I hate blaming the referee for ruining matches. I really, really do. Honestly, genuinely hate it. But that’s the problem: The US Soccer Federation is leaving me little choice. The quality of refereeing has been far surpassed by the quality of play, and that, I think, is saying a lot.
When Nat Borchers cleanly tackles a player and wins the ball, we should not see a penalty given and a red card dished out. That’s the absolute minimum. If the head referee hasn’t seen a call clearly, the immediate reaction shouldn’t be to “go with his gut.” It should be to consult one of his three assistants who may have seen the play.
But that didn’t happen. And that doesn’t happen. Instead, we have referees who are so entirely cocksure of themselves that they will make a decision and even explain it — all without any lingering self-doubt, all assuming they, the almighty referee, has seen every last single bit of action and knows exactly what the call should be. The refereeing in this nation, to my mind, more than stinks. It betrays any chance football has to really take hold in the US. When the Gold Cup is plagued with bad decisions and the MLS is plagued with bad decisions, something HAS to wake this federation up. Do you think the best players in the world will ever want to play in a league where the referees are so out-of-touch with reality? I didn’t think so either.
But, in the immortal words of Jason Kreis, onward and upward. There was, after all, a full match of action — and there certainly was plenty of action to be had. Six goals — we haven’t given up three in many, many matches, the exact number of which I’ll look up at some point — two reds, two penalties: It’s really quite remarkable.
The first goal I’ve discussed, and there’s nothing more that can be said about it. I’d probably just scream, explode, or something like that, so there’s no use. I will, however, look to review the refereeing performance just as soon as I can watch the match on MatchDay Live. A short comment about Lekic on that free kick — that’s awfully cheeky, and on another day, a chipped free kick will be saved. Be warned.
The second New England goal was preventable. Chris Tierney teed up a free kick (I’m not convinced it should have been a free kick, but again, replays will help here.) and it bounced along the ground, the wall expecting, I think, the ball to hit the air (did Saborio actually lift his leg and let the ball sail underneath? Sigh.), but it just bobbles along at a magnificent rate, and Nick Rimando had no choice. He rightly expects better of his wall. Kreis expects better. The fans expect better. That’s something that needs sorting.
But then we started our fighting back (a bit late, right?) and managed a goal after Andy Williams slammed the ball into the post on a free kick (that man must be cursed! He deserves a goal, doesn’t he?) and our lovely Canadian Will Johnson reacted very well to tap in the rebound. Where Reis was on that, nobody is quite sure.
Our first equalizer came on after hard work put us in a good position around the box, and Kevin Alston handled the ball (it was a bit lucky) in the box. I admit, I didn’t see that, though I do in the highlights, and I was incredibly puzzled, though reticent to complain. 2-2, and game on.
Joseph — the man that should have been off earlier for first pushing Olave after the ball had gone out of play then putting his hand in said Olave’s face — scored the third for New England. Disaster, am I right? 63rd minute, 3-2, and that same Olave should have done much, much better defending the free kick. Another entirely avoidable goal. Those really have hurt us in recent weeks.
But Fabian Espindola, the beauty, having come on in the second half, broke away from play, took the ball brilliantly, and finished across the face of the goal from the middle of the box. No marking from the New England defense did them in, but Fabian’s cool-as-you-like play pushed us to a point.
There were certainly other opportunities, and on another day, we would have won this 5-0 — but that night was not tonight. Too many mistakes from the referee changed the game, but two of the three goals against us were entirely avoidable.
On a night when Jason Kreis was honored for his contribution to the club, and a vital squad number was retired, the boys should have brought home three points. But when it comes down to it, we proved we have some very real fight in us.
We play again at home on July 9, so we’ll have to pick up three points then. Let’s see that we do. We may also be treated with Alvaro Saborio's 200th career goal, which would be brilliant for the man. Good on him!
Come on you Claret and Cobalt!
Man of the match: Fabian Espindola. When he came on the pitch, he chased every single ball down. In the end, he rescued us, our proverbial life guard, our Argentine striker with attitude and skill.
Comments