Topik: Major League Soccer, Nashville SC, Atalanta, Joe Willis, Ezequiel Barco
The shot-stopper of the new entrants was almost caught in a sticky situation in Sunday's league game.

The Major League Soccer's Matchday 1 clash between Nashville SC and Atalanta served up one of the weekend's biggest talking point involving the former's goalkeeper Joe Willis. During Sunday's keenly contested encounter, the 31-year-old sparked an uproar by saving Ezequiel Barco's shot close to the halfway line while his side trailed by two goals to one.

Nevertheless, to the dismay of many onlookers who monitored proceedings at the LP Field, the Nashville shotstopper managed to evade a red card despite the blatant infringement. Instead, the player was shown a yellow card by Referee Drew Fischer- a decision which immediately left many baffled. Watch the incident below:

In the aftermath of the encounter, the officiating crew were queried to come clean on why Willis was not handed his marching orders despite halting a promising attack.

“When the handling occurred, there were two additional defenders between the location of the foul (handling) and the goal who gave an opportunity to prevent a possible goal," the officiating crew declared.

“There were no additional attackers with the opportunity to play the ball, therefore the goalkeeper is not guilty of stopping a promising attack.”

As per MLS Soccer, the Professional Referee Organization (PRO) also sided with referee Fischer's decision on the basis that the laws support it. The law in question, states that " a player should be sent off if he or she deliberately handles the ball (including the goalkeeper outside the penalty area) to either (1) deny an obvious goal-scoring opportunity or deny a goal outright.

Apparently, neither of such ensued in the scenario involving Joe Willis as Barco's attempt on was not 100 percent destined for goal taking into consideration the distance from the half-way line to Nashville's goal-post.