Messi's Near Red Card- Should He Have Seen a Second Yellow

Kramasky, he turns into space, throw for Martinez, he goes down, PECK! He reaches back, but I'm not sure I see enough of a grab. Welcome to Instant Replay, League's Cup Edition. We're on to the knockout rounds, the round of 32 to be specific. I'm your host, Andrew Weavien, as always. We're taking a closer look at the most controversial refereeing decision. We start with Lionel Messi. He's making his Instant Replay debut. 21st minute, and Messi gets his first yellow card in Miami color. Will McCartagena on the ball, Messi from behind. Folks, this is by the book. It's a yellow card all day, every day. And it sets the stage for the Führer, led by Orlando City fans, coming up. That Führer came in first half stoppage time. Cesar Araujo is pursuing Messi. Benjamin Kramasky passes the ball, Messi's off it, and oh boy. Messi with the shoulder barge slash shove on Cesar Araujo. Is that a second yellow card? Should Messi be sent off? My answer is no. For me, that doesn't meet the bar for a yellow card in this particular situation. The referee's right there, and he sees the whole thing. And somehow doesn't call a foul. That's my issue with the way Yvonne Arcidas Barton Cisneros handles this one. This should be a foul, and if it is a foul, it cuts off all the complaining, all the afters from Kyle Smith, who gets a yellow card after pulling Messi, Araujo, who gets into a Messi going down the tunnel, etc., etc., etc. I understand, both by the laws and from a game management perspective, why you wouldn't give a second yellow for this play. I do not understand why it is not a foul. That part is clear as day to me. What's not clear as day is where the foul occurs when Joseph Martinez goes down on the 48th minute. Antonio Carlos, the Orlando defender, is absolutely furious, and I think he has a right to be. Cisneros calls the foul, and VAR Ricardo Montero does not send Cisneros to the monitor to review, though obviously he checks. They stick with the call on the field, and here's where you should look for the foul contact. It's the right arm of Antonio Carlos across the torso of Joseph Martinez. There might be a little pull in there. Either way, there is some impeding of Joseph's run. Joseph is a very clever No. 9, and he goes down and gets the call. For me, I'd rather see this not call. But once it is, I don't think the video assistant referee can say this is a clear and obvious error given the contact, again, right arm across the torso from Antonio Carlos. This comes down to the opinion of the referee. Cisneros saw the contact, saw Joseph go down, and called the foul. I would have liked to see a play on because I don't think that contact is enough to take Joseph down, but I'm not the referee. All right, to Mazatlan, Dallas we go. 46th minute, Bernard Camungo in behind after an error by Lucas Morolla. Morolla's trying to make up for his screw-up, but eventually he gets his arm into Camungo's back and pushes him down. Penalty call by referee O'Shea Nation, and for me, that's the right call. Watch closely here. Contact in the back of Camungo, and there the arm extends. That is a push, and it takes the FC Dallas player down. Good call. Good call for me as well in the Hudson River Derby. 28th minute, Luquinhas on the ball in the box. James Sands gets his foot across, makes contact. That is by the books, folks. That is a penalty. Well done to the refereeing crew on that one. And here's an interesting penalty call in the Atlas New England game. 77th minute, Anderson Santamaria defending against Giacomo Veroni in the box. Cross comes in. Veroni goes down. Fernando Guerrero-Ramirez points to the spot. This for me is the right call. There's a lot of contact to break down, so I'm going to point you toward what I think the original foul is. Watch Santamaria grab Veroni's arm and pull it back at the beginning of this run. That is a clear foul. There's more contact. Watch the feet. Yeah, they get tangled up here as well, though that might be Veroni running into the defender. Oh, and also Veroni wraps his right arm across the defender and probably goes down from that as well, but you can't blame that on Santamaria. Either way, some of all parts, there is a foul here. It's on Santamaria, and that means a penalty kick. Well done to Ramirez on the play. And well done to VAR Benjamin Witte in the Columbus, Minnesota game. Rayon Raddix originally calls this a penalty, but when you watch it closely, it's very clear this ball does not come off the crew player's arm, rather his back. Well done to the crew for the teamwork on this one. I'm going to have to disagree, however, on this no call in the 78th minute. Minnesota attacker Seung Min Jeong is running in on goal just waiting for this ball across the box. The ball is played, but Seung Min Jeong is not there to finish because he was pulled down. Watch the crew defender, Marrera, grab that left shoulder and pull back. The contact is not massive, but at this speed, that's more than enough to get the Minnesota attacker off balance and falling backwards, preventing him from a potential shot on goal. For me, that should have been a penalty kick. It wasn't called, and Minnesota won in PKs in the end. Cincinnati, we go. Cincinnati, Nashville, 83rd minute. Cincinnati down 1-0, and Jack Mayer is going to push and or grab and or make contact with two hands to the back of Brandon Vasquez, who goes down. Now Vasquez is never going to get this ball. It is caught by goalkeeper Joe Willis, but referee Neema Saghafi calls the penalty, and I can't really argue on this one. I understand why afterward Gary Smith, the Nashville manager, didn't love it, but when you put two hands on an attacker in that position and make clear contact, it's either going to be called on the field or the VAR is going to have a very interesting decision to make. In this case, because of the contact, the VAR, Diego Montano-Robles, is never going to recommend review. I agree with Neema Saghafi. Just an unwise decision from Mayer on this play. Speaking of unwise, 94th minute, Chicago, Club America. Richard Sanchez, what are you doing? The fire is Brian Gutierrez is flipping the ball over, and then all of a sudden he's getting studs to the inner thigh slash nether region. This is way off the ball. It is serious foul play. Excessive force, endangering the safety. Check, check, red card, check. Richard Sanchez off. Well done to Walter Lopez-Castellanos, the referee. And in my opinion, well done to Lucas Spala, the referee in the Tigres-Vancouver game. 38th minute, Tigres won a penalty on Veselinovich on this play. The ball does hit his arm. No PK is the call on the field, but the VAR, Eric Yair Miranda Galindo, says, hey, Spala, go take a look. Spala does and says, I'm sticking with the call on the field, and I agree with that decision, and here's why. First, I don't think Veselinovich's arm is in a natural position here. It is quite close to the body, and he's in the middle of jockeying for position for a header with the Tigres attacker. Second, I think the Tigres attacker, watch the right arm, pulls him down, which is what causes this contact to the arm in the first place. Veselinovich is trying to head it, but he's being pulled down. One, it's not deliberate. Two, it's not a natural position. Then three, it's not a penalty in my opinion. Last play, Sporting Kansas City, Toluca. Is this goal offside? Ask yourself that once. Now ask it again. Ask it a third time. Do you have a clear and obvious answer? I do not. Remember, it's not about on this play where the final defender is. It's about where the ball is because the attacker receiving the ball is either even with the ball or behind it. So, look down the line from the ball. You tell me. Is the Toluca attacker clearly in an offside position? I think not based on what I know about camera angles, lens distortion, and how freaking difficult it is to make these calls. I'm going with the AR in this situation because I don't have clear and obvious evidence that says that Toluca attacker is offside, in other words, ahead of the ball. All right, that's it for us. Big thanks to my producer, Rich, Asada's on the grill, Hernandez, and my editor, Dan Hilton. I'm Andrew Wiebe. We'll see you next time.