A little inside poop from your intrepid journalist pal, Steve

MLS guidelines permit journalists to ask referees questions regarding controversial calls. In our business, we call that "damn good access."

So, why so few take advantage of the opportunity is beyond me.

There is a bit of a cumbersome process for doing so, but it is a useful service that’s available nonetheless. It is openness and transparency for which MLS should be commende, and it most certainly should be exploited.

Journalists must pool their crunch their query down to two questions submitted by a designated representative (chosen by the media). That person writes the questions and submits and then works through game management officials, who deliver it and ensure the referee’s prompt attention.

Then, the designated journalist – a "pool" reporter in the media parlance – has the option of submitting one follow-up question based on the answer provided.

So, let’s take a hypothetical situation:  Let’s say a referee appears to rashly eject one of the league’s most influential and popular players. Let’s further say it’s an attacker who gets kicked as much as anyone in the league. And, uh, let’s say this highly paid attacker gets tossed for something the ESPN cameras somehow didn’t catch. Why, in the name of Walter Cronkite, you wouldn’t keep one camera trained on a player who has just been awarded a dubious yellow card and is clearly so angry that his head may just spontaneously combust, I couldn’t say.

Ok, so maybe you saw the little set-to with Freddie Ljungberg on Saturday at Qwest Field. Ljungberg, dribbling at speed, pushed a ball into the penalty area and fell as Chicago Fire defender C.J. Brown turned his back and appeared to impede the Sounders’ attacker. Referee Baldomero Toledo blew his whistle and immediately booked the Sounders’ DP for an alleged diving.

It was harsh, to say the least. Not surprising, considering the poor officiating we see every week in MLS, which U.S. Soccer just can’t seem to sort out.

It was a terribly silly decision to caution Ljungberg, who was outside the penalty area when he fell. If Toledo didn’t want to whistle the foul, so be it. Chicago had managed the clearance, and "play on" was clearly the prudent thing to do.

Well, to hell with prudence. Toledo made a show of cautioning Ljungberg, who then blew his Swedish stack, did something else to hack off the man in the middle. So, off he went. Take that, Ljungberg!

I am by no means suggesting that Ljungberg, or anyone else for that matter, deserves special treatment. But some benefit of the doubt is perhaps in order. Ljungberg may fall a little too easily at times. But generally speaking that man gets kicked, pushed, pulled, tugged and hacked pretty good every night out. I wrote about it earlier this year. See item No. 2 on this ESPNSoccernet piece.

You may tell me that reputation shouldn’t be part of the officiating equation. But I’ll tell you that common sense and benefit of doubt absolutely should be. Ljungberg gets fouled a lot, so he deserves some benefit of the doubt.

Frankly, if Ljungberg were to announce that he’s leaving MLS because he’s fed up with the crappy MLS officiating, which too frequently punishes skillful players and rewards the thugs, I wouldn’t be a bit surprised. On the other side of it, Brown is a physical defender whose fading footwork leaves him no choice but to depend on size and muscle. As for challenging Ljungberg, Brown couldn’t win a footrace between the pair if the Swede was dragging the decaying corpse of Ingmar Bergman himself. So, again, there was context in the sequence to consider.

But why would Toledo know any of that? He’s been a referee in the league only since 2004.

Bottom line, a little discretion and common sense goes a long way.

Now, back to the original point.

Journalists had the option of querying Toledo on the incident. Was it something he said or was it Ljungberg’s lack or respect through his actions? Did he say something to Toledo or was it directed toward another player? What was said, exactly?

Did the journalist dig into the matter by taking advantage of this nifty access? Nope.

Why? Dunno. Go ask them

My guess is that nobody inside the Qwest Stadium press box even thought of it. That’s epidemic inside MLS press boxes, where most journalist simply don’t know that this option exists.

Why? Dunno.

Maybe we soccer writers get overly caught up in tactics, formations, the usefulness of certain substitutions, game grades, etc., that we sometimes forget about old-school reporter skills, like looking up records and mileposts, and rounding out the reporting by asking questions about anything and everything.

Or maybe this is just where pro soccer meets journalism in this country. After all, it’s a sport that is largely covered by semi-pro internet reporters, inexperienced newspaper reporters – newspapers generally assign soccer to younger reporters – and by TV people who are just at the stadium to gather up the post-game sound bytes. There are a few Bob Woodward-esque soccer reporters around, but not many.

Too bad, too. I’d sure like to know what Toledo had to say about it all.