Open Cup Semi-Final
Ask any player at any level in virtually any sport, and they’ll complain about officiating. But what they’ll also say is that all they want is consistency within a game and that they don’t want the outcome of a game to be determined by the official.
Simple.
Referees are human (despite their actions), sometimes they see things sometimes they don’t. Angles on the field mean they see something different than those of us in the stands. Stuff happens. No biggie.
Unless it’s a Semi-Final game in a tournament. The USSF (remember that THEY provide referees, not a league such as MLS) sent us Chris Penso. Ring a bell? He threw out Curt Onalfo earlier in an Open Cup play-in game.
Ben's not happy. Photo: DC United
He was wildly inconsistent and let the game get out of hand physically, causing both benches to pull their hair out. And the wildness in play led to the physical play where Hernandez was taken down and run into. The play where he lashed out (but apparently didn’t make much, if any contact) and caught by the fourth official, leaving United to 10 players.
But that’s not why United lost the game. Fact is, no matter how miserable the officiating is, you can’t put yourself into a place where you can be victimized because of it. The ref’s are all that bright, so it should be easy to outsmart them. United started out very strong with a lot of heart and effort. Ben Olsen’s style is being instilled upon players as we see players make more and more runs after lose balls or putting pressure on the defense and keepers. Allsopp and Hernandez ran down a lot of these early and literally created chances out of nothing, and on one opportunity, Hernandez was fouled in the penalty area and converted.
But as Olsen mentioned a couple of weeks ago, United doesn’t seem to know how to play with a lead. United actually had the much better Crew on their heels through most of the first half, but couldn’t capitalize on the opportunities. You had to think that United could put the game away going into the half with a two goal advantage, and that the second half Crew would be bolstered by a half-time berating. But United held onto that one goal lead. Minutes ticked by in the second half, and down a man United did everything wrong when leading by a goal in an elimination game and down player.
United continued to play with the ball normally. Which is fine when down a man.
You can't see Tino's face, but the expression says a lot Photo: DC United
It’s not a hockey power play. But as the clock got within the final 15 minutes of play, things need to get simple in terms of clock management. It isn’t just taking your time retrieving the ball for a throw in, or setting up a free kick on just the right blade of grass just so. The ball must go deep into the attacking corners. The concept of attacking, shooting, crossing, etc (which the team isn’t all that apt at anyway) must go out the window.
Taking the ball to the corner and making the Crew fight for it should have been the priority. If a United player gets it even marginally deep and the Crew need to take it from him, it’ll likely take two players and many more will need to come back to help fill space.
The situation is much like the Dallas Open Cup game several years ago, coincidentally an Abbey Okaluja game, where there was a questionable red card. But more glaringly, young central midfielders Clyde Simms and Brian Carroll (more coincidence they were both on the field again) had the ball in the offensive and and tried to score as opposed to try and kill the clock.
You’ve got to make the other team run the entire field in a one goal game like that. Even if the ball couldn’t be possessed in the corner, the clearances must be long and to the corners to make the GK retrieve and distribute. As it was, the Crew essentially played the last 5 minutes of the game in a half court offense. Defender Iro (who’s name seems more like an acronym than name) poked a ball in the area that took a deflection and found the net in the 89th minute, just minutes from a United victory.
United had their own chances after that, full credit to them for not hanging their heads, and coming back just seconds later with Devon McTavish and Andy Najar, ending with a really nice through ball from McTavish that Najar pushed just inches wide. Or even after Columbus was gifted a PK and the lead, a United odd man rush…..very odd man when you consider that United’s attacking player were Najar, Moreno, Tino and Jakovic….ended with Jakovic leaning back on a shot from 6 yards out that sailed over the bar. Many players left their hearts on the field, it’s hard to point out one or two, but watching Hamid on the ground as time expired, or watching Jakovic hustle in midfield (since United had burned all of it’s subs and were pushing the attack) are lasting images.
But while the scoreline shows that United was a goal short, in reality they were 90-250 seconds from victory.
