Seattle 1-0 Colorado Referee: Ricardo Salazar (United States)
Salazar has drawn the ire of Sounders fans in the past, but he was spot on today. Nice work by him and his crew.
LA Galaxy 1-0 Real Salt Lake Referee: Baldomero Toledo (United States)
Toledo had two key calls to make and I agree with his decisions on both.
5th Minute: LA are bringing the ball forward when Jamison Olave makes a sliding challenge on an LA player in the box. He executes the challenge cleanly, but the ball takes an unfortunate deflection onto his hand. Toledo calls a penalty and he is right even though the contact was unintentional, because it still stopped LA from getting a chance on goal.
91st Minute: Olave loses out on a challenge to Robbie Keane and shows his frustration with an elbow to Keane's head. Toledo correctly sends Olave off for violent conduct.
Portland 1-0 DC United Referee: Chris Penso (United States)
Penso had a good match with no controversy. Nice work by the up-and-coming young referee.
Sporting Kansas City 4-0 Dallas Referee: David Gantar (Canada)
Gantar had just one tough call in this match, but I think he did get it right.
43rd Minute: SKC's Krisztian Németh breaks away from already booked defender Zach Lloyd, forcing Lloyd to grab onto his leg to halt the attack. Gantar correctly shows Lloyd a second yellow for stopping a promising attack. Good call by Gantar, who was announced as a Gold Cup Referee just before the game. Congratulations to him on that assignment!
Toronto 3-1 San Jose Referee: Fotis Bazakos (United States)
Bazakos made one penalty call, which I think he absolutely got right.
23rd Minute: TFC's Ashtone Morgan blocks a Chris Wondolowski shot with his hand. Bazakos calls a penalty, and I agree since Morgan made a clear attempt to block the shot.
Vancouver 2-1 Real Salt Lake Referee: Jair Marrufo (United States)
Marrufo, another MLS referee who was recently announced as a Gold Cup referee, didn't see much controversy in this match. Nothing to go in depth on here.
NYCFC 1-1 Houston Referee: Sorin Stoica (Canada)
Stoica had one big decision to make in this match, but I unfortunately disagree with his decision.
45th Minute: An NYCFC player heads the ball onto Houston Defender Raul Rodriguez's hand. To me this isn't a handball because Rodriguez's hand was less than a foot away from the NYCFC player's head. Since there was no reaction time, I would call it incidental contact and not award a penalty.
DC United 2-1 Philadelphia Referee: Ted Unkel (United States)
Unkel had one important PK decision late in the game and the team worked together to get it right.
84th Minute: Zach Pfeffer of Philadelphia tries to defend a high cross in his box, but is forced to control the ball with his hand. It was near impossible for Unkel to see from the angle he was at, but AR James Conlee signals for the handball. Great job cooperating from the two referees on that play.
Orlando 2-2 Columbus Referee: Silviu Petrescu (Canada)
Petrescu made the week's most contentious call when he awarded Orlando a questionable penalty.
18th Minute: Orlando superstar Kaká takes a shot that deflects off Michael Parkhurst on the goal line. Petrescu calls a penalty and sends Parkhurst off for what he deemed was a handball. However when I look at the replay, though the ball did hit Parkhurst's arm, I don't think there was anything he could have done about it since his arm was tucked at his chest. It's a tight call, but for me it's a play on.
Chicago 3-0 Montreal Referee: Allen Chapman (United States)
Chapman had two important decisions to make tonight but I'm only fully sold on one.
37th Minute: Montreal's Marco Donadel, already booked, slides in late on Matt Polster's ankles. Chapman shows a second yellow, which is absolutely correct, though I wouldn't have minded a straight red due to the severity of the challenge. Regardless, good work by Chapman to make sure Donadel's night was done.
45+1st Minute: Montreal's Bakary Soumare makes a last ditch effort on David Accam near the goal. Chapman judges that Soumare didn't get the ball and calls a penalty, and I don't really have the replay to prove whether he was correct. My best guess, though, is that there was enough contact to warrant contact.
Colorado 1-2 Portland Referee: Ismail Elfath (United States)
Elfath, coming off of a very difficult assignment last week, had a stellar performance today with little controversy and nothing to go in depth on.
Seattle 2-1 New York Red Bulls Referee: Jose Carlos Rivero (United States)
Rivero had a very good match with no controversy. Nothing to look at here.
New England 2-2 Los Angeles Referee: Alan Kelly (Ireland)
Kelly was stellar in a match where he didn't have to make any calls. Again, nothing to look at.
Thanks for reading!
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