Saturday night in San Jose, the Vancouver Whitecaps dropped a 2-1 result against the Earthquakes, in a match that was dominated by dubious officiating decisions, all courtesy of a rather familiar face.
As those in Vancouver will no doubt remember, Tim Ford was at the centre of another officiating drama with the Whitecaps back in 2023, where Ford blocked Alessandro Schöpf in a late match moment at the edge of the attacking box, and the Whitecaps eventually lost that game 1-0 to LAFC, ending their season. Afterwards, Vanni Sartini made some famous remarks about Ford that led to Sartini being suspended for the start of the 2024 season.
Needless to say, Ford and the Whitecaps have some history, and that legacy only grew tonight.
The match opened about how you would expect, given the type of football San Jose has played this season, as play was wide open and a bit choppy, with neither team generating any clear-cut chances. It felt like it would only be a matter of time before the two teams started to trade some bigger chances, but instead, it was the fouls that ended up taking the headlines, as Edier Ocampo picked up two yellow cards in seven minutes. I won’t stand on my soapbox to tell you how questionable the fouls were, because I think that’s already evident to anyone who watched the match.
Nonetheless, with the Whitecaps down a man, the tone of the match had changed. It was clear that Vancouver would sit back and absorb pressure, hoping to strike on the counter with a combo of pacey wingers and Brian White. Taking things to the half level was a good result, and it felt as though Vancouver could still push for more in the second forty-five.
The Whitecaps were solid again to open the second half, but it took less than 10 minutes for Tim Ford to make his mark on the game once more. Vitor Costa took a tumble at the top of the penalty area, on what looked more like a slip than anything else, but Ford immediately pointed to the spot, as he deemed that a brush from the hand of Tristan Blackmon was enough to constitute a foul. VAR did not agree and asked Ford to visit the monitor, but Ford remained unconvinced despite the VAR challenge, upholding his initial call. Josef Martínez scored from the spot, and San Jose had the crucial first goal.
Vancouver responded well to conceding, and Daniel Rios probably should have scored in the immediate aftermath, as he took an extra touch before blasting a shot right off the Quakes’ goalkeeper, Daniel. After that, it felt like the Whitecaps lost a bit of steam as the second half went on, especially in the California heat with a numerical disadvantage. Eventually, it got to a point where I figured the match was probably out of the balance.
Brian White would have something to say about that, however. In the 88th minute, the Whitecaps went route-one with a long ball over the top. White’s first touch on the ball was sublime, as he had the Quakes centrebacks twisted in knots before casually tucking the ball home at the far post. All of a sudden, Vancouver looked like they might snatch a point, despite Tim Ford’s best efforts.
The good feelings only lasted so long, though, as in extra time, San Jose was able to find a second goal thanks to Preston Judd and some pretty tired Whitecaps defending. Rios was slow to close down the initial cross, while Bjorn Inge Utvik got lost in traffic before bumbling into his keeper rather than marking Judd in front of goal. It was a gut punch for a Whitecaps team that already felt aggrieved, and it was a match that, on the balance of play, really should have ended even, but sometimes that’s the way things go.
I don’t think there’s much sense in looking for broad takeaways from this match. It was a pretty good performance all things considered, and the Whitecaps can’t waste time worrying about this one anyway, as they have a big week ahead with the Canadian Championship on Wednesday, and Thomas Müller’s debut in Vancouver at the weekend.
(Image: Vancouver Whitecaps FC)
Agree that the game wasn’t great to watch after Ocampo was sent off. in re-watching the contentious moments here’s my take: i would have liked to see a replay of Nelson taking a hand to the face as his opponent dribbled by him. Blackmon had his shirt pulled as he tried to dribble away from his opponent and this allowed the opponent to put in a slide tackle, which could have been deemed a foul as well (not 100% sure). Anyway, 2 fouls in one sequence of play could be a yellow, or at least a talking to. Ocampo did foul his opponent for his 1st yellow. I don’t think the ref saw the strike to the mouth as his view was blocked. I’m guessing the AR on that side gave the ref the signal that a foul had occurred and given the end result, a bloodied mouth, it would be probable that the strike was careless/reckless. Ocampo took a risk on his 2nd yellow, giving his opponent a shoulder in the back preventing his opponent from getting to a dangerous ball in the cap’s penalty area. Not a good decision already being on a yellow. And Blackmon conceding a penalty, well he pushed his opponent just as he was squaring up to shoot. The view on the var monitor confirmed this, imo. Anyway, unfortunate for sure. The caps probably would won this game 11v11. Ocampo makes me nervous when on the back 4. He gets caught out of position quite often and he’s very physical in his challeges. He plays on the edge so to speak
I agree that Ocampo needs to tone it down, but none of the commenters on Apple TV or TSN or the Reddit comment stream (except one insane fool from the Bay area) saw it the way you have here. On the first one, the SJ player tried to head the ball and the head instead contacted Ocampo, not the other way around, and on the second one both were tracking the ball. To fault Ocampo on these you have to have pre-assumed that he has extra eyes to take him to the opponent and cause deliberate mayhem, because I only see two eyes on the ball.
We’ve spent most of the season watching people try to go through Tate Johnson to get the ball and few fouls called, but the rules are suddenly different when Ocampo is involved: no running toward the ball in flight if there is a nearby opponent seems to be the rule, and raising your arm to leap into the air is apparently not allowed.
Pop tim fords pickle out ur mouth
Have you ever noticed that players and former players seem to know more about officiating than match game officials. And all this knowledge with out an iota of training.
Unfortunately there will always be referees that either favour or disfavour certain teams. But that’s what we humans are about ! If we use AI or computers to decide,it may have flaws. Tim Ford may get his red and yellow card for his behaviour but we shouldn’t threaten him . I feel he is just a very frustrated wanabe soccer player. And today is Sunday, I just returned from church where I was told to forgive those who trespassed against us.”Erase our mistakes like we will erase other’s mistakes against us” Anyways we’re fortunate we are playing in North America and not Europe where soccer is life and death! ⛩️🇨🇦🙏👀😇❤️
The team is handling it well, they argued during the game, but hardly as much as other teams often do, and no press outbursts this time, perhaps there will be some quiet feedback to the league about the balance, but nothing public. That’s the way to proceed. But as fans who buy tickets and viewing packages, we have every right to complain bitterly when there is a clear and obvious lack of fairness in the way a game was officiated. Nobody is seriously suggesting threatening him, even Vanni was clear in his 2023 comments that he was joking, and they ignored that and hit him anyhow. The problem is that the referees union will not accept criticism or demote referees who are below par, which is already abysmally low. Tim Hill is not going to “get a red or yellow card” for this, he is getting a paycheque. Referee quality, along with the negative soccer tactics that are accepted as a part of the game that can never be fixed, is a major hurdle that MLS has to get over somehow or it will be forever limited to die-hard fans only.
But there should NEVER be “referees that either favour or disfavour certain teams.” That’s rule one of officiating no matter what the sport: no favoritism. It’s human nature to favour one team over another but as a referee that is something you must bend over backwards NOT to EVER do. With a game that caused a former coach to lose his mind in his history, Tim Hill should have been aware that another anti-VWFC crusade would look bad for him. He didn’t seem to care. Even the VAR guys could not convince him to come down off his self-made pedestal. That’s the problem here.
I don’t think 99.9% of soccer players/fans realize how much work referee’s put into being a mls referee. There’s a high level of fitness to be maintained. There’s probably a weekly meeting to review games. Every game is monitored by a mls referee assessor. If the referee is not meeting the high standards required then they will have their games cut back or will be dropped all together. No referee wants this to happen unless there’s corruption involved. When a referee steps on the field his or her decisions must be fair, consistent and without bias. Anything less will have consequence for the referee. To assume that referee’s walk onto the field, already having decided to ignore the laws of the game or to favour 1 team over another is ridiculous
After the Stephane Auger fiasco I watched newspaper summaries carefully and noted that he never again refereed another West Coast game and was let go after two more seasons. It took a season and a half before he was allowed to referee the Canucks again. I don’t have Tim Ford’s stats, but I can’t remember seeing him often this year and I see a lot of games on Apple TV+. He’ll be relegated to the VAR room for a while and maybe dropped if PRO is doing its job. If we see him again in the next few months/years and he screws the pooch again, it will be clear they are overprotecting their referees.
We’re angry because it was an important game for us, SD is now 4 points ahead. Nobody is seriously believing he went in to screw VWFC, our problem is he has no sense of how unbalanced his decisions are and most commentators, including the TV ones, said so. If PRO agrees he should be benched for a while.
Eleven minutes of added time too. Does anyone think that amount of time would have been awarded had the ‘Caps been up a player and seeking a winner?
After the winning goal was scored at 90+3, the Reddit feed commented that Ford would now say “oh, did I say 11 minutes, I misspoke, I meant three….” Would not have surprised any of us.
can’t really take much from that game given that the ref ruined it less than half an hour in. good finish from white on the goal
If Ocampo were to tell the media post match, through tears on an exercise bike, that Tim Ford had told him in the tunnel that he was getting the Stephane Auger treatment tonight because of what Vanni said in 2023, and video of them talking in the tunnel emerged but the league did nothing, I would not be surprised a bit. That’s what this felt like: remember, the Canucks did tie the 2010 game despite Auger’s one-sided calls until the final stages when he upped the BS to maximum until the Preds got the powerplay winner. Is it possible that PRO gave VWFC the benefit of the doubt in the early part of the season in order to boost chances for a buyer to emerge, and now that we’re 98% playoff-bound and have an international star coming in, there’s no longer any need for that?
The makeshift defense played well under pressure until the final minutes. Ocampo was 100% innocent of reckless play on both yellows and the first was not even a foul until Tim Ford saw blood, but he is getting the type of reputation that kills you in MLS and needs to be better in his defensive positioning. The second yellow was excessive for any non Tim Ford referee (and probably any other team), but Ocampo should have been closer to the ball to get the clear benefit of the doubt. The next step will surely be the eventual VAR video where the VAR guy sticks the knife in by saying “PRO believes that VAR was correct and the referee was wrong in this situation to stay with the call on the field.”
Maybe the play here is to sign a goon, to be inserted into the starting lineup only if Tim Ford gets another Vancouver playoff assignment. If we’re going to be down a man anyway, at least this will give us some control over the situation and if properly deployed may result in both entertainment and a substitute referee for the rest of the match, which at least will give us a chance. /sarcasm