Bruce Arena “can’t complain” about referees on Sunday evening but hasn’t forgotten about Toronto

The New England Revolution were able to walk away with a 2-1 victory on Sunday night over NYCFC. After a difficult loss to Toronto FC, it was just what New England needed.

Now the game wasn't without controversy. There were some calls that got the attention of Revolution fans.

New England had four players receive yellow cards and the team committed 15 fouls while NYCFC received 0 cards while committing 11 fouls. It appeared as though NYCFC was deserving of a least a few cards.

In the first half, Valentin Castellanos and Andrew Farrell were racing for possession as the ball neared the touchline. Castellanos grabbed Farrell by his upper body and threw him to the ground. No card was given.

There was also an interesting no-call later in the game. In the second half, Kelyn Rowe and Alexander Ring were jostling for possession when Ring fell to the ground. Now, this would seem normal but Ring whipped his leg and ended up scraping his cleat against Rowe’s back. Once again no card was given.

Bruce Arena was asked about the refereeing on Sunday and had an interesting perspective on the festivities on Sunday.

He said. “Do I think the referees were consistent today? I don’t even know how to answer the question. He missed a few calls like you do every game. We know mistakes are going to be made by the referee. When they’re crucial mistakes like we saw in the Toronto game where that foul wasn’t called on [Andrew] Farrell – the game changer – that’s disappointing and to me, that’s inconsistent. Today, there weren’t really any missed calls. You’re going to miss some, so that’s okay by me. And I think for the most part it was okay. Certainly, we got a penalty, which wasn’t an easy play for the referee to make. And he did, so I can’t complain.”

The call that Arena is referring to is when Ayo Akinola pushed down Farrell on his way to scoring the deciding goal. If the Revolution walked away with points, the entire landscape of the Eastern Conference would look different.

But on Sunday, Arena couldn’t complain. The Revolution were able to walk away with the victory and now sit in sixth place in the Eastern Conference standings. It’s hard to complain about that.