Who’s your father, referee?
By Jay Hipps · October 3, 2008
Coaching a soccer team has got to be one of the most stressful jobs around. You can work as hard as you like to put together the right team, adopt the most effective strategies and tactics, and implement them in practice, but ultimately your fate will be decided by the actions of the players on the field while you’re standing on the sidelines. There are similar situations in other jobs, too — if you’re marketing a new product, the public will determine whether you’re successful or not — but rarely is the scenario played out in a weekly, two-hour window while you watch.
And then, even if you do everything right and your players do everything that’s asked of them, there’s always the chance that the referee will make an error so big and so ugly that everything you’ve worked for all week — some might say all season — goes up in a puff of smoke. Welcome to Frank Yallop’s world. It’s been said that a tie is like kissing your sister, but this tie is more like a straight man unknowingly kissing a transvestite.
Here’s the good news: The Quakes have not been mathematically eliminated from the playoff race by the reckless, incorrect call of referee Abby Okulaja, who saw fit to reward Dallas with a penalty kick for a phantom hand ball in the 88th minute. (Not to mention the bizarre decision that Duilio Davino’s intentional hand ball to deny a goal scoring opportunity was only worth a yellow card and not red.) If they win their four remaining games, they’re in. If they win three and tie one, they’re in about 80 percent of the time. Turn that draw to a loss, though, and it’s 50/50 whether they see postseason action. There’s not a lot of wiggle room left at this point.
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Here are the post-game reports:
- It’s not just us ragging on the referees. Check out Ridge Mahoney’s match report at Soccer America.
- From the newspaper front, we have match reports from the Mercury News and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, both from the same reporter, and the Dallas Morning News. Here’s a quote from Ronnie O’Brien in the Merc’s story: “I think we got robbed, to be honest. From what I gathered, from people’s reaction that have seen the penalty, I think we’ve been robbed. I don’t think we played great; last week and this week I don’t think we’ve played well as a team — our worst performances of the year. But tonight we did enough to get a win and I think the referee took it away from us.”
- Online, we have match reports from ESPNsoccernet, MLSnet.com, and Goal.com, although the Goal.com article refers to San Jose’s goal scorer as “Brian Johnson.”
- MLSnet.com also provides a solid post-game piece, with locker room quotes from Yallop and Johnson. Video highlights are here.
i would agree with ronnie o that the last two quakes performances have been far from stellar, but the last two refereeing performances the quakes have suffered through have been atrocious….okulaja should be suspended for the remainder of the season
the oliver stone in me wonders if the bigwigs at mls wouldn’t mind seeing the quakes miss the playoffs and thereby not have to televise matches from our “minor-league” stadium……i would think they’d have far greater pr issues to deal with, such as why the “minor-league” representatives in the concacaf champions league are kicking butt while “major league soccer” stumbles through the same event
yes, ronnie’s right, the last 2 haven’t been stellar. but beyond the regular complaints about the officiating, is anyone else REALLY eager for Ramiro’s return? As some comment was made somewhere in the past few days, many players are playing for next year’s spots, and I just can’t see Grabavoy with a spot next season. He’s looked lost from Game 1, and since Lima’s come aboard and Ramiro went down, Ned’s been even more lost and hasn’t matched up well with Lima’s heart, control, creativity and yearn for the ball. I know Frank doesn’t have many options and only 4 reg. season matches left but how about giving RJ more time in the midfield to bring that energy into the whole match? I guess Ramiro may be back for the last 2 hopefully.
Yes —— I agree that the team misses Ramiro alot–there seems to be no connection from backline to the forwards. That might be a good solution to try Johnson in the midfield. Also Salinas seems very green–he is fast but when he gets the ball doesn’t seem to know when and how to get rid of it. Also, Johnson should be in the starting lineup with his speed. I hope O’brien just had 1 bad game because he had several bad giveaways
Given the emphasis in the weekly USSF Referee reviews, I have to call the refree out for another obvious error. Cooper nailed Hernandez in the 83rd minute with a forearm/elbow to the face on a high challenge. Straight red, no question, and it happened right in front of Okulaja. Dallas should have been down to 9 and there’s no question they’d never have mounted the pressure that lead to the dubious PK later. Okulaja had two missed ejections and the dubious PK, a howling bad game.
I have to disagree with Hardcorrwin. Although I agree that Lima and Grabavoy haven’t teamed up well, I think the fault rests more heavily with Lima’s poor emotional control and not with Grabavoy’s inability to make plays happen. Certainly Grabavoy’s been behind more of the goal and goal scoring chances than Lima so far. Grabavoy may not be getting the assist, but look back a pass or two for the play developing and you’ll find Grabavoy in the mix.
Lima can’t control his temper. All it takes is a bit of rough play by the opponent and suddenly he’s so focused on being an enforcer, he can’t complete a pass nor can he fulfill his role as a holding mid. Sure I want to see Corrales’ quick return, but I hope it leads to Lima sitting, not to even less playing time for Grabavoy.