Stationed in Tucson on Friday, Sporting Kansas City play-by-play commentator Nate Bukaty joined Soren Petro's The Program on Sports Radio 810 WHB.
The main topic of conversation revolved around Video Assistant Referee technology, a system introduced to MLS this offseason that was first executed in Sporting KC's 1-1 preseason draw against the Colorado Rapids on Wednesday.
The contentious moment came in the 89th minute when referee Alan Chapman awarded Colorado a penalty kick, two minutes after Sporting KC committed a hand ball inside the box. The VAR on the sideline spotted the infraction and relayed it to Chapman, a process that took more than two minutes from beginning to end.
Bukaty and Petro discussed VAR at length in the podcast below.
"The goal here is not to get every call right," Bukaty said. "The goal here is to get every game-changing call right."
Those game-changing calls are grouped into four VAR-reviewable categories, as outlined by MLS in an official announcement on Feb. 6.
- Goals
- Penalty kick decisions
- Direct red card incidents
- Cases of mistaken identity
MLS will continue to experiment with VAR in a testing phase before officially implementing it after the MLS All-Star Game on Aug. 2. The podcast includes audio from Sporting KC Manager Peter Vermes, who strongly believes VAR will have a positive impact on the game.
Fast-forward to the 3:30 mark when the VAR discussion begins.
