Phil Neville's rant about referees after Portland-LAFC draw is an all-timer | OneFootball

Saturday night's 3-3 draw between the Portland Timbers and LAFC in the Pacific Northwest had all the elements of your classic MLS After Dark encounter, including quite a few flash points involving referee Guido Gonzales Jr. and his crew.

By the 10th minute, Gonzales' crew had already nullified two apparent goals from Denis Bouanga for being offside. (Replays suggested the calls were marginal, but not definitively incorrect.) By the 90th, Gonzales had consulted the replay monitor to award LAFC a late, game-leveling penalty that Bouanga converted.

And before that, Gonzales had given Cherundolo a second-half red card, forcing him to leave his coaching box for the final stages.

When it was over, Timbers manager Phil Neville couldn't help himself in laying into the officiating crew, even while claiming he was trying not to.

As MLS manager rants go, it was an all-timer.

Phil Neville's rant

Neville didn't even wait to be questioned on the isse, taking aim with his opening remarks.

"From a pure player’s point of view, that was an incredible advert for MLS football," he started. "Not officially. From a pure player’s point of view. I don’t want to add the officials into that. Because I’ve got to say, the sending off of Steve Cherundolo was an absolute disgrace. I really do.

"I got a yellow card at the end for taking my players away from the referee. I thought that I was showing respect. I thought that I was doing my job. I thought that I was protecting and showing respect to a set of referees that didn’t do us any favors, that’ve never done us any favors, and I get a yellow card and maybe I’m suspended for the next game for actually trying to help them. But that’s it, done. That’s it, me done with 'em."

Neville paused, and club staff opened the floor for reporters' questions. But then Neville continued before a question came.

"And we’ll get a report and they’ll say that I was causing dissent," he went on. "I was getting my players away from the officials. And Steve Cherundolo should never have been sent off, should never have been sent off on any game of football in the whole world. And what we’re seeing now is that we’ve just played a 3-3 game against one of the best teams, an incredible advert of football. And I just think that they just want to be the kings of the castle. It’s all about them. They just want to show that they are the main people in this league, and unfortunately it’s not good."

A few minutes later, Neville returned to the issue, prompted by a reporter's question.

"I think 3-3 was probably a fair result," he admitted. "But I just want to be talking about the football. I don’t want to be frustrated. I don’t want to receive a yellow card for trying to help the situation. I don’t want Steve Cherundolo to be sent off for nothing. Steve didn’t deserve to be sent off. I’m angry because the opposing manager got a red card. I think that shows where I’m at really."

Neville louder, Cherundolo more aggrieved?

Neville hasn't been shy about addressing what he sees as poor officiating before. And his remark about the postgame incident requires the context that he was demonstrably irate with the decision to award the game-leveling penalty following a video review.

And while this rant might have been more colorful, Neville probably felt more aggrieved in a previous instance last month when he suggested a match referee had applied the advantage law incorrectly in failing to award his side a penalty.

Cherundolo's postgame remarks were far less demonstrative. But in his first game since announcing he would be departing the club at the end of the season, Cherundolo asserted that he believed his side would've taken all three points if not for the crew's involvement.

"It was unfortunately one of those games where the officials, with their decisions, decide games, from an LAFC perspective in a negative way," Cherundolo said. "I think at the beginning of the season when (the Professional Referee Organization) explains the rules to the clubs, coaches and players together, we’re told flags stay down when it’s close and VAR will make the right choice (on offside decisions).

"It didn’t happen, twice. We scored two good goals tonight that were taken away that shouldn’t have been. So it’s a bitter pill to swallow. But we accept it and the response from my team was excellent."