U.S. Soccer Referee Position Paper: July 3, 2008

U.S. Soccer's Referee Department breaks down a situation involving one player striking a player from the opposing team. A detailed analysis of this situation, and more, can be found at: ussoccer.com/laws/papers.jsp.html

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Soccer
• Referees
• D.C.
• United
• Galaxy
• U.S.
• hitting
• striking

[mvaldez44]

Gallardo is a dirtbag

[dippaul21]

well deserved hit to donovan's face, but gallardo gets a red and donovan gets a yellow. there's no room in football for that nonsense. and if anyone thinks gallardo "accidentally" slapped donovan in the face, you guys are too trusting.

[abrahamlandrix]

@dippaul21

Are you crazy? Red card to Gallardo and yellow card to Donovan = perfect call on this one, this makes sense!

[cincyeaglefan]

Red for Gallardo for the retaliation hit.

Yellow for Donovan for recklessly coming in with the army and hitting Gallardo in the face with the forearm first.

Yellow/Red for the Dissent after.

[refsoccer4fun]

neenaw - you clearly didn't read the position paper from US Soccer on this one did you? If US Soccer says that this is a Send-Off then that's what it is. The Paper states, Although not delivered with the aggressive force of a punch nor with the sort of "cocked and thrown" aspect of an elbow, it is nevertheless a clear case of striking (the foul) which must also be considered a send-off offense as the contact was to the face, delivered with enough force to produce bleeding, and done to intimidate

[neenaw999]

Yellow card for each, donovans tackle is awful andnearly warrents a red by its self but the other number 10 does not throw the arm violently as his fist is not closed, its just reckless

[zhe100]

Actually, it was an intentional swinging of the arm to hit Donovan in the face. Look closely, you can see that Gallardo looked back quickly to see where his face was and aimed his elbow to hit him in the face. Serious Foul Play should is apparent and a Red Card shown to send off Gallardo.

The referee was behind play and couldn't see it. The A/R, however, was right there looking and, in my opinion, should have been able to the play happen and tell the referee a Red Card should be administered.

[maisis00]

- Holding foul on Donovan for certain > DFK

- Gallardo YELLOW for the hit to the face on Donovan. You have to watch closely. He was pissed and took a swing and when he made contact turned it into a gesture of appeal. (Smart on his part and you can only tell when it's replay. I would have never carded him if would have seen it live but replay reveals the truth.)

- Donovan YELLOW card for dissent.

[mbaltzegar]

It looked like he was saying something along the lines of "What?! How can you not call that! Look at my nose! How can you not call that!"

[lydayjr]

yea he looked dead t him then swung his arm up

[neenaw999]

Direct Free kick against donovan as the original foul was by him, gallardo yellow, because he only appealed for the foul, IMO this was Reckless but not violent conduct by any means

Donovan yellow for dissent.... or red depending on what he said to the fourth official and assistant