Historic video replay a pain for McCarthy
CHESTER » In the moment, John McCarthy might not have had the time to fully appreciate the gravity of the situation.
As history was being made on a monitor just feet away from him, the goalkeeper lay in a heap in the 79th minute, moments after FC Dallas forward Cristian Colman trod on his ankle and kicked a more sensitive region in the buildup to Maxi Urruti’s goal.
The salve to those aches came with referee Ricardo Salazar, in consultation with the video assistant referee (VAR), negated the goal by ruling a foul on Colman, briefly preserving the shutout in a 3-1 win for the Union Saturday night.
The 47-second review by Salazar was the first application of VAR in MLS, which has been tested for most of the season across the league and was rolled out in matches starting Saturday.
“I would have been pissed, I would have been so mad, because he kicked the hell out of me,” McCarthy said. “It came in our favor but if it didn’t happen, I’m sure there would have been some yelling and screaming.”
The system is designed to allow the assistant referee, who is monitoring various feeds of the game, to flag problematic passages of play and afford the head referee a second look if there’s suspicion that “a clear and obvious error” has been made. The system is applicable for passages of play leading to goals, penalty kicks and red cards.
Saturday, that first utilization left the Union on the right end of the decision, and so the system drew warm reviews in the locker room.
“The ultimate goal is to get calls right, and it succeeded tonight,” Union manager Jim Curtin said. “That’s what you want. We were lucky to be on the end of the first review ever in the league’s history and on the good side of it. I think it accomplished its goal, and now we move on to the next game.”
“I’m happy they did it right now ’cause it went in our favor,” McCarthy said. “I’m sure there’s going to be times our team is not happy about it, but it worked out well for us tonight and we’ll see how it goes. It’s the first night of doing it so we’ll see what happens.”
The view wasn’t so rosy on the other side, with manager Oscar Pareja obviously unhappy to see a goal come off the board.
“I have to say that it generates a lot of doubts in the system,” Pareja said. “But we respect it. I have to be honest and say that if the referee had a chance to review it with the VAR and have time to make the decision, I have to assume that is correct. But when you go and see it, because we have the right to see it after the game, and we may differ on opinions. We’re all in the same boat. We accept it and I respect the decision, but this is a call for the referee and you have to accept that.”
The objectivity of the call, which even Pareja deferred to, is the key aspect both teams are looking for. Purists object to the time delay, which Curtin admitted had an NFL feel to them. But with reviews limited to major, game-changing actions and no sideline challenges, the delay was minimal, at least in its first usage.
“It was interesting to be a part of that,” said CJ Sapong, who scored twice. “We’re all going to look back at that and say alright, that’s the first time in MLS history that a play actually got right. That’s something we want in this game and it was pretty cool to be a part of it.”