After controversy surrounded a disallowed Rising goal on Saturday, coach Rick Schantz has spoken out in favor of USL adopting technology in games.
“Maybe with video, with technology that we have in many of the USL stadiums, I don’t see why they couldn’t consider VAR,” Schantz said. “Most of the leagues around the world are using it in some way, shape or form.
“If VAR had said ‘hey, there was an offside there,’ nobody would have complained. But the fact that it went so long, and that we don’t have VAR, I think is what was upsetting for most of us. Then, the reaction from the referee crew after that, it seemed very personal after that, so we tried to avoid any confrontation.”
USL was the first professional league to trial Video Assistant Referee in select games in 2016 and 2017, but has not used the technology since.
Schantz’s comments refer to a disallowed Santi Moar goal in Saturday’s match against Orange County. Officials initially appeared to award the goal, before ruling that Aodhan Quinn had committed an offside offence. After that match, Schantz said that “unfortunately, I think [the officials] might have looked at the video board and seen a replay.”
Referee Elton Garcia replied to a written pool question asking “which members of the referee crew provided input that resulted in the eventual call, and what information did they provide,” by stating simply that “the referee crew determined that the player interfered with the opponent by clearly obstructing their line of vision.”
Despite the controversy, and a red card later in the first half that saw Rising reduced to ten men, the team ultimately overcame its rival to win 2-1.
“It’s probably the most proud I’ve ever been of this group,” Schantz said. “I think that what made it even more difficult was that we gave up a goal two minutes into the second half. I’m sure if you were in Orange County’s position, they were probably feeling really good about themselves and thought: ‘hey, we got a goal. They’re not going to be able to bunker in. We can get a second. We can win this game.’
“I think that our guys did a great job of not allowing them to play through the middle. We wanted them to hit crosses, and we figured we could deal with that easier. As the game wore on, it gets difficult. Look, the last time OC was here, they played a low block and they had 11 guys and we couldn’t break it down, so I’m proud of our guys because it takes a lot of discipline to do that for so long, and to get a result at the end was pretty fantastic.”
Following a busy week, Rising will wait until Saturday for its next match. However, the team could be the first to clinch its spot in the playoffs should Oakland Roots fail to win at home against San Diego Loyal on Wednesday.
After that, the club’s focus will be on continuing to rack up points to secure a top seed, “but not at the expense of injury.”
“This club, I’ve always said it, it’s about winning trophies,” Schantz added. “There’s three trophies that we can get. There’s the Supporters Shield, or whatever they call it, the Western Conference Championship and the USL Cup. Those are the only three trophies that are available and we’re fighting for all three. As you prepare for the playoffs, you start to think about: ‘how important is the supporters shield? Where are we at? What do the standings look like?’
“I think it was four years ago, we had a chance to probably be one or two in the West. We went to Vegas. I switched the team up. We lost. We ended up third or fourth, but everything fell our way and we ended up with two home games anyway. You just have to do the right thing by the players. You have to look at each game individually and make sure that you prepare the group the best that you possibly can.”
Rising’s next match is away to Tacoma Defiance on Saturday 25 September.
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