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MLS Descent To Garbage League Continues

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Good fucking God almighty. I worried going into this season that referees might "magically" give a boat load of breaks to the Galaxy so that when Beckham returns he would be "playing for something."

Look at this "penalty" and tell me what you think.

DC was robbed pure and simple. So, was this a case of mind-blowing incompetence or a mandate from the league office?

Time will tell.

(Really that is the worst penalty call I've ever seen.)
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Anonymous said…
Oh, what's a poor referee to do? All of the Galaxy players raised their arms and called, "Mano! Mano!"

It sucks and it stinks and it sucks.

OTOH, Chris Pontius' goal was fine craftmanship. I replayed that one 4 or 5 times for my 4yo, telling him that that's what he needs to do...lateral move, eyes up, target, execute. Nice, cool work for a rookie.

And then the 4yo tries to explain it to my 7yo. Too funny! :)

And WTF is Sanneh still doing in the league?
March 22, 2009 at 11:01 PM
Rich Horton said…
Maybe we are looking at this the wrong way. Maybe the game is "evolving"? You know, into a game of football where one is not allowed to play the ball with one's foot.

And what's Sanneh doing in the league? Cashing paychecks. Can a Richie Williams comeback be far away?
March 23, 2009 at 4:29 AM
Anonymous said…
Great. How about a Sanneh-Williams-Aunger reunion? Hack-a-whack-a way.

In terms of the game evolving, it's what you mentioned before, where the refs are influencing the play. The league is selling something different than the integrity of the game. You could see it was a bad day on the first PK call: the ref really didn't want to call it against LA. But his assistant was shaking the flag and he couldn't quite ignore that. That's why he delayed the call; had not the assistant been making a scene, it would have been play on. (or maybe a YC on Gomez for diving in the box). I'm sure the assistant had his head chewed off during half-time to "get with the program."
March 23, 2009 at 8:44 AM
Anonymous said…
"Really that is the worst penalty call I've ever seen."

Hear, hear!

I almost vomited at that call. Even if there's no LA conspiracy (which given the no offside call on Donovan's second- can't be sure because no good camera angle (more conspiracy!)-that may be true), it was clearly a make-up call egged on by LA players screaming for a handball (though conspicuously absent from calling for a handball was the LA player looking directly at Wallace during the play).

Apart from the ref screwing United, I was screaming at Soehn to get at least on defense substitute in there right after the collision. I know a coach should wait until he sees how the players are going to be, but when you're down to nine men, and there's only about ten minutes left, you can't leave yourself that vulnerable, even with a two goal lead.

Walt
March 24, 2009 at 2:55 PM
Rich Horton said…
I hear you about the Soehn screw-up (and a screw-up it undoubtedly was). I was surprised we were playing three at the back. Maybe he has that little confidence in his bench. (Given the standing around on the Donovan header, Soehn might have a point.)

I know he had Moreno ready to come in and then wanted to switch up... but why? Moreno could slot into a defensive midfield role, at least for a few minutes. Hell, he may quickly be getting to that point in his career anyway.
March 24, 2009 at 3:23 PM
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