Minnesota United FC head coach Adrian Heath was pleased with an "excellent" performance from his side during the first half of Tuesday's 1-1 draw with Western Conference-leading LAFC. However, he was far less impressed with the officiating.
In the 37th minute, LAFC's Cristian "Chicho" Arango was shown a yellow card by referee Tim Ford after clearly taking down Minnesota's Emanuel Reynoso from behind.
The controversy came four minutes later, as Arango was whistled for being in an offside position with LAFC on the attack. The Colombian striker reacted by kicking the ball away after the whistle, immediately drawing the wrath of the Loons faithful after he received only a talking-to from Ford.
Heath was shown on the Bally Sports North broadcast as having a few choice words for Ford and fourth official Silviu Petrescu. And, in a halftime interview with Loons broadcasters Callum Williams and Kyndra de St. Aubin, he didn't hide his frustration.
"Still don’t know why Arango’s not got a second yellow card. But because it’s LAFC, they don’t seem to have the same rules as everybody else," Heath said. "Everybody knows it should have been a second yellow. Everybody here in the stadium knows he should. The only person who didn’t give it was the referee."
The Black & Gold, who despite the result can still clinch the No. 1 seed in the West if Austin FC draw or lose against Real Salt Lake on Wednesday night, eventually pulled level in the 64th minute when a Carlos Vela golazo canceled out Brent Kallman's opener just before halftime.
Once the final whistle blew, Heath was back at it in his post-game interview with Williams and St. Aubin.
"I think we've been the better team," the Englishman said, before having one more dig at Ford and his crew while analyzing the opponent's offensive performance.
"I can't really remember other than Arango's first-half header, when he shouldn't have been on the pitch, by the way. And then the moment of quality from Carlos Vela."
It's not the first time Heath has called out officiating. One recent example was after an August 2021 match with Vancouver Whitecaps FC, where Heath criticized referee Lukasz Szpala for a "bad decision" involving a controversial drawn penalty by Cristian Dajome. Dajome would convert from the spot in stoppage time as the Loons were forced to settle for a 2-2 draw.
