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Gerardo Martino lashes out at officiating after Atlanta’s loss to the Red Bulls

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A lot went wrong for Atlanta United on Sunday. There were VAR reviews, overturned goals and a red card. It was a match where everything that could have gone wrong did, and there’s plenty of blame to go around.

There are times where bad refereeing rules the day and there are days where teams dig their own holes. They’re not mutually exclusive, though. In Sunday’s 3-1 loss to the New York Red Bulls, Atlanta United was doomed by a little bit of both.

Yes, Atlanta was impacted by a number of decisions and yes, those decisions greatly affected the final scoreline, but missed chances and momentary lapses also cost Atlanta in a loss to a fellow contender.

With referee Chris Penso serving as head official, Mark Geiger was on VAR duties and, after several reviewed incidents, Gerardo ‘Tata’ Martino had a lot to say. After taking issue with several Geiger calls in a loss to Sporting KC, Martino was once again left frustrated by the World Cup-bound official.

“I don’t want to take away credit from Red Bulls, so I don’t want to justify it with VAR, because Red Bulls is a very good team and the same thing for Kansas City,” Martino said, “but the reality is that both games had the same protagonist, and when I say the same, I’m not talking about the referee. I’m talking about the same person. In one game he refereed and in the other he reviewed. And they were decisive in the outcome of the game.

“I got 10 messages from Argentina asking me who reviews VAR,” he added, “because it’s hard to believe that someone can call that penalty, and someone reviews it and still sees a penalty. I invite any of you to watch the play. There was nothing. Nothing. But that’s how things are. And again the worry is for you all because the person reviewing VAR is going to the World Cup. It’s going to speak poorly of you all, not me.”

An early Joseph Martinez goal was ruled out for a dubious foul call, robbing Atlanta of what would have been a 2-0 lead. Miles Robinson was called for a 50-50 penalty kick moments later. Jeff Larentowicz was issued a red card that was soon after rescinded before Greg Garza earned one of his own.

Martino said that Penso and Geiger handled the Larentowicz situation in a poor way. The Argentinian said he saw the call as a Red Bulls foul but, after Larentowicz was issued a red card, the call was reduced to a yellow instead of a Red Bull infraction. With that, Martino says the two were “covering for each other, and it’s logical because they’re co-workers”.

“First one, penalty. Second one, speaking with (Michael Parkhurst), obviously, it was a good ball in,” said Brad Guzan. “I’m not exactly sure how they come about in terms of delivering a free cross. Bradley Wright-Phillips is dangerous. He’s proven that year after year. He’s a good player. Then, the third goal, we were a bit sloppy with the ball.

“We weren’t great with the ball tonight. We were a bit sloppy. We weren’t tidy. Too many careless passes. Too many bad touches. Listen, at the end of the day, we weren’t good enough today, so we’re not making excuses. We were not good enough, but obviously, there were some other issues that influenced the game to a certain extent.”

Guzan’s assessment is certainly correct: Atlanta was sloppy. They uncharacteristically missed chances. They turned the ball over in bad places against the Red Bulls press. They lost Wright-Phillips several times, and were punished for it.

Overall, Atlanta expects better from themselves as a team and from officials. It’s one game, and only the third loss of the season, but there’s still reason to be frustrated for a team that remains atop the East.

Next up is a clash with the New England Revolution, kickstarting a four-game stretch where Atlanta faces Eastern Conference foes.

“I think for most of the game we were the superior team and then, we had a player sent off and that doesn’t help things,” said Ezequiel Barco.” I think we were superior. We just know that we have a lot of things to keep working on.”

“We played against a very good team,” Martino added. “But when two good teams play, we need something more even, more fair on the calls.”

Comments

  1. I think they were hard done by having the second goal over turned. For me that was the Moment of the Match, and a very bad call. VERY BAD!

    Reply
      • So, you think that Parker, a reasonably athletic guy, just fell clumsily to the turf spontaneously? Just as he was about to intercept the pass?

        The BWP penalty was debatable, sometimes it gets called, sometimes it doesn’t. BWP is not a diver, so maybe he got the benefit of the doubt there. But the ATL defender was on the wrong side of BWP and paid the price for being out of position.

        Sure, the disallowed goal was possibly the turning point. Not because it was a bad call, but because ATL couldn’t recover from it.

  2. Atlanta could have had 3 red cards. They should be THANKING the refs.

    Quit whining…they are spoiling a great game.

    Reply
    • Actually, it is yet another thing that makes MLS great. It’s telling that people who bash MLS also bash the concept of VAR because both of those are ridiculous views

      Reply
      • I will never bash MLS (I won’t oversell it either), but I think VAR is the worst thing to ever happen to soccer.

    • @Concorde – if you don’t bash MLS, I am sure you will come around to VAR. all rational fans ultimately do. 80-90% of the time it’s great and that success rate will continue to improve.

      Look at Zlatan’s red card today. Unless you are a biased Galaxy fan, what issue could you possibly have with it?

      Reply
  3. Whiny. ATL should have had another red on the DOGSO foul, but Penso cut them a break. If you’re going to complain about the ref, be honest and admit that the controversial calls went both ways.

    Reply
    • Totally agreed. It just happened to be a game where a lot of difficult decisions had to be made and with the help of VAR it was generally a very balance net outcome.

      If they have beef with the pk – well, don’t bear hug a forward forcing the ref to make the call. If a forward does it it gets called 100 out of 100 times

      Reply
    • Agreed. Not to mention how badly Atlanta lost their composure. Once they went down they looked like a disorganized and undisciplined bunch of punks. Love watching them play, but some red flags out there about the temperament.

      Reply

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