MLS referee Baldomero Toldeo might be notoriously red-card happy, but Vancouver striker and Designated Player Eric Hassli has to know better than to celebrate a goal by taking his shirt off while carrying a yellow card, right?
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jt3mLtylRq8]
———–
What did you think of Toledo's decision? Considering Hassli has two red cards in three appearances, do his non-scoring antics worry you?
Share your thoughts below.
Spectra, word. It’s the fault of FIFA, or whoever made this rule. I don’t think Hassli SHOULD be carded for something like this, but the ref did as he was told to do. In all honesty, it was complete stupidity from Hassli. At the very least, consult MLS or the referees BEFORE celebrating like this to make sure it’s ok.
He doesn’t work for Garber, you know. All refs work for USSF.
For Koffie’s foul: in this case, intent doesn’t matter. He led with his arm in the air away from his body. From a document given to refs: An arm extended from the jumper’s body is like a battering ram (solid, hard and unforgiving). It can cause serious injury and FIFA and USSF have told the refs to clamp down on it. Go here: http://www.thereflink.com/USSOCCER/files/docs/2009_Directive_ContactAboveTheShoulder.pdf
As for Hassli’s first yellow – Hassli has no problem with cheap-shotting other players. His trip of Danny Califf last week that earned him a yellow card showed that. Due to that, I think Hassli knew exactly what he was doing when he shot his elbow back, and that’s deserving of a red card.
Word has come from Teitur Thordarson that the Whitecaps will be fining Hassli. Good the on the Caps. I love the guy, but he needs to give his head a shake.
Loophole? What loophole? The rule looks clear cut to me. Take off your shirt, get a card. Just because Hassli THOUGHT he saw a loophole doesn’t mean there is one.
The ref didn’t have a choice. Since the rule has been introduced, I have never seen a ref NOT card a player for taking off his shirt.
@JgSM1TTY,
“3) Toledo is a shocking ref and should be removed from refereeing at this level. No argument.”
Well there is an argument and you made it “Toledo was awful and had lost control of the match and the respect of the players within 15 minutes.”
Not only was he awful in this match but arguably worse in the DCU vs. NE match.
So can we finally remove him? Can we sign a petition and send it to USSF? All this bitching really does nothing unless we take some kind of action.
Hassli should be fined by his team for being a total idiot. He already had a yellow card. As a professional player he should have known better than to challenge the rule book.
Man, Hassli is simultaneously boosting and killing my fantasy team.
I was at the game last night and I read three distinct points of view in this thread:
1) The ref followed the rule book in giving Hassli and second yellow. No argument.
2) Giving a player a yellow for celebrating in the manner Hassli did is ridiculous and the rules should be changed. No argument.
3) Toledo is a shocking ref and should be removed from refereeing at this level. No argument.
Why all the bitching?
And as someone who was at the game last night, regardless of how you feel about the other yellows and reds, Toledo was awful and had lost control of the match and the respect of the players within 15 minutes. What followed was totally predictable. It’s too bad that the best players in the game also often have the least between their ears. I knew the minute Hassli took his shirt off he would be ejected for a second yellow. Dumb, dumb. Having said that, this match was ruined long before that happened. The Koffie straight red was ridiculous. SOOO FRUSTRATING to watch as a fan.
The sheer amount of overemotional rhetoric here is making me sick(not talking about you obviously).
wow never seen this before
He’s not exactly a “kid” at 29. He seems to be a nice find thus far stat-wise but a person his age should know better not to make silly mistakes like that. Regardless of how anyone here feels about the rule, a rule is a rule and Toledo did the right thing here(even though he still f*cking sucks as a ref)
Wow, are you Jair Marufo trying to defend your buddy Toledo? You are out of your mind if you think those calls were done right. Absolutely out of your gourd man. We can only all be thankful that if you are “Jonathon” that you aren’t officiating as well.
I am not sure if this is being argued for argument’s sake or if people really believe that their is room for interpretation or leeway on a simple, basic, black-and-white, 10 year-old rule. If you take your shirt off for a goal celebration you get a yellow card. It don’t get more simple than that. Wow!
As a DC fan I hate Toledo as much as the other guy but he was right to send both Whitecap guys off. The Rev’s sending off was a little iffy, but there was some element of recklessness to the tackle. But to argue Hassli’s sending off? Man, I just don’t see any grounds for such an arguement.
Oh and P.S. I knew that idiot was gone the minute he touched his jersey. Dude just came back from a red card. How stupid can this guy be?
You can’t take your shirt off. It’s against the rules.
Pulling it over your head is the moment you break the rule.
Unless my eyes deceive me, he took his shirt off. That’s a yellow card.
Then you’ve obviously not been a ref at a higher level than little kids. There are definite LAWS of the Game that you have no leeway with. When a referee breaks one of those laws it’s a big deal, and he gets punished for it. When a referee say screws up a restart they play the game over, this has happened in international play. Don’t sit there and say they’re just guidelines they aren’t.
This comment section is filled with people who don’t understand the Laws nor even bother to try to educate themselves.
I’ll leave my disgust with the rule not the Ref. It’s a sports surrounded by sometimes and hour of build up. So when it pops let the team and fans go wild.
I think it was awesome in the world cup vs. slovenia when Bradley scored even our bench went and celebrated.
It is the simplest thing ever to be a ref in soccer. These are not rules, they are guidelines if anything! Give me a rule any rule and I will find an instance of it being broken aside from starting the match with 11v11. It is the nature of the game, the cruel and blissful for some part of the game. For crying out loud a goal was allowed after it deflected off a beach ball, why not give a yellow for a guy lifting his jersey to wipe sweat off his face it exposes and covers part of his head, but they don’t give yellows for that but they could again GUIDELINES not rules.
If the refs followed the rules without interpretation/leeway the games will not last more than 25 minutes because teams won’t have at least 7 players standing. Get real people/refs.
.
haha it happened again!
http://msn.foxsports.com/foxsoccer/latinamerica/story/Brazilian-soccer-star-Neymar-is-ejected-for-celebrating-with-face-mask-040711
It was Hassli’s fault but Toledo’s performance in this game and the game with NE vs. DCU show that he should be NEVER REFEREE ANOTHER GAME.
He’s not going anywhere (other than sitting out!). He’s a big strong kid with way too much enthusiasm. Hassli will settle down and people will keep wanting to come out to see him play. The guy obviously wants to win and exudes passion. Just needs to get “calibrated”.
It’s in the same vein as getting booked for kicking the ball after play is dead. It never seems fair or justified but it is up to the players to follow the rules.
Keep your shirt on. It’s pretty easy.
There’s no leeway because the rule says there’s no leeway. The player MUST be cautioned if he removes his shirt. It’s right there in the rules. And common sense would say that a professional should know that taking off your jersey will be an automatic yellow card and that he shouldn’t take off his shirt when he’s already on a yellow card.
Let’s face it: Hassli knew he was going to get a yellow card for removing his jersey and he knew he already had a yellow card (deserved or not, it does not matter). I assume Hassli can count to 2, so he knew he would be sent off.
Bottom Hassli is an idiot, either he can’t count to 2, thinks he is special, does not understand that 2 yellow cards = red, or he does not care that he was leaving his team to play a man down (even if he thought his cute trick of wearing 2 jerseys would save him, what sort of an idiot risks this?)
No matter how bad the referee may be, this was 100% Hassli’s fault.
MLS should be embarrassed by the actions of this ref. Hassli should be awarded for promoting the league and the team: he basically just won you a fan for life by giving him a goal scoring jersey.
MLS should take note: this is not the way that players should be treated. Unfreakenbelievable.
I wouldn’t blame Hassli for wanting to move back home after this.
Interesting to hear all the comments from people who have no clue how referees are governed within Leagues & associations like US Soccer & FIFA. If Baldomero uses his own judgment and does not give the second caution and send off Hassil, then he has to answer to his bosses & assessors and he gets marked down for it. Referees care about the spirit of the game, but when it comes down to it, they must enforce the Laws of the Game the way their superiors tell them to or…no more games. Most referees would probably prefer not to have to send off Hassil here, but the Laws, and directives from FIFA are quite clear. Thankfully, referees don’t have to answer to fans….
BECAUSE THE RULE BOOK SAYS THERE IS NO LEEWAY!!!!!!!
This is not Toledo being a stickler. He is a bad ref, but not for this call.
These comments hurt my brain
Well Ryan, That is pretty much what the rule book says. “do this”…”get this”…there is no room for judgment or gray area. Might not like “be serious” tone, but he is completely right
Regardless of tone, he’s correct. That rule is about the most black and white rule in the book. If you take your shirt off celebrating scoring a goal, you get a yellow card. No ifs ands or buts about it.
Hassli was the idiot. For all the frustration I have from Mr. Toledo’s work from the DCU-Revs game, he was correct in this incident.
I think you hit on a good point here. Professional sports are boring. I get more enjoyment out watching my young cousins play High School soccer, because at least they play with passion and wear their emotions on the field. When I see a player get sent off for trying give some lucky fan his jersey, it COMPLETELY turns me off to MLS and professional sports in general.
Why is there no leeway? Why are you all such sticklers?!?! Why can’t common sense trump a rule that isn’t even meant to address this particular situation?
Whitecaps fan who was at the game last night. Hassli deserved the yellow, it was a dumb move by him to take that risk especially after already gettng a yellow. However that first yellow he got? It came after the referee AWARDED a free kick to the Whitecaps, and then carded Hassli for an errant elbow (or not) that looked innocent as he was fighting for position. That was incredible, and completely silly. It’s either’s Hassli’s foul and award NE the ball, or it wasn’t his foul. Referee was ridiculously card-happy, Koifee’s elbow/forearm happened really fast so I can’t fault the referee for that, even though on replay it really it should have been a yellow, but the straight red on Soares was ridiculous as well, should have been yellow. All in all it was a horribly officiated game, lots of blame to go around, but the referee is the one who set the tone and the players were left guessing what to do. The referee was the star last night, and that isn’t a sign of a referee who can control the flow of the game, and judging from his history it doesn’t sound like it was just an off-night. MLS should be aware that these kinds of games leads to credibility issues.
Giving yellow cards for taking off shirts and penalizing NFL team for excessive celebration in the end zone is just RIDICULOUS! Refs and some people forget that at the end of the day, It’s a freaking GAME!!! Why society wants to apply the full ethics crap into GAMES is beyond me. Talk about taking the fun out of sports in the last 10 years or so. What’s next, get penalized for showing emotions on the field. Phony!
Taunting was one of the best things about sports back then. Reggie Miller use taunt us in Chicago back in the 90’s, and I hated him for it,.. but damn it felt good when Pippen did it right back to them in Indiana! Emotions is a big part of sports.
+1
No, a bad ref would do that. The rules are very clear. If a player removes his shirt as part of a goal celebration, he must be cautioned. There’s no leeway here. No “in the opinion of the referee”. If Toledo hadn’t given a yellow card, he’d be criticized by other referees.
Baloney.
People’s arms go up when you jump. There was absolutely no intent at all in Koffie’s foul. That’s not a red card.
And Hassli’s first yellow was questionable as a yellow. You think it should have been a red? Seriously I hope you never officiate a soccer game.
And finally, the red on Soares may not have been a yellow, let alone a red. You could argue he didn’t make much contact with Harris at all — though I suppose that is hard to tell from as far away as Toledo was.
I’m not a ‘Caps or Revs supporter but I know bad officiating when I see it. Toledo was way too much into the game. His yellow on Camillo for simulation was a crock. His early yellow on Harris was a joke.
The guy should be suspended and forced to watch the film of his screwups for a couple weeks.
+1 That’s what I’m saying. In this case it simply does not warrant a yellow. And I don’t care what the F%#%@ rules say, in this case THE RULES ARE WRONG.
Refs do a lot of rule interpreting during a course of a game. It’s called game management. The Hassli shirt toss was a well intended salute to the fans. A good ref will have warned him not to do that again but not kill the spirit of the gesture.
Hmmm… I don’t like your tone. I happen to have a different opinion than you, that does not give you the right to treat me like a child. Would you speak to me that way if we were having a face-to-face conversation? No, you’re just a another lowlife who feels cool putting people down on the internet. I hope you die.
carrying a rule book takes the brain work out of the equation. very comforting…
totally agree
Red Card for Toledo. C’mon, he was wearing another one underneath!!
Exposing your chest has nothing to do with the no-shirts-off rule, it was created after a player took his shirt off and it took like 5 minutes to get it back on because some inner lining got twisted in the process
Whether the rule is BS or not, it is a rule as of right now, and he broke it. This is as clear as a call can get in this sport.
+1
You cannot understand that the act is a cardable offense and in the same sentence say he should use his judgment. This act requires no judgment and doesn’t allow for it. What don’t you understand about that? It really is that simple.
If A, then B.
If you take off your shirt, you get a yellow card.
Get a clue.
Testing a rule that is nearly 10 years old? He wasn’t testing anything. He’s an idiot. Plain and simple. Referee’s decision was the right one.