Romain Alessandrini celebrates after his goal before VAR caused the goal to be retracted.
SANTA MONICA – A world of controversy erupted in the MLS on Saturday afternoon after the Galaxy watched two of its goals retracted in its 3-2 loss to the New York Bulls. The two goals were retracted after the Video Assistant Referee flagged down the center referee to review the video on the play.
As expected, the retractions left a very bitter taste in the Galaxy’s mouth, believing both goals were not offsides. However, LA wasted no time at the conclusion of the game of raking the officiating through the mud. “I think you should interview the officials. I thought it was awful,” state Galaxy head coach Sigi Schmid.
But this isn’t the first time LA dealt the short end of the stick involving VAR. In Aug. 2017, LA saw a goal retracted as video review showed Gyasi Zardes handling the ball prior to scoring. “It seems like in every game it goes against us to be honest. For me, in the first game against Portland, in Chicago and now this game,” said Galaxy Player Ola Karma.
The only ones truly happy with the end results was the New York Bulls as head coach Jesse Marsch went on to say, “Overall, I thought the referee did a nice job with the day with the night. I’ll know more once I look at the video and see how close plays were.”
But even Marsch is use to not having VAR go his way, saying, “I am used to not getting VAR so it was nice to get it.”
Yet, Schmid who once was a fan of VAR now questions its validity, ending his remarks on the officiation with a simple, “I don’t know anymore.”
However, the only one not blaming the VAR system was forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic. While he was not pleased with the results, he refused to “give excuses or blame the referee because [everyone is trying] to do good.” He believe the Galaxy “can do better, he can do better.”
Comment below and let us know what you think of VAR.
