How many times, I wonder, are we going to go through this nonsense? Last night, we looked a side good for a win or perhaps a draw — anything, really, to stop the slide — until a player was sent off and we simply collapsed. It's hard to describe it as much other than collapse, because when we went a man down, we looked utterly defeated, ready to simply finish the match and get on with our lives.
The Red: Collen Warner, dumped to the ground during a corner kick, sat up as the ball started to sail in toward goal — not directly toward goal, mind, but merely in that direction. Looking as aware as he ever has, he subtly shifted his body and got behind the incoming match torpedo, and in what seemed to be a glorious moment of last-ditch defending, it bumped away off the top of his shoulder. It was an act as accidental as fortuitous, but it seems the stars aligned and the moon was full: The referee simply blew his whistle, pointed to the spot, and showed our young midfielder a card. But it wasn't just a card of any color, as the red echoed the anger that quickly spread across the RSL Nation.
Was it a red? The rules quite clearly state that a handball is a sending off caution if it prevents a goal or obvious goal-scoring opportunity through deliberate action. See, that's the thing: Deliberate action. Collen, as he sat up, made no attempt to play the ball in his action, and the bump off his shoulder was fortuitous but certainly not deliberate. In my view, that was not even a cautionable offense. Why's that, you ask?
Was it a foul? No. That much is pretty certain. It does involve a bit of a semantic dispute, though, and here's the question: What constitutes an arm? When does the upper arm become the shoulder? There's no clear, bright line that we can draw from, so we have to rely on our better judgment. But I'd say that the area where the shoulder and the chest join is, well, not the arm. Of course, even worrying about this implies that there was deliberate action taken to change the flight of the ball through the illegal use of the hand anyhow, which I quite clearly believe there was not.
But did it matter? Well, sort of. Collen wasn't having a bad game, but he wasn't having a great game. We'd held some nice spells of possession (I predicted 60-40 and not the Barca-esque 70-30, but we got both, apparently, the latter in the first half and the former overall) but we hadn't yet managed a shot on goal when Collen was sent off. But instead of managing a shot, we managed to concede another penalty.
Well, sort of. Chris Schuler, who, all told, had a fairly solid match on the night, had the ball come in at him after deflecting off Ned Grabavoy, and, lo and behold, it smacked his hand after bouncing up off the plastic grass. He moved his hand away from the ball, but not quickly enough, and the referee didn't hesitate to blow his whistle again. That horrid, ugly, nasty whistle.
2-0 down, away from home, and we didn't have a chance. Or, at least, we didn't have chance after the referee made two miserable decisions, but it wasn't as if we deserved a chance, and we certainly didn't make one ourselves. The last goal was just the nail in the coffin, and I won't stress over that one too much. It's all part of the bad response we've talked about time and time again, and I won't hark on it too much.
Sure, the referee made an impact on the match, and he was directly responsible for two of the goals scored against us. Two unlucky bounces and two miserable decisions (re-read Law 12 before you abide over another match, please!) but when it came down to it, we had two shots on goal — and they only came at the end.
We can complain all we want about the referee, but nothing about our play deserved a win, and that's why it was so frustrating, right? There, of course, were some positives we can take from the match:
- Javier Morales made it through 90 minutes without incident (well, there was a yellow card incident, but you know what I mean.)
- Christopher Agorsor made his debut in the Claret and Cobalt, and Cody Arnoux snagged half a match as well. Both looked bright, energetic and useful, and you know, they actually took shots. Not that it mattered in the end, you know, there's that. I hope we get to see more of these boys next season (or, if necessary, this season).
- There can be yet another shout for a look at the refereeing quality in the league, and if the USSF listens, we'll be better off for it. But if it continues at this rate, this point's not going to be a positive.
Right, that's all I've got today. I hope the boys' attitudes don't drop because of yet another bad performance, because letting our heads drop further won't help anything. Further, if we're going to drop like this every time a decision goes against us, we're going to be in real trouble moving forward.
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