking down Richards. I'm not screaming match fix, but it was a shockingly bad no-call. That's just MLS though, the refs here are all pretty bad.