For the Integrity of Soccer

DOGSO or Serious Foul Play? Does it Matter? (Ed & Bob)

     Towards the end of the game between Fulham and Blackburn in the EPL last week we witnessed a frightful collision between Mark Schwarzer (Fulham goalkeeper) and David Hoilett (Blackburn striker).  The forward was chasing a high ball into the penalty-area and had jumped to head it onward from four yards outside the box.  Meanwhile Schwarzer came charging out of his goal and left the penalty-area to clear the danger, presumably by heading away.  The two players collided at something like 35 or more miles-per-hour and ended up prostrate.  Hoilett did not get up.

 

    He was seriously injured, treated for more than six minutes by medical staff, before being carried off with a neck-brace and on a stretcher to have four stitches put in a cut on his head.  The goalkeeper was more fortunate, soon on his feet, and apparently none the worse for wear.  So what is the decision that the referee has to make?

Week in Review 26, by Bob & Ed: It's a draw

    A couple of posts ago, writing about U.S. Soccer's WiR 24, we agreed with Michael Kennedy's analysis of a DOGSO situation.  It has taken a long time for consistency to grow in MLS refereeing about this most contentious of decisions, when once upon a time, administrators in the professional league publicly stated that not all DOGSO incidents should result in a red card.

    Now, however, it seems that the doctor is re-infecting the patient after first curing him.  We refer to the analysis of WiR 26, where Michael's description is of a defender who pulls down a forward running towards the goal.  In his opinion the player should not have been sent off, but should have been punished with only a caution for a tactical foul.  We beg to differ, and in doing so urge you not to lose sight of the reason why the punishment of expulsion was introduced for this kind of foul.

Retaken Penalty-kicks: A Personal Story, Part One

    Like many other observers of the game, I was amazed to read about the retaken penalty-kick in the game between Portland Timbers and D.C. United on May 29.  Not once, but twice, referee Geoff Gamble ordered the kick retaken -- quite correctly, BTW -- after his assistant Eric Proctor raised his flag each time to indicate that the goalkeeper had left his line before the ball was kicked.  Several readers of this blog asked me to comment, since they knew that in years past I had developed a reputation for ordering PKs retaken in the NASL and internationally. 

    It's a long story, to be told in several chapters, starting with the question: Why was I amazed?  After all, it should be a routine matter of law, and it is an easy infraction to spot, right? 

    This story begins in Dallas, in Texas Stadium, with a conversation between me and Eddie Pearson as we watched John T. Davies referee a match in the North American Soccer League.

DOGSO - Here We Go Again! (By Bob & Ed)

    In the Week-in-Review (WiR) for Week 24, Michael Kennedy, a former FIFA referee and current MLS referee, discusses a send-off for denying an obvious goal-scoring opportunity in an MLS match.  Michael shows and describes the incident and states that the referee made the correct decision.  This is a nice follow-up to the WiR of Week 1 in which a similar DOGSO incident was discussed, and there also, six months earlier, the referee was deemed to have made the correct call to send the defender off.  Both referees did the right thing.  So why is this important?