The Forgotten Penalty [R]

[Dr. Gamera]

Unless I missed it somewhere in all the post-Costa Rica-match threads, the penalty call and Donovan's ensuing conversion in the first minute of stoppage time make up what seems to be the least-analyzed USMNT goal in my time at BigSoccer. It also seems to have received little attention from the media, and I've seen at least one detailed blog play-by-play that appears to misidentify some of the players involved. While there may not be much difference between losing 3-0 and losing 3-1, it is always possible for goal difference to loom large when the hex wraps up. So here is my recap (apologies if I end up misidentifying some of the players involved too, which seems especially likely with the Costa Rican players.)

My view of the lead-up to the penalty call comes from the ESPN2 broadcast and ESPN360. However, the contact inside the penalty box itself was only a quick blur in the corner of the ESPN2 broadcast as the ball approached the penalty area, and there was no replay. So I dug up this Youtube video, which, critically, appears to be from a different feed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFh76Bto2l8
The penalty-call sequence in the Youtube video starts at about the 3:47 mark.

Howard saves the Carlos Hernandez free kick, which bounces out for a deep Costa Rica throw-in, taken by Pablo Herrera. The throw-in goes to Hernandez, marked by Bocanegra, and Beasley comes up to double-team and knocks the ball away. Cristian Bolanos lunges, but only tips the ball; Donovan beats everyone else to the loose ball, with Herrera next closest; Donovan controls the ball with a couple of touches, and passes it to Beasley, marked by Bolanos. Beasley passes it in the direction of Altidore.

Altidore and Walter Centeno, who is marking him, run towards the pass; Centeno appears to successfully shield Altidore, with a bit of space along the touch-line, but doesn't appear to contact the ball. The pass then rolls about ten meters by them; Altidore starts a step behind Centeno, but easily wins the footrace. Centeno clips Altidore on the heel, and the referee signals an advantage call; as Altidore taps the ball sideways to the trailing Kljestan, Junior Diaz spills him, with no further signal from the referee.

Kljestan one-touches the ball to Bradley near midfield; Bradley touches the ball twice, as it seems to almost slip away from him, but then nicely passes the ball to Davies, who is about 35 meters from goal. Davies, with his back to the goal, one-touches the ball, leading Adu nicely near the right edge of the penalty area; Jose Fernandez just manages to clear the ball out of play before Adu can end up with only Michael Umana between him and the keeper. (Then we get a shot of Bob Bradley on the sideline, who looks as if he is about to cry.)

Adu prepares to take the throw-in near the corner flag, but then leaves it for Wynne, who throws it well into the penalty area, in the vicinity of (but perhaps a little too long for) Onyewu.

However, Junior Diaz pulls Onyewu down in the penalty area; Diaz's left hand is on Onyweu's left arm, and, more to the point, Diaz's right hand is on the right side of Onyewu's neck. Presumably it is the contact with the neck that qualified as "unsporting behavior"; Diaz received a yellow card, which I believe disqualifies him for Costa Rica's next match after his yellow card against Honduras (he had already been disqualified for an earlier match after receiving two other yellow cards earlier in qualifying.)

The Costa Rican players argue with the referee, apparently feeling that Onyewu's neck is so big that it's okay to pull him down by it. The referee is unmoved.

Donovan does his usual pre-penalty routine, then looks to the referee. After the referee presumably blows the whistle, Donovan stares hard at the right side of the goal. The keeper guesses that way, but Donovan buries the ball in the other side of the goal, locating it reasonably but not spectacularly. Umana enters the penalty box well before the kick is taken, with a couple of other players on both teams perhaps a step early (particularly Wynne), but the goal counts.

[An Unpaved Road]

I'm surprised Lando still went through his ritual. Wasn't exactly a pressure situation...



...unless he knows the U.S. is so ********ed that goal differential is their best bet for moving on. :(

[Sachin]

I'm surprised Lando still went through his ritual. Wasn't exactly a pressure situation...



...unless he knows the U.S. is so ********ed that goal differential is their best bet for moving on. :(

The ritual isn't about the situation. It's about calming himself down. Think about it... you've run yourself ragged for 90 minutes, you're tired, your adrenal glands are firing on all cylinders, your heart is racing.... and you're about to step in a situation that calls for placing the ball calmly into a predetermined spot. It's well worth it to take a moment to calm yourself down and settle the heart.

[TimB4Last]

http://images.ussoccer.com/Images/Gallery/883_332192_600_USMNTJD030309118.jpg

The Ritual

http://images.ussoccer.com/Images/Gallery/883_332183_600_USMNTJD030309102.jpg

The Souvenir

[Matrim55]

Unless I missed it somewhere in all the post-Costa Rica-match threads, the penalty call and Donovan's ensuing conversion in the first minute of stoppage time make up what seems to be the least-analyzed USMNT goal in my time at BigSoccer.

*snip*

The keeper guesses that way, but Donovan buries the ball in the other side of the goal, locating it reasonably but not spectacularly. Umana enters the penalty box well before the kick is taken, with a couple of other players on both teams perhaps a step early (particularly Wynne), but the goal counts.
Thanks for that great break-down of the play, which illustrates a lot of the strengths of some of the individual players involved.

One of the issues we had in the game was our inability to win 1v1 battles with the ball. Often times everyone looked like they just wanted to get the damn thing away from themselves as quickly as possible, without any regard for building an attack or even some useful possession.

Yet in this sequence we see four guys - Altidore, Kljestan, Bradley and Donovan - all, if not necessarily beat their guy, at least use the ball to drag their guy with them then find a teammate in an advantageous position. It was one of the only times all game we had CR even remotely scrambling.

And this illustrates pretty well why I think, in spite of his sometimes erratic passing, Kljestan makes the team better when he's out there. His game fits with Bradley and Donovan so well, we move the ball quickly and with a purpose more often than not, and when he does give it away, at least it's when he's moving forward. Hence you almost never see a break going the other direction off one of SK's (all-too-frequent, still) bad passes.

[gnk]

Unless I missed it somewhere in all the post-Costa Rica-match threads, the penalty call and Donovan's ensuing conversion in the first minute of stoppage time make up what seems to be the least-analyzed USMNT goal in my time at BigSoccer. It also seems to have received little attention from the media, and I've seen at least one detailed blog play-by-play that appears to misidentify some of the players involved. While there may not be much difference between losing 3-0 and losing 3-1, it is always possible for goal difference to loom large when the hex wraps up. So here is my recap (apologies if I end up misidentifying some of the players involved too, which seems especially likely with the Costa Rican players.)

My view of the lead-up to the penalty call comes from the ESPN2 broadcast and ESPN360. However, the contact inside the penalty box itself was only a quick blur in the corner of the ESPN2 broadcast as the ball approached the penalty area, and there was no replay. So I dug up this Youtube video, which, critically, appears to be from a different feed:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFh76Bto2l8
The penalty-call sequence in the Youtube video starts at about the 3:47 mark.

Howard saves the Carlos Hernandez free kick, which bounces out for a deep Costa Rica throw-in, taken by Pablo Herrera. The throw-in goes to Hernandez, marked by Bocanegra, and Beasley comes up to double-team and knocks the ball away. Cristian Bolanos lunges, but only tips the ball; Donovan beats everyone else to the loose ball, with Herrera next closest; Donovan controls the ball with a couple of touches, and passes it to Beasley, marked by Bolanos. Beasley passes it in the direction of Altidore.

Altidore and Walter Centeno, who is marking him, run towards the pass; Centeno appears to successfully shield Altidore, with a bit of space along the touch-line, but doesn't appear to contact the ball. The pass then rolls about ten meters by them; Altidore starts a step behind Centeno, but easily wins the footrace. Centeno clips Altidore on the heel, and the referee signals an advantage call; as Altidore taps the ball sideways to the trailing Kljestan, Junior Diaz spills him, with no further signal from the referee.

Kljestan one-touches the ball to Bradley near midfield; Bradley touches the ball twice, as it seems to almost slip away from him, but then nicely passes the ball to Davies, who is about 35 meters from goal. Davies, with his back to the goal, one-touches the ball, leading Adu nicely near the right edge of the penalty area; Jose Fernandez just manages to clear the ball out of play before Adu can end up with only Michael Umana between him and the keeper. (Then we get a shot of Bob Bradley on the sideline, who looks as if he is about to cry.)

Adu prepares to take the throw-in near the corner flag, but then leaves it for Wynne, who throws it well into the penalty area, in the vicinity of (but perhaps a little too long for) Onyewu.

However, Junior Diaz pulls Onyewu down in the penalty area; Diaz's left hand is on Onyweu's left arm, and, more to the point, Diaz's right hand is on the right side of Onyewu's neck. Presumably it is the contact with the neck that qualified as "unsporting behavior"; Diaz received a yellow card, which I believe disqualifies him for Costa Rica's next match after his yellow card against Honduras (he had already been disqualified for an earlier match after receiving two other yellow cards earlier in qualifying.)

The Costa Rican players argue with the referee, apparently feeling that Onyewu's neck is so big that it's okay to pull him down by it. The referee is unmoved.

Donovan does his usual pre-penalty routine, then looks to the referee. After the referee presumably blows the whistle, Donovan stares hard at the right side of the goal. The keeper guesses that way, but Donovan buries the ball in the other side of the goal, locating it reasonably but not spectacularly. Umana enters the penalty box well before the kick is taken, with a couple of other players on both teams perhaps a step early (particularly Wynne), but the goal counts.


The things that occured to me when watching the game lives was that when the ref came over to give #17 for CR a yellow for the foul in Onyewu in the box, was that the other CR playes, while certainly upset about the call, were moreso trying to distract the ref somewhat after he had given the card but before he had put the players # in his book. It seemed to me the players were hoping that the ref would maybe make a mistake and write a different # down in his book. I am, of course, pre-supposing that #17 may have already had a yellow from a prior game? Can anyone confirm this?

[dcole]

I am, of course, pre-supposing that #17 may have already had a yellow from a prior game? Can anyone confirm this?

Why yes, the post you were responding to can!

[SccrDon]

Unless I missed it somewhere in all the post-Costa Rica-match threads, the penalty call and Donovan's ensuing conversion in the first minute of stoppage time make up what seems to be the least-analyzed USMNT goal in my time at BigSoccer... However, Junior Diaz pulls Onyewu down in the penalty area; Diaz's left hand is on Onyweu's left arm, and, more to the point, Diaz's right hand is on the right side of Onyewu's neck. Presumably it is the contact with the neck that qualified as "unsporting behavior"; Diaz received a yellow card, which I believe disqualifies him for Costa Rica's next match after his yellow card against Honduras (he had already been disqualified for an earlier match after receiving two other yellow cards earlier in qualifying.)


Thanks for posting this. I wonder why no replay was shown of the foul during the game?

[SamsArmySam]

And this illustrates pretty well why I think, in spite of his sometimes erratic passing, Kljestan makes the team better when he's out there. His game fits with Bradley and Donovan so well, we move the ball quickly and with a purpose more often than not, and when he does give it away, at least it's when he's moving forward. Hence you almost never see a break going the other direction off one of SK's (all-too-frequent, still) bad passes.
This probably contributed to the halftime sub of Torres out for Kljestan. Torres is a calming, slower, possessing tempo. Kljestan is a high energy, sometimes erratic, attack with pace tempo. Possession on that crap turf was difficult, particularly with Costa Rica challenging aggressively every 50-50 ball. We needed faster tempo. I thought we came out well in the second half, actually.

[gnk]

Why yes, the post you were responding to can!

the original poster said he "believed" that this was #17's second yellow of the round. That's not exactly confirmation is it? If you want to see how confusing this issue is, see the discussion concerning Sacha's yellow on Wed and whether it DQ's him for Sat in Chitown. ESPN said on screen that it did and so did a ton of posters on BS, but apparently they were all wrong. They were wrong b/c if you check with CONCACAF or FIFA (i.e., the only source that matters), you'll see he is not suspended. As far as I know, CONCACAF does not rely on (i) ESPN and/or (ii) BS posters to determine who is suspended.

[TimB4Last]

the original poster said he "believed" that this was #17's second yellow of the round. That's not exactly confirmation is it? If you want to see how confusing this issue is, see the discussion concerning Sacha's yellow on Wed and whether it DQ's him for Sat in Chitown. ESPN said on screen that it did and so did a ton of posters on BS, but apparently they were all wrong. They were wrong b/c if you check with CONCACAF or FIFA (i.e., the only source that matters), you'll see he is not suspended. As far as I know, CONCACAF does not rely on (i) ESPN and/or (ii) BS posters to determine who is suspended.

From FIFA ...

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=1066396.html#kenton+cuts+four+ticos

Costa Rica coach Rodrigo Kenton has reduced his squad by four players ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™ qualifying trip to Trinidad and Tobago.

Kenton had to name 21 players for the match, and his decision was made easier by the fact defenders Freddy Fernandez and Junior Diaz are suspended and Harold Wallace suffered a groin injury in yesterday's 3-1 qualifying win over the United States.

....

[gnk]

From FIFA ...

http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/news/newsid=1066396.html#kenton+cuts+four+ticos

Thank you very much

[dcole]

the original poster said he "believed" that this was #17's second yellow of the round. That's not exactly confirmation is it? If you want to see how confusing this issue is, see the discussion concerning Sacha's yellow on Wed and whether it DQ's him for Sat in Chitown. ESPN said on screen that it did and so did a ton of posters on BS, but apparently they were all wrong. They were wrong b/c if you check with CONCACAF or FIFA (i.e., the only source that matters), you'll see he is not suspended. As far as I know, CONCACAF does not rely on (i) ESPN and/or (ii) BS posters to determine who is suspended.

Not sure why you are so testy. Your original post made clear that you didn't read the part of the post that you were responding to that said that the card was #17's second. Now you're trying to play it off like you read it but just wanted a second source to confirm it. Also interesting that you seem to think relying on a BS poster to determine whether someone is suspended is a flawed approach. Didn't you ask us lowly BS posters to confirm it for you?

[gnk]

Not sure why you are so testy. Your original post made clear that you didn't read the part of the post that you were responding to that said that the card was #17's second. Now you're trying to play it off like you read it but just wanted a second source to confirm it. Also interesting that you seem to think relying on a BS poster to determine whether someone is suspended is a flawed approach. Didn't you ask us lowly BS posters to confirm it for you?

As TimB4Last clearly understands, a link to the FIFA website is proof, not a poster's belief. It's quite simple.

[dcole]

As TimB4Last clearly understands, a link to the FIFA website is proof, not a poster's belief. It's quite simple.

Then next time you should consider looking on FIFA's website rather than asking a poster.

[purojogo]

The ritual isn't about the situation. It's about calming himself down. Think about it... you've run yourself ragged for 90 minutes, you're tired, your adrenal glands are firing on all cylinders, your heart is racing.... and you're about to step in a situation that calls for placing the ball calmly into a predetermined spot. It's well worth it to take a moment to calm yourself down and settle the heart.

Fair enough..But if the PK call was made 5 minutes earlier, people would be rightfully pissed at Donovan, for not taking less time, in hte hopes of a -very unlikely- comeback, but where conceivably two further goals "could" be scored..

[Slotback]

I did not get to see what exactly occurred so that the penalty was awarded. Thanks to the OP for posting that.

[mschofield]

Fair enough..But if the PK call was made 5 minutes earlier, people would be rightfully pissed at Donovan, for not taking less time, in hte hopes of a -very unlikely- comeback, but where conceivably two further goals "could" be scored..

At that point, that score, it was a couple long breaths and bash it in. It was as low pressure as a pk gets.
I also noted the lack of a replay of the foul, but that was in keeping with what ESPN was doing throughout, replaying the goals (which were well taken) and not the build up, which was more important, imo.
Esp on the first two, we could have used an extra 10 seconds back to really appreciate how we were beaten.
And a pk replay is always pointless, unless it wins a game and sets off mass jubilation, but the play that led to it is interesting.

[chad]

Thanks for the clip. I had assumed it was a straight-up gift.

[StillKickin]

Fair enough..But if the PK call was made 5 minutes earlier, people would be rightfully pissed at Donovan, for not taking less time, in hte hopes of a -very unlikely- comeback, but where conceivably two further goals "could" be scored..

Oh, for goodness sake. He does his ritual when the ref is giving instructions and making sure things are all set. By the time the ref blows the whistle to shoot it, he's done. He doesn't waste any time at all.

And it's always been that way - ever since people have griped about his ritual, I've made note to watch what's going on at the time and he's always doing it while the ref is giving instructions to everyone else. The ref finally gets in position and by that time, LD is ready to go and waiting on the ref.