CARSON, Calif. -- Following the match, fourth official Ricardo Salazar provided a response as to why referee Allen Chapman did not award a yellow or red card to Houston Dynamo goalkeeper Tally Hall for bringing down Jose Villarreal in the penalty area in a play that resulted in Landon Donovan's missed penalty kick in the 25th minute of play of the Dynamo's 1-0 win over LA.
"In the play in question, the Galaxy player [Villarreal] touches the ball in the direction of the corner [flag] so the Galaxy player was not going towards goal so this is why there was not a red card on the play," Salazar said. "Also the referee did not deem the foul to be reckless or tactical in nature this is the reason for no yellow card on the play."
Following the match, LA Galaxy head coach Bruce Arena chimed in with his thoughts on the play.
"The referee certainly screwed that play up big time, but I'll let them deal with that. I think that in most cases that's a red card as well," said Arena. "To not even give a card, if they a yellow card you can understand that maybe, but remarkably he didn't give a card on the play, but we have a gentleman [Professional Referee Organization's Peter Walton] in charge of our referee's now so it'll be interesting to see if they make a decision on that."
Meanwhile Landon Donovan called for consistency.
"Well, we saw a similar play earlier today with Dan Kennedy and I think that if it is not a red card then you don't get a red card in either case. If it is a red card then you give a red card in both cases. I think we just want consistency from officials because now we see two today where nobody really knows what the outcome is going to be. If you blatantly take down a forward as he's going towards goal, I think it's probably a red card, I think tha the probably got that one wrong."
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