Impact's victory over the Red Bulls had a sour note : MLS Officiating

With the fantastic play from the Impact this week, it was difficult to find anything to complain about. The team worked together very well, even without the noticeable absence of Marco Donadel manning the midfield. Callum Mallace did a fine job of replacing him, but was still the biggest liability on the field, at least in my eyes. However, his impressive passing statistics this week show that he did enough to avoid this space officially, at-least for this week.

But then, some of you may be asking: "If no one from the Impact was disappointing, what was?"

Onto the Main Event.

Most Disappointing Performance: MLS Officiating

Before we go any further, this is NOT a complaint arguing that  the referees changed the result of the game in any way. From start to finish, I thought the Impact thoroughly dominated the pace of play, highlighted by a five minute stretch in the 80th minute where the Impact didn't lose possession of the ball. Almost looked like Barcelona for a second!

No matter the officiating, this result wouldn't have changed. My problem is with the quality of MLS officiating.

We all know the quality of play in North American soccer, specifically the MLS, is rapidly improving. This is great not only for luring players to the league as a viable choice to play out your career, but also does wonders for the growth of the game in all markets.

However, with this increased quality of play, an increased quality of officiating is to be expected as well, and unfortunately, the MLS and their referees, have yet to show the improvement needed for this level of game play.

The officials had a very rough outing today, highlighted by an offside call on Dominic Oduro, where everybody on this planet knew he was at least 3 steps onside. While this was the prime example of their ineptitude today, the overall call of the game by the head ref was as inconsistent as could possibly be, for both teams.

"Offside" was the call
PRO Fail
His mind had to be somewhere else
AR1 was D. Belleau@Proreferees#IMFC #NYRB #MLS pic.twitter.com/bsQMxfY3WP

— Montreal Impact Fan (@Impact__Fan) March 14, 2016

He would call all sorts of wacky fouls, where hardly anything was done, but then chose to ignore a Red Bull defender literally tackling Oduro to the ground, or failing to call a foul on Ciman when attempting to tackle Felipe.

This inconsistency is not isolated to today either. While not a seasoned veteran in MLS soccer, I have been watching for the past 4-5 years, enough time for me to figure out the officiating provided from the MLS is as inconsistent as it comes.

This is troubling for a league that wants to continue to grow, and continue to entice big players to sign.

Without officials that are able to keep up with the quality of play, it ruins the beautiful game for fan and player alike, and it would be a shame that such a promising league would be hindered by such a basic and simple problem. I implore the MLS to have their referees better trained for the future of this league.

But that's just one man's opinion. Let me know who your most disappointing performance was by tweeting @javiergonz1994 or leaving a comment down below! #IMFC