MLS Testing Video Assistant Referee Tech During Whitecaps-Rapids

MLS officials during Friday night's Whitecaps-Rapids game in Colorado will test the league's Video Assistant Referee technology for the "first time" during a regular-season contest. This comes as MLS "prepares to officially implement the replay technology this summer." The league is "calling it an 'offline' test, meaning it will have no impact on the game, and the officiating crew will do its usual job." A "surrogate referee" will review close calls using video feeds from broadcaster Altitude but "will not have any contact with the game referees." The "hope is for VAR to eliminate more obvious mistakes without addressing subjective calls" (DENVER POST, 5/5).