This game definitely broke me a little bit. I didn't have fun. My family was stressed getting there. I moved all my remaining tickets to the intermiami game. Maybe I'll go, maybe I'll sell them. I saw the Messi hat trick at Copa back in the day, so it won't be anything I hadn't seen before when he does it to the Fire.
What would be the "exception" for throwing stuff onto the field without consequences? Sure, it may not be practical to eject and arrest "several hundred people," but that is logistics, not an exception.
I just want to ref to watch the video and feel a little bit bad about his calls all I want at this point
I posted this in the News thread but did you see this Pittsburgh Riverhounds player Biasi channel Troy Polamalu and drag down Cincy's Acosta and only get a yellow card? Officiating was horrible in both Open Cup games and this after 3 soft yellows on Cincy. 😳 pic.twitter.com/gONSZZKH69— U.S. Open Cup (@opencup) June 6, 2023
During the first half I was confident he would watch his PK call and then find a way to make up for it in the second half. Instead he doubled down on the bad calls.
I would also be interested in seeing a video of what seemed to be a possible handball in the box before the guti takeout
This is why I've been vocally against VAR. Not because it doesn't improve the calls in a game (it can), but because it stratifies the sport with "haves" and "have nots". The expectation of the sport now is that a PK call near the edge of the box gets a review. Without that review, we're watching a different sport. The USOC is one of my favorite tournaments in sport but I can't take it seriously in the state that its in.
It seems like instead of placing some type of "VAR in the final two rounds" rule in place that U.S. Soccer would say, "Hey IF VAR is possible and we have cameras recording this game let's do it regardless of which round or the competition." It seems getting the call correct should be the objective in any case and I for one don't mind waiting a few minutes for a review. It's not the NFL which has 3 seconds of action and 2:00 minutes of down time. We are talking a couple minutes here and there during a 90 minute match where there might be 2-4 reviewable plays.
A couple months ago I complained about the lack of leadership on this team. Leadership is not only one or two players to me. My definition of leadership includes a larger group of players who keep a positive attitude even when things go against you (bad bounces, bad referees, bad plays, injuries,etc). Their conduct and extra effort stimulates teammates to do the same. Once again I say the Fire need more of this.
In general, PKs are so punitive that it should require some kind of verification…even if no VAR there should be conversation with the ARs
Someone pointed it out earlier, but I want to double down on giving props to Kei Kamara. Gramps was setting the team bar for fight to the end
During the game I thought Houston handled the ball in the box, anyone know what I'm talking about? Anyone rewatch that?
I'll look later, but yes there was a clear "reaction" from the player and a big reaction from the Fire players. The ref made a motion to indicate "ball to hand" or "natural position" and continued his hugely imbalanced judgement calls. I officiated for over a decade, up to the college level, and by far the 2 most frustrating things in the game are 1) inconsistent judgements and 2) an official that makes the game about them.
Anyone remember the age of make up calls? Before the age of VAR if a ref got a red card wrong you would see a player from the opposing team get sent off to balance things. If a PK was awarded erroneously the ref would call an innocuous foul in the box for the other team as long as he got wind of his mistake. I'm sure the ref heard that he got the PK call wrong during halftime.
Yea...it's a hard thing to do well....in particular when it's in response to a game changing impact. It can easily push things into an unrecoverable loss of control. Last night's situation would have been somewhat easy to regain balance...just call the clear F'n foul. At a minimum he should have asked the AR if they thought the keeper go a piece of the ball before taking Guti out...shouldn't have change the foul/PK call, but would have changed if it was a card offense or not. SO frustrating the PK given was "close but not in the box" and the one not given had to be wished away.
It wasn't that close, that's the crazy part. It's not like the push happened 3 inches outside the box, it was clearly outside. Then the ref gets a gimme and blows it.
A lot of chatter about the PK non-call that went against Chicago. I think the PK that did get called was equally egregious. This is when the foul was committed: You can clearly see Souquet grabbing Quinones's arm and pulling it back right here. Quiniones then takes FOUR strides into the box before falling. Clear foul. Clear yellow. Not a PK. It isn't even close. Play should be whistled dead right here. This is Souquet committing a professional foul that he needs to commit, and doing so well before the defender reaches the penalty area. Pete (can't even imagine how the referee called this a penalty)
Just to drive the point home, here's the moment Quinones crosses the penalty area: He's still on his feet and well clear of Souquet. Souquet does not touch him again...couldn't reach him if he tried. Clear dive after contact well outside the box. Pete (gripes)
I agree it should have been a foul outside the box. But this is the pic actually shows "it was close"...he didn't fall out side and roll into the box, he was "off kilter", initially tried to stay up, and then dropped like a house of cards into the box. Momentum is hard to perceive in snap shots. To your point, the contact was outside and did not continue...so it should not have been hard to "not give a PK"...especially at 11min.