Consistency is key for officials and for some fans and players alike, MNUFC vs Seattle did not have that
“From referees, we’re always looking for consistency, and we felt like there was a lack of consistency throughout the game because it’s hard as a player, because you don’t know what’s a foul and what’s not, and you’re trying to waver the line,” Loons goalkeeper Dayne St. Clair said on Monday night following the Loons penalty shootout win over Seattle.
Dayne St. Clair was not alone in his criticism of referee Alexis Da Silva’s, with fans, coaches, and media questioning Da Silva’s performance on Monday night in St. Paul. Those questions came early on in the match after Bongi Hlongwane was shoved inside the box by Seattle’s Jackson Ragen, just before Hlongwane took a shot that ultimately went wide of goal.
Ragen told Seattle media following the match, “That early play I think, I knew I wasn’t gonna catch him so I had to something kinda clever I guess. I need to be a little smarter because that could possibly be called a foul, penalty, whatever. But yeah that was the last resort.”
The play resulted in no foul being called, no penalty being given, although a yellow card was issued a minute later to Dayne St. Clair after questioning the official regarding the play. After which the crowd went into a fever pitch of boos towards the officials that continued throughout the remainder of the evening.
“Clean, as clear cut a penalty as I’ve seen not given over the course of this year,” Minnesota manager Eric Ramsay said about the non-call on Ragen. “I’d be amazed if 99 referees out of 100 don’t look at that for five seconds and think that’s a penalty. It’s a real shame in a sense because you have to be able to trust officials in those moments that you’re going to get stuff like that particularly with VAR these days. I’m glad I can stand here as the winning coach because with that not being the case, that would have been a real tough pill to swallow.”
Yeah, the reffing has NOT been without bias
— Barrett Madden (@barrettmadden.bsky.social) 2025-10-28T02:54:06.131Z
The final stats had Minnesota being called for 11 fouls and awarded 5 yellow cards in the process, while the Sounders were called for 16 fouls and we’re not issued a single yellow card. The fans in and out of the stadium looked at the match as being called in an extremely biased fashion in favour of Seattle. While Eric Ramsay did not go as far as the fans, he did feel the performance was one sided, stating:
“I don’t typically want to dwell too much on the referee’s performance but it was justified to probably stand here and be a bit critical of the penalty instant but I did in general feel it was one of the more one sided performances from the officials, but it is far easy to talk about that in the position that I’m in, maybe I’d be speaking different if that wasn’t the case.”
De Silva was in over his head. Absolutely terrible from start to finish
The Brazilian native Da Silva is in his third season officiating in Major League Soccer, but Minnesota vs Seattle was his first time refereeing an MLS Cup Playoff match, though not his first time calling an MNUFC match. The only other MNUFC match he refereed was the Loons clash with San Jose in September of 2023. He has officiated matches in other knockout competitions, including the US Open Cup, USL Championship playoffs, USL League One playoffs, and MLS Next Pro playoffs as part of his officiating resume.
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