Official: [2012 Matchday 9] Union v New York Red Bulls - May 13, 2012 p/d/p [R]

Thar was one of the most exciting games the Union have played at PPL Park. They had three at the back and two up top - and it worked well. Even after the bad Red Card call, we kept attacking. NY was not ready for this when we came out attacking in the second half.

I think the Union need to have some target practice.

Can the Union protest the red card so we can get Adu back for the next match?

Early on, the ref gave three or so fouls to NY when there was little or no contact from the Union. That really made his call on Adu sting.

I actualy feel very positive about the Union after the Schalke matchand this one.

I actually do too. The Union team on the field today played overall very well and was entertaining; the weak red card killed them, especially since Adu was a monster in the first half.

Going forward, if we play a similar formation, I have reasonable expectations that we'll be decent. I'm not predicting making the playoffs, but at least feeling like we have a shot and having some hope going into next season. I'm still skeptical about Nowak's coaching and tactical abilities, but I think the team that played today can make some noise in MLS. It looked nothing like the defensive/fearful slop we have been seeing for most of the season.

Just looked at it. Complete, utter, DIVE. sorry. As much as I'm a homer...he dove=yellow. Sorry G'bye!

If it's any consolation (it's not) I agree with this. I didn't think he deserved the second yellow, but I wasn't at all surprised when it came out.

At least they were entertaining. That's all that I ask from a team who practically loses every game. Just entertain me. I pay a lot of money to be entertained. Losing sucks (especially like we did yesterday), but at least they weren't godawful AND boring. They failed on so many chances, but at least chances were created. This was, literally, the best game they've played all season. If Adu doesn't get booked, we're not forced to sit back and pray for a tie. Maybe we capitalize on a couple more chances. Freddy was outstanding in the 40 minutes that he was out there. The whole building was chanting "Freddy! Freddy!" when he was ejected. It was great. For a guy who was about 3 games away from being run out of town on a rail, he played his best game in a Union shirt. I'm hoping that this springboards the rest of his season. If Pajoy's a little more competent with his chances, he could have walked away with the second hat trick in club history. It's a shame he couldn't get it. Also, you've got to tip your hat to Meara. He got lucky on a few occasions, but he also created his own luck.

Yes, we lost. Yes, we still have some issues on defense. Yes, the coach still needs to be canned. Even with all of that, they still managed to be entertaining yesterday. If we can play the same way we did yesterday, we can beat FCD. They're not that good. I still believe this thing can be salvaged.

I wonder, if there's a break into the box.. and the attacker's cleat digs into the ground and causes the player to fall down with no defenders around him, will the ref card him for simulation?


In this league, anything is possible - i suppose...

of course not... because thats not the rule. and thats not what happened to freddy.

Adu's first yellow was directly in front of me, he got ball first the pink teams guy had a step then tripped over Adu. the second I can understand the call but do not agree with it. Worst officiating in three years at PPL.

Califf: really? he is a fan favorite for sure and plays with a huge set but he is too slow back there for us to play our outside backs forward for even more attacks. Also, he is old and will retire this year or next...why not get a little something for him. we haven't looked better or worse back there with or without him. back line is solid except on crosses, corners and set pieces. LOL

Mawanga needs to go, hoffman plays the role better riding the back like and pulling a defender or two.

Carroll needs to be on that All Star ballot and we have NO ONE who can fill his boots. period.

I also noticed yesterday that to start the second half, King Piotr went to 4-4-1, and had Pajoy play on the left side, while cutting in to be a supplier for Mwanga. At the start of the half, it should've been Mwanga subbed off for Martinez, and have Martinez play that role. Sure, Pajoy would've been up top by himself, but a fresh Martinez would've been a better distributor, and wouldn't have slowed the play down the way that Danny did. Danny did very little yesterday, and, to be frank, I hope this is last we see of him except in a super sub role, or in a blowout where he may get some confidence. Right now, he's just not cutting it. He's playing scared, and he's playing not to make mistakes. When you do that, you're already setting yourself up for failure. I would much rather see Martinez and Pajoy creating chances up top for each other than see Danny get the ball 25 yards from goal, slow the play down, then stop, then try to make a move and get stripped. The defense in this league is faster than you, son. If you can't think and act quicker, you're going to be just another Superdraft bust.

Also, a couple of firsts happened yesterday, and none of them good. Yesterday's match was the first where the Union scored 2 goals or more, and lost. Up until yesterday, they had never lost a game when scoring 2 goals or more. They were 13-3-0 coming into the game when scoring 2 or more goals. The other first was the first time that the U have lost to New York at home in their history. One other little fun fact, the Union have lost their third home match of the season. That ties the number of losses the team had in all of 2010. Not good.

My feelings EXACTLY. Repped.

I had the same thought on Adu's first yellow as I am in 131 and had a clear view and saw it the same way you did. I have not watched a replay to see if my mind was playing tricks on me but I do believe that it was not even a foul let alone a card. When I saw a replay of the second yellow it looked to me like Freddy just got himself off balance and kicked the turf with his left foot while he was trying to avoid a challenge.

Sad to see Califf go, rumor is we are getting Angel and sending Jack Mac and Danny to Chivas. Not sure how I feel about that as it means something else has to happen as we have forwards that are not even seeing the field as it is and we have no true CB to fill in Danny's slot. Does this mean we slide Williams over permanently while having Gaddis take over the RB slot?

As to the game I was disappointed that we lost and thought we played our best attacking game this year. Adu never looked better for the Union until he got sent off. Marfan was distributing well from the RB slot and also had some nice attacking runs. Pajoy was better than he has been but still missed a few things he could have done better. I do wish Mwanga had the desire to pull the trigger but he did some nice things and some bad things. On the NJPC second goal I really did not like all ten players being pulled back, at least one player should have been out top but it didn't matter as it was not defended well. The third goal was bad for Zack as he got caught in no man's land.

The rule is:

• attempts to deceive the referee by feigning injury or pretending to have
  been fouled (simulation)
  
  I'm not convinced there was any attempt to deceive the referee.

In slo-mo you could argue the call a dozen different ways, and Adu's explanation of bracing for what he thought was incoming contact makes sense. But you have to look at what the ref saw in live time, and the way that Adu turned his left leg made it look a lot like he was dragging it behind and fishing for contact. Nobody other than Adu knows what his actual intentions were though.

Will there be a ************** of this match?

True enough. My thought is that some calls are fairly self evident (offside being an example) and some require more of a judgement call. Simulation is one of the latter, and if I'm the official I'm going to want to be as certain as I can be regarding intent before I issue a second yellow/red card. As has been pointed out, there was no rolling around or calling for a penalty; he simply went to ground and got back up.

Ah well, at the end of the day I think while the red didn't help the cause, the real reason the Union lost was lack of finishing on solid chances.

The ref made some calls while his line of sight was being blocked by other players prior to this... he had no viewpoint on a ton of calls he made in the first half, yet he still made the calls based on assumptions - and this was one of those assumptions.

One way or the other, the ref was terrible (and then easy going in the 2nd half). Effing disgrace.

I was more pointing to the fact that the post i quoted insinuated that he got red for simulation. i think a handful of people were confused at the time, not understanding that it was 2 yellows and not a straight red

Par for the course when it comes to MLS refs unfortunately... remember last year when a Sporting KC player was sent off when the ref was almost 40-50 yards away with zero line of sight to the actual play? Gonzalez was pretty inconsistent with calling 50/50 balls yesterday, but honestly other than the controversial call on Adu it wasn't the most poorly reffed game we've seen in this league.

No it wasn't necessarily a poor game... and then he double backed in the 2nd half - must have realized he was being too harsh (most cards weren't really questioned though, only Adu).

I remember watching one where the ref turned around and gave a card for something he didn't even see. was a total dive too.

Was he more lenient, were the players more careful/mindful of their play, or was it a combination of both? IMO it was a bit of both. That soft second yellow must have scared the players a bit. Honestly....how many of us were waiting for a NYRB (Marquez?) to do something borderline dumb and get a red?

This game just burns. Glad no one was videotaping me at the bar. My heart took a beating.

Who says no one was videotaping you at the bar?