For the first time in a regular-season Major League Soccer game, league officials will be testing Video Assistant Referee technology Friday when the Rapids host Vancouver as the league 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 Altitude but will not have any contact with the game referees.

Howard Webb, a longtime English Premier League referee who called the 2010 World Cup Final in South Africa, was hired by MLS in March to take charge of the project with the title Manager of Video Assistant Referee Operations.

“We’re investing a lot of time and energy and effort to put the scheme in place,” Webb said. “Part of that involves training and education to the people who will operate the system – the officials, the technicians and the league staff.”

Last summer, the International Football Association Board, which sets what soccer calls “the laws of the game,” approved the use of VAR to review goals, penalty calls, red-card decisions and cases of mistaken identity involving red or yellow cards. MLS began experimenting with the technology during the preseason with plans to implement it officially in select matches following the All-Star Game in August. The German Bundesliga will use VAR next season and the technology will used in the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

During the Rapids’ preseason, VAR was used to overturn a referee’s decision that resulted in a draw with Sporting Kansas City rather than a 1-0 loss after referee Allen Chapman checked on a possible hand ball in the penalty area by an SKC player. After viewing the video, he awarded Colorado a penalty kick and Dillon Powers converted for the equalizer.

The hope is for VAR to eliminate more obvious mistakes without addressing subjective calls.

“We’re talking about those ones that people across the board accept are clearly wrong,” Webb said. “Video assistance will help the officials rectify those.”