One has grown used, over the years, to the Alexi Lalas personality. I did not particularly like it at first -- all that dopy long-hair and “Hey, man ...” stuff.  But things change -- I’ve changed, and so has Alexi - to the point where, particularly during last year’s World Cup, during that impenetrable Brit fog that ESPN landed on us, I found Lalas about the only guy worth listening to.

As his TV persona developed, so too did his tendency to wave his arms around as though constantly fighting off swarms of pesky insects -- but I guess TV will not allow its experts to just sit there any more. Compensating for the obviously synthetic, and really quite comical, gesticulations is the fact that Lalas always comes over as a genuine human being -- and an articulate one with a sense of humor.

His opinions shouldn’t really come into it -- I don’t expect to agree with him all the time or even most of the time, but I’ve found that Alexi, on the whole, has shed the shallowness of his hippie days for a much more meaningful view of things.

In short, Alexi has become a "voice" on the US soccer scene, someone who people listen to.

So what happened to him on Monday night, then? Too much Independence Day reveling? Simply a bad day at the office? Suddenly, there’s Alexi, pumping his arms all over the place as usual, but uttering the most fatuous nonsense about the refereeing of Yader Reyes in the Real Salt Lake-New England game.

Just listen to this: “I mean, this was the worst refereeing job -- definitely this year and probably in history. Absolutely horrible.”

What got Lalas going -- and what got the game and Reyes off to a controversial start -- was that Reyes had the audacity to award the Revs a penalty kick after only three minutes, and to red card RSL defender Nat Borchers on the same play.

“It wasn't a foul,” said Lalas with truculent authority, adding redundantly, “It wasn't a red card.”  To make out that Borchers’ clumsy challenge on Benny Feilhaber was a “clean” tackle is absurd. There was considerable contact between the two players -- all of it initiated by Borchers, who can hardly be classified as one of the league’s more elegant defenders (he reminds me, actually, of Alexi himself).

The replays make it pretty clear that Borchers did get to the ball first, before he flattened Feilhaber. It would not have been easy for Reyes to see that as he was following the play -- considerably behind it, the inevitable result of a long-ball play.

What I’m saying is that Reyes’ call was not as wacky as Lalas would have us believe. There is also this. After the tackle, the ball remained within playing distance of Feilhaber, who might well have been in a position to play it -- had he not been taken out by Borchers.

So: a correct call? No - with benefit of replays, no. An outrageous call? Of course not.

Would there have been so much spluttering from Lalas if the call had come later in the game -- say at the beginning of the second half? I wonder. I’ve had my say, repeatedly, on this business of a team having to play with 10 men. I do not like it, it can wreck a game -- though it did not wreck this one, whatever the coaches may say, for this ended in a highly eventful 3-3 tie.

One of the reasons I don’t like the “down-to-ten-men” scenario is because it clearly weighs on referees, making them reluctant to issue justified red cards, or any cards, early in a game (we saw exactly that reluctance at work with Howard Webb in last year’s World Cup final).

So here we have a totally different way of looking at Reyes’s call: that he should be praised for making a gutsy call.

Not by Lalas, obviously, who decided that this was the “worst refereeing in history” -- a slice of over-the-top hyperbole that destroys its own credibility as soon as it’s uttered. What else was so wrong?  The second penalty -- given for an obvious hand ball (and Kevin Alston’s arm was away from his body, something that is usually used as an indication of intent)? The red card for Ryan Cochrane -- after two fully justified yellow cards? The second one was simply madness on Cochrane’s part - a player who knows he’s carrying a first yellow but grabs an opponent and brings him down?  Who’s making the mistake here -- the ref or the player? Yet we have to put up with Cochrane making matters worse by arguing the point, while, over on the sidelines, Steve Nicol was going through a whole repertoire of Sarah Bernhardt histrionics.

And I simply do not know what to make of this: "When you see  Jason Kreis on the sideline with his counterpart Steve Nicol, go over to him after has been awarded a penalty kick and propose, ‘Why don't we walk off because this is so horrible?’ -- this is the situation MLS is in right now.”

I have to assume that Lalas knows that’s what Kreis said -- I mean, Lalas would not just make that up, would he? -- in which case MLS should fine Kreis heavily, because withdrawing your team from the field has always been the ultimate no-no in any sport -- not to mention encouraging your opponents to do the same.

But talking of the coaches is appropriate. Lalas is going on about the referees as though they are responsible for “the situation MLS is in right now.” He doesn’t spell out that situation, but we can safely assume that he doesn’t mean anything good, and that it’s all the referees’ fault.  Which is also a shock of crit.

There are, as it happens, too many boring games in MLS. Soccer America editor Paul Kennedy recently drew attention to the record number of 0-0 ties so far -- with half a season still to play! -- and that is a problem. Are we going to blame that on poor refereeing?

It’s just too easy, Alexi -- blame the referee. A simplistic answer to a serious problem: how to improve the quality the league in every area -- yes, including refereeing. But, frankly, the league could so with some better coaching, too -- and some better players, if it comes to that.  And, no doubt journalists, and TV commentators.  But of all those contributors, it is the referees who are the traditional scapegoats, the favored victims. Of course they are to be criticized -- but they should not be singled out for their errors -- certainly they should not be pilloried while the poor coaches, bless their generous hearts, are exculpated as the innocent targets for atrocious calls.

Think about it: if we are getting too many boring games, too little scoring (and too many idiotic post-game excuses) ... does it really make any sense to finger the referees as the villains?

It does not -- and, in this particular game, I do not believe that it was justified. We got a game full of “incidents” -- it was none the worse for that. In fact, this was one of the liveliest MLS games I’ve seen in a while.

No, the refereeing was not the worst in history ... but the half-time rant may well have been.